Delhi's education expenditure increases: survey

Increase in expenditure on education and decline in total enrolment in private schools are two highlights of the Economic Survey of Delhi, 2016-17 which was tabled in the assembly here today.
According to the survey, the total expenditure (plan and non-plan) on education including sports, arts and culture increased from Rs 4,799 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 10,690 crore in 2016-17.
The share of expenditure on education in the total budget of Delhi government has increased from 18 per cent in 2011-12 to 23 per cent in 2016-17. The education expenditure to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was the highest at 1.72 per cent in 2016-17.

For the first time in last five years, Delhi's investment in education as ratio to aggregate expenditure is the highest, upstaging Assam.
Assam's ratio has been in the range of 22 per cent to 22.6 per cent. Delhi's share in 2015-16 has been the highest at 23.8 per cent, much higher than the national average of 16.4 per cent, an indication to the priority the government has set for the sector.
The enrolment figures indicate an interesting trend with the total number of recognised schools (government-aided and unaided) showing an increase in intake.

As per the survey, there has been a very marginal decline in number of schools in 2015-16 (5,796) from that of 2014-15 (5,798) and the total enrolment increased to 44.30 lakh from that of 44.13 lakh in the same period. The student-teacher ratio also improved to 30.

In the government schools, there has been a marginal decline (from 15.42 lakh in 2014-15 to 15.09 lakh in 2015-16) in enrolment in secondary and senior secondary classes despite a marginal increase in the number of schools.
The survey noted that there has been a marginal increase in enrolment in government aided schools.
However, despite a decrease in the number of schools, the highest jump in enrolment in this segment has been recorded in the private schools from 14.71 lakh to 15.26 lakh in the same period.
However, individually for the private, the share of total enrolment has gone down from 38.34 per cent in 2013-14 to 32.09 per cent in 2015-16, despite the share of enrolment for secondary and senior secondary level increasing marginally from 27.30 per cent to 29.96 per cent during the same period.

There has been a consistent improvement in the pass percentage in the senior secondary level in the last seven years, recording a new high of 87.01 per cent in 2016, higher than the all India pass percentage.
However as the secondary level (Class X) the performance has seen a consecutive four year decline. From 98.4 per cent pass percentage in 2013 it has decreased to 91.76 per cent in 2016.