84% of Mumbai’s education funds unused
Mr P Chidambaram may have increased overall allocation to the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan (SSA) from Rs 13,000 cr to Rs 21,000 cr in Budget 07, but one look
at the way Maharashtra-especially Mumbai -have spent the funds on the
programme and we know what ails the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. Municipal
corporation (MC)-wise expenditure till January 2007 reveals that while
Mumbai BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has utilised only 23.80 per
cent of the budget allocated, Mumbai city is among the worst performers
spending only 16.62 per cent of the money.
So among the 23 corporations, Mumbai city is ranked 20, while Mumbai corporation is ranked 17, Thane (with 22.28 per cent spending) is 18, Navi Mumbai (22.08 per cent) 19, Ulhasnagar (16.27 per cent) 21 and Mira-Bhayander (14.85 per cent) 23. Reasons: lack of
planning, improper implementation of the programme that aims at
“universalisation of elementary education as well as universal retention by
2010”. Among its noble goals are improving quality of education, opening new
schools, setting up education guarantee scheme centers and innovative
education facilities and and focus on education of the girl child.
While the SSA budget sanctioned for Maharashtra for 2006-2007 was Rs 1,064 cr, the
state received Rs 806 cr of which Rs 584 cr was spent. Deputy Director of
School Education (Mumbai division) Smita Kakan agrees. “Yes, the expenditure
has been less but we are confident that the figures will go up by
March-end.” An educationist associated with SSA said the problem boils down
to accountability. “There is no proper mechanism or prior research done to
check whether a particular district or corporation requires the money that
has been allotted. So it’s not surprising that a large part of the funds
remain unutilised,” he said.
Of the 33 districts covered under the scheme, expenditure figures reveal the state average to be approximately 55 per cent with Education Minister Vasant Purke’s constituency, Yavatmal, ranking 24. While Yavatmal has spent 47.35 per cent of the allocated funds, the worst performers include Nagpur (43.95 spending) at rank 30, Kolhapur (42.42 per
cent ) at rank 31, Buldhana (34.66 per cent ) at rank 32 and Jalgaon (29.25
per cent) at rank 33. But while Jalgaon ranks last as a district, it tops
the list of municipal corporations with 57.51 per cent spending.
Similarly, while the state of affairs in Pune corporation with 36.14 per cent spending
is dismal, Pune district (61.70 per cent spending) is one of the best
performers. Educationists say a number of factors are responsible-like, the
absence of accountability among officials responsible for implementing the
scheme, lack of innovations in teaching methods, and improper utilisation of
funds meant for computer education.
Moreover, they say, there are at best sporadic checks on the district-level resource groups (DRG) which were set up to serve as think-tanks and are responsible for improving education quality, teacher training and guidance. Not surprisingly though a government
officer paints a different picture. “Maharashtra is ahead of a number of
states. It’s a few districts which feature in the bottom 10 that’s adversely
affecting the overall performance.”