BENGALURU: While working towards improving the social and economic status of people to bring in equality, the state government needs a larger focus on the education sector in the upcoming budget.
In the 2025-26 budget, of the total outlay of Rs 4,09,549 crore, Rs 45,286 crore, or a bit over 10%, was allocated for school education. Though it was 2% lower than what was set aside in 2024-25, funds increased by Rs 864 crore.
In this year’s budget, academics and educationists want the state government to release the entire allocation in one go, instead of in instalments, for the overall development of schools and colleges. They urged the government to upload the State Education Policy report in the public domain, pass it in both Houses of the legislature after review and implement it from the next academic year.
Dr Niranjanaradhya VP, developmental educationist, said, “The needs of schools and children vary according to regions. Of the total 59,772 vacant teacher posts in high schools and primary schools, 26,000 are in the Kalyana-Karnataka region.
In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, school buildings are quite old and classrooms leak and there is seepage on the walls during the rainy season. In Bengaluru, Mysuru and other regions, the infrastructure is good, but the number of children opting for government schools has reduced as majority of them want to go to private schools.”
Though the allocation for education is big, the government is failing to spend it systematically on the ground, he said. “The dropout rate in high schools is at a high of 22%. The government should reintroduce the scheme of providing bicycles to girl students. This will bring children back to schools and will also gradually motivate girls to join government schools. The government should formulate a clear roadmap to robustly implement all the elements of the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009.”
Karnataka too should implement a Public Education System Revitalisation Programme similar to Kerala to improve primary and high school education, academics opined. They emphasised how decentralised and autonomous functioning at regional, district and block levels will help meet the needs of schools adequately.
The government should allocate at least 10% of the Gross State Domestic Product for education this year to provide quality education, academics suggested.
