Now Reading: India’s education spending below Unesco’s 15% benchmark
-
01
India’s education spending below Unesco’s 15% benchmark
India's education spending as a share of total public expenditure has slipped to 14.2%, below Unesco's 15% benchmark, according to the 2026 SDG 4 scorecard. The Times of India reports that the…
The Story in Brief
India's education spending as a share of total public expenditure has slipped to 14.2%, below Unesco's 15% benchmark, according to the 2026 SDG 4 scorecard. The Times of India reports that the share was 15.7% in 2015. India meets the other benchmark, spending 4.1% of GDP on education, unchanged since 2015. The funding gap is accompanied by slow progress in school completion. Lower secondary (Classes VI-VIII) completion stands at 86%, against a national target of 99% for 2025. Upper secondary (Classes IX-XII) completion is only 51%, against a target of 84%. Unesco classifies progress at both levels as slow. Globally, only 39 of 205 countries meet both benchmarks.
The Indian Opinion
India meets one Unesco benchmark but misses the other. The share of public expenditure on education has fallen to 14.2%, down from 15.7% in 2015. That is a real decline, not just a statistical quibble. Many developed countries also fail the 15% test, but they have near-universal secondary completion. India does not. Lower secondary completion is stuck at 86%, far short of the 99% target. The question is not whether India can meet a global norm. It is whether the government will shift spending to match the scale of the unfinished schooling task.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
