Punjab, Haryana spend more on teachers than kids
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, March 21
In Punjab and Haryana, expenditure on teachers and school infrastructure far outstrips the expenditure on children’s entitlements and services.

The annual PAISA report (brought out by NGO Pratham) that tracks the flow of SSA funds shows that in both Punjab and Haryana, allocations on quality improvement of teaching and children were on the decline. The report was released here yesterday.

In 2011, the highest percentage, 40%, of SSA allocation in Punjab went for teachers’ salaries, training and teaching inputs such as teaching learning material and equipment. This marks a 12% increase over the previous year when 28% SSA fund allocation was spent on teachers’ component.

The second highest SSA allocation went for building school infrastructure.

This component got 35% allocation, the same as last year. Sadly, on children (entitlements such as uniforms, textbooks, mainstreaming of out of school children and remedial teaching), Punjab spent just 8% of the entire SSA allocation for the year.

This is a drop of 13% over 2010 when it had spent 21% on the component. The decline is worrisome considering 50,000 children are out of elementary school in the state.

Further, Punjab spent just 6% of the SSA allocation on improving innovative teaching, a component the RTE Act stresses highly. This was 1% less than 2010.

Punjab’s SSA budget increased from Rs 369 crore in 2009-2010 to Rs 670 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 1031 crore in 2011-12.

With decline in expenditure on children’s component, a decline has been noticed in children’s learning outcomes.

Punjab school expenditure

• In 2011, state spent 40% SSA allocation on teachers, 35% on infra, 8% on kids, 6% on quality teaching
• In 2009, 89% schools received school grants; in 2011, it was 85%
• State saw a 196% rise in SSA infra budget between 2009 and 2011 to meet RTE targets. It will need Rs 536 crore in 2012-13 to meet RTE targets