In gab fests on television and deluge of analyses in the print media following presentation of the Union Budget 2012-13 on March 16, education — particularly the pathetically inadequate provision for schooling the world’s largest child and youth population — was rarely discussed. Summiya Yasmeen investigates Despite not a single memorable invention or process contributing to improvement of the human condition in India or abroad having emerged from the ramshackle super-structure of post-independence India’s education system comprising 1.26 million primary-secondary schools, 611 universities and 31,000 colleges in the past 65 years, education is still the blindspot of the Indian establishment and society. In gab fests on television and deluge of analyses in the print media which followed the presentation of Union Budget 2012-13 by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on March 16, the subject — particularly the pathetically inadequate provision for schooling and educating the world’s largest child and youth population — was rarely discussed. Industry and finance experts, economists and politicians who waxed eloquent on Budget 2012-13 over several man days, had precious little to say about the grudging budgetary provision made for the creation of additional capacity or improving the rock-bottom quality of education in the country’s 1.25 million government schools characterised by crumbling infrastructure, unchecked teacher truancy, and abysmal learning outcomes. Most post-budget analyses focused on the rising fiscal deficit (5.9 percent of GDP), widening ambit of service tax, the 2 percent increase in excise and customs duties, cutting of fuel and fertiliser subsidies, and the additional inflationary impact of Budget 2012-13 on the Indian economy. Likewise, in his 90-minute budget speech delivered against the backdrop of humiliating electoral defeat of the Congress party in the recently concluded state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, intensifying friction within the ten-party coalition UPA II government and talk of a mid-term general election, presenting his seventh Union budget, Congress veteran Mukherjee opted for business as usual. Unmindful of the demographic profile of the country — 480 million citizens of India are below 18 years of age — he dismissed education in four short paragraphs, budgeting a token 18 percent (unadjusted for inflation) increase in the education (primary, secondary and tertiary) outlay from Rs.52,000 crore in 2011-12 to Rs.61,472 crore in 2012-13. “The Right to Education (RTE) Act is being implemented with effect from April 1, 2010 through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). For 2012-13 I have provided Rs.25,555 crore for RTE-SSA. This is an increase of 21.7 percent over 2011-12… The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) was launched in March 2009 to enhance access to quality secondary education. In 2012-13 I have allocated Rs.3,124 crore for RMSA which is nearly 29 percent higher than the allocation in 2011-12,” said Mukherjee blandly reciting these inadequate allocations, without even paying lip service to the vital importance of education and human resource development for the growth of the economy. Mukherjee also announced that “in the Twelfth Plan, 6,000 schools have been proposed to be set up at block level as model schools to benchmark…
