In some ways, India has made remarkable progress in education. The adult- literacy rate has nearly tripled from 18 per cent in 1951 to 52 per cent in 1995-96. The increase is even more dramatic for female liteacy, from 9 per cent to 43 per cent during the same period. The same trends are obvious among children's enrolment in schools. Overall, official sources indicate that the gross enrolment ratio in the primary stage(classes I-V) increased from 42.6 per cent in 1950-51 to 90.5 per cent in 1996-97 and in the upper primary stage (classes VI-VII) from 12.7 per cent to 62.3 per cent over the period. These are dramatic increases by any standards. Net enrolment rates, however, provide a more sombre picture of schooling in the country: 98 per cent for boys and 76 per cent for girls.

The basic problem is that India's task of providing elementary education to all children is daunting. The task was made more difficult when India spent less than 4 per cent of its GNP on education and then devoted less than one- half of the expenditure to elementary education.

The government has adopted policies and actions to attain the goal of complete literacy by 2005. This means enrolling and retaining all children within the age group 6-14 to class eight level, and providing functional literacy to more than 100 million adults in the age group of 15-35.

To implement the 1986 National Policy on Education, the government initiated a seriesof grant programmes like `Operation Black Board' and the `Total Literacy Campaigns (TLC)'. A National Literacy Mission was created in January 1988 by the government to impart functional literacy to adult illiterate persons in the age group 15-35. Total literacy is targeted to be achieved by 2005 AD. Under, TLC, 442 districts have been covered.

Since the launch of the campaign in 1988, about 90.55 million persons are reported to have been enrolled under TLC, of which 66.56 million persons have been made literate.

But the elan has been lost and attendance and achievement have not improved over the levels reported in the Arun Ghosh committee. The basic problem of illiteracy among lower age groups cannot be solved through ad hoc schemes and campaigns. The priority should be to ensure that every village in the country has a free, functioning, well-staffed and well-attended regular primary school.

The Eighth Plan period saw several new initiatives, the most important one being the District Primary EductionProgramme (DPEP). The DPEP was launched in 42 districts of seven Indian states with the aim of attaining universal primary education. It is distinct from conventional projects, as it takes a holistic view of elementary education, emphasises decentralised management, community mobilisation and undertakes district and population specific- planning.

This is in operation in 149 districts of 14 states. However, there are problems associated with the programme. Costs are three or four times the cost of existing programmes. The transmission to the field of the quality visualised is proving to be problematic. The DPEP seeks to impart skills and attitudes of a higher order, the existing system is barely ready for better attainment in routine areas.

A nation's priority to education is reflected in the proportion of national income devoted to education. Overall, the South Asian region spent 3.5 per cent of its GNP in 1994 on education, compared to 4.5 per cent in East Asia, and 5.5 per cent in sub-saharanAfrica.

In fact, South Asia's average is greatly influenced by public spending in India, which was 3.8 per cent of its GNP: otherwise the public-spending ratios are much lower in other South Asian countries - 2.7 per cent in Pakistan, 2.3 per cent in Bangladesh and 2.9 per cent in Nepal. The inadequacy of these funds becomes clear when it is found that universalisation of elementary education will need at least 6 per cent of GNP. At present, South Asian governments are getting poor mileage out of their education spending. The efficiency of resource utilisation is extremely poor.

In India, the trend of public spending on education as a per cent of GNP is 3.8 in the most recent years. Education has received less government budget owing to the heavy burden of military expenditure and the involvement of governments in running many loss-making public enterprises. If greater room has to be created for education in the budget, the strategy is: reduction in military spending, privatisation of many publicenterprises and mobilisation of additional resources.

The financial provisions for education have varied greatly from one state to another. For instance, Haryana allocated only 2.5 per cent, Punjab 2.6 per cent and Andhra Pradesh 3.1 per cent of their SDP to education. On the other hand, the poorer states of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh allocated 6.1 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively. Hence, there is a problem as to how to match the educational responsibilities of the states with their poor financial capabilities. The primary responsibility for implementing education programmes belongs to states, while most of the tax revenues and external assistance accrue to the centre.

What role central and state governments can respectively play in financing education? So far there has been no satisfactory solution to this dilemma. The need for strengthening the resource base for education is obvious. There must be a major restructuring in the existing allocation priorities in the education budgets. The emphasisshould be on financing basic education, girls' education and vocational and technical training. The current bias in favour of higher education must be reversed. Private initiatives should be encouraged to provide high-quality university education.

The policy makers should address to the three major challenges in its education system: first, the lack of access to schooling for large numbers of children; second, the low level of primary-school completion owing to drop-out and repetition; and third, the low learning achievement of many students who enroll and complete school.