Growth and Financing of Elementary Education in Uttar Pradesh: A Province in India - A Review

Abstract

This paper is a review of a study entitled ‘Growth and Financing of Elementary Education in Uttar Pradesh:  A Province in India’. The study was conducted by P. Geetha Rani from the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in New Delhi, India. Uttar Pradesh is no different from some of the communities in Jamaica, especially in areas that are deemed as remote areas. These kind of communities experience insufficient financing from State and Central government for the education of their residents. This constitutes part of the long standing discussion of financing education and the role of government in public expenditure on education. The people of Uttar Pradesh are poor, which means in part that education is not a priority-which makes education quite elusive for many of the residents. Within the context of the value of education that goes beyond the individual to the general society, Rani argued that this is a rationale for wider coverage of education among the residents and more public expenditure on education by State and Central government.
Even though the lack of financial assistance retards the possibilities or opportunities for poor families to educate their children, the expectation of poor students remains the same as those for properly aided students. In Uttar Pradesh there are many factors that results in
this poor support which are examined extensively in this article. However, it is mentioned in the article that the economic growth rate in this part of India, is a contributing factor. How different is this from the Jamaican system? Or is this community a replica of the Jamaican system? An analysis of educational development in the state reveals that the goal of universalizing elementary education in a resource-poor state seems to be elusive in the near future. Neither the financing pattern of education per se nor elementary education in particular is conducive to achieving the target of universal elementary education.  The article was insightful and informative and the use of statistics concretizes the perspective of the author.