State of expenditure on education in India : challenges and opportunities

After a dream run phase of economic growth and coming out of the global financial crisis of 2008-09 without significant damages, India started experiencing a slowdown in growth in the last couple of years. Many have already analysed the structural nature of this slowdown and pointed out the apparent inequality and inefficient human capital resource challenges in front of the country. The abysmal quality of education in the country is well acknowledged, and there is some evidence of further deterioration (ASER, 2016). India has been constantly critiqued for its under-investment in education. Several scholars have raised concerns about the under-investment in human capital in India and its possible impacts on economic growth and development (see Sen, 2001; Mody, 2019). India was not able to achieve economic growth like East-Asian countries or China, despite liberalizing the economy in the ‘90s. Incompetent human capital due to inefficiencies in the educational system are considered as one of the prime causes of this failure. India still stands at 115 out of 157 countries in the recent Human Capital Index of the World Bank. This is a crucial juncture where the country is about to adopt the new National Education Policy (NEP), and it is also in severe fiscal crisis due to the COVID-19. Hence, it becomes imperative to look at India’s records on the provision of education in the past and its prospects for the future