At a recent lecture by Amartya Sen on the ?Centrality of Literacy?, PM Manmohan Singh attributed his current success to the investment made by his family and country in his education. He remarked, ?education is the most important differentiator and the most effective multiplier.? He further stated that his government is committed to ensuring that paucity of funds don?t limit the spread of literacy and education in our country. Does this imply that provision of funds is a panacea for all our education woes? The answer certainly seems to be ?no? as per a recent survey that presents a sad state of affairs for our elementary education initiative.
As per the findings of the recently released report, Do Schools Get Their Money?, by PAISA?India?s first and only citizen-led joint initiative run by NIPFP, Accountability Initiative and ASER Centre?mismanagement and delays in the flow of funds are key reasons behind the weakening of the decade-old Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA). The survey (covering 14,560 schools) observed that 47% primary and 40% upper primary schools reported receiving all the 3 grants during 2008-09?in April to October 2009, however, these figures fell to 27% and 20%, respectively. In other words, the larger part of these funds were received in the second half of the fiscal and utilised by the schools at the end of the year in a hurried manner just to produce utilisation certificates that determine future grants? sizes. The survey also notes that more than half the schools that received funds under the SSA didn?t have toilets and one-fifth didn?t have working hand pumps; while over 80% classrooms had blackboards, educational materials, etc, suggestive of the ineffective fund utilisation.
The larger challenge is to provide adequate incentives for effective monitoring of such schemes. In this vein, a viable solution can be the setting up of a separate, autonomous ministry, say ?monitoring ministry?, whose sole objective will be to clear bottlenecks and to enforce unbiased accountability across such schemes. Productive collaborations like PAISA can serve as a good input. The costs of setting up of such a ministry will surely be offset by the huge money saved from prohibited leakages across all the socio-economic development schemes.
jaya.jumrani@expressindia.com