Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah.
Credit: PTI Photo
Budgetary allocations towards improving education and health in Karnataka have not always matched the significance of the sectors. The upcoming budget needs to factor in this discrepancy considering the criticality of human resources in the overall development of the state. Education, apart from providing the workforce with knowledge and skills, is also the best means to address inequalities in society and enables improved productivity and economic growth. Robust health facilities are also indicative of this growth. The demographic dividend can be utilised only if the youth have access to quality education and skills.
Though the private sector has played an important role in providing educational and health facilities, the state has to take the lead in these areas. The availability of these services to all people, and especially to the poor, depends on the financial resources provided by the government. While the importance of the two sectors has been well recognised, public action to develop these sectors in the state is still inadequate as evidenced by the existing deficiencies. Some of the serious systemic issues that have impacted school education include inadequate infrastructure, high dropout rates at the secondary level, poor learning outcomes, closure of schools in many places, and shortage of staff. The large number of teacher vacancies – a direct result of inadequate budgetary allocations – has remained an area of concern.
The report on the Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2000, brought out by the Right to Education Cell and the Council for Social Development, New Delhi, has pointed out that Karnataka has the highest number of teacher vacancies in the country, with 1,41,358 unfilled positions. The effect of this on the quality of education is anybody’s guess. In colleges and universities, the number of teacher vacancies has reached alarming levels with 60-70% of the teachers holding part-time/temporary positions, with disastrous effects on teaching and research.
The situation in the health sector is also a matter of great concern. A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Karnataka’s Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services for the period 2016-2022 has highlighted several gaps in the public health system; for instance, a shortage of staff and drugs and the non-availability of prescribed pathological investigations. According to the report, the shortage of doctors and supporting staff ranged from 29% to 53% in hospitals under the Department of Health and Family Welfare. In AYUSH hospitals, the shortage of doctors is to the extent of 59%. The report pointed out that the situation was affecting maternity services.
Story in numbers
Successive governments in the state have failed to address these issues by ensuring adequate budgetary allocations, leading to sub-par facilities in the health sector and systemic issues in the education sector. There has been very little addition to the allocations to the education sector year after year in absolute terms. It needs to be noted that the share of education in the aggregate public expenditure has come down from 15.6% in 2010-11 to 11% in 2024-25. This is a telling pointer to the neglect education has faced in the state as a sector. It may be instructive to compare this with NCT Delhi where during the same period, the share has increased from 16.3% to 21.2%. Financial assistance extended to universities in the state in recent years is almost stagnant and in some cases, the allocation in 2024-25 is even lower than in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
The share of the health sector in the aggregate public expenditure has remained almost constant; it has ranged between 3.9% and 4.4% in the 2010-24 period except in the pandemic years. Karnataka is lagging behind states like Odisha and Rajasthan where the share
of health in the aggregate public expenditure is 8% and 7.6%, respectively, according to the budget estimates
for 2024-2025.
The most significant challenge ahead of the state government is filling the unusually large number of vacancies in the education and health sectors. The way forward is to work out a plan of action towards this objective in a phased manner – over two to three years – and substantially enhance the allocation to these sectors to meet the required expenditure. The start has to happen with the 2025-26 budget. The state cannot afford more delays.
(The writer is a former Professor of Economics at the University of Mysore)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.