Centre raises contribution to universal education bill to 68 per cent

With states wailing about having inadequate funds to implement the Right to Education Act (RTE), the union government on Thursday decided it would pick up as much as 68 per cent of the tab for its implementation. The earlier sharing ratio was 55:45 in the current year, proposed to be hiked to 50:50 from 2011-12.

The finance ministry's expenditure finance committee (EFC) approved the massive hike in central funding for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the principal vehicle for implementing RTE. The hike means 16 out of 35 states and union territories won't need to increase their education budgets at all to meet RTE commitments, say observers.

The ministry of human resource development had been pushing for a higher 75 per cent share for the centre, as state after state has expressed its inability to give higher financial allocations to meet RTE requirements. However, the ministry is likely to settle for the EFC recommendations.

States argued that the RTE made state and local bodies accountable for the implementation, even though neither has the financial capacity. Some states like Uttar Pradesh charged that since the central government takes all the credit for the legislation it should also ensure that funds are available.

The committee found that at even at 2009-10 sharing levels of 60:40 for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, as many as 14 states defaulted on their shares. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa are among the defaulters.

In the meantime, the cost of implementing the RTE had escalated to Rs2,31,000 crore from the initial estimate of 1,71,000 crore.