State’s Education Expenditure Per-Student has Risen in Delhi

Vinod Kakumanu
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The government annual expenditure per head is reported to have risen significantly from 2016-17 to 2020-21. The annual expenditure per student in 2016-17 was Rs. 50,812 and in 2020-21 it was to the tune of Rs. 78,082. The figures relating to the expenditure incurred were published in the Delhi Economic Survey report.

The report prefaces the details on expenditure by providing the data pertaining to the number of schools and total numbers of enrolments in them. It was indicated in the report that the total number of recognized schools in Delhi stands at 5,691 and there are 44.76 lakhs students enrolled in them. The number of government and government-aided schools in Delhi is 1,230 that is just 21.61 of the total number of schools in Delhi, however, the share of enrollment in these schools is around 37.18 percent. These figures correspond to the year 2019-20.

As for the expenditure tally, the expenditure incurred by the state on education was to the tune of Rs 6,555 crore in 2014-15 which rose to Rs 15,102 crore in 2020-21. The expenditure on education includes the cost of providing facilities for sports, arts, and culture etc. the infrastructural development including the installation of CCTV also contributed to the tally.

Notably, the education expenditure of the government rose from 21 percent to 23 percent between the years 2014 and 2021. The state Budget Analysis of the RBI corroborates these figures and comments that the state expenditure on education that stands at 23.2 percent is the highest among all states in 2020-21. The education of expenditure in terms of percentage GSDP is 1.89 in 2020-21.

The report also mentioned the widespread implementation of the 'Happiness Curriculum' in the state schools has been implemented in all government schools and stated that 7.95 lakh students have been covered by 2019-20.

The other areas that contributed to the rise in expenditure include the library facilities. The report stated that 4,513 classroom libraries have been established for primary sections in the government schools and 7.34 lakh books have been provided to the school libraries.

The Economic Survey Report also presented data on the RTE act implementation involving the admissions of EWS and DG category students in the private unaided schools in the state. In 2019-20, the online lottery system facilitated RTE-admissions numbered around 35,962, in the preceding year the number stood at 32,455.