India

Expenditures: India's investment in education, despite competing priorities, has been increasing from 0.8 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) in 1951 to 1952 to 3.3 percent in 1994 to 1995. The goal of reaching 6 percent GNP, stipulated in NPE-1986, has been an ongoing challenge and commitment.

NPE-1986 recognized this challenge, offering the following qualifications:

Since the actual level of investment has remained far short of that target, it is important that greater determination is shown now to find the funds for the programs laid down in this policy. While actual requirements will be computed from time to time on the basis of monitoring and review, the outlay on education will be stepped up to ensure that during the 8th Five-Year Plan and onwards it will uniformly exceed 6 percent of the national income. (NPE-1986, Paragraph 11.4)

Higher Education: Higher education has witnessed similar growth. According to Joshi, government expenditure on higher education rose from Rs. 172 million in 1950-1951 to Rs. 42,035 million in 1996-1997, although inflation and increases in the population of both the nation and the student body mitigate this increase. Joshi reviews the trends in spending over the last 50 years of the twentieth century:

On the whole, the trends suggest that higher education had a good start during the 1950s (with real growth of 7.5 percent per annum), and had its golden days during the 1960s, with the real expenditure increasing at an annual rate of growth of 11 percent; but it suffered significantly during the 1970s, with the rate of growth coming down to a meager 3.4 percent as educational planners aimed at consolidation of higher education instead of its rapid expansion; and showed some tendencies to recover during the 1980s. Though the growth in expenditure on higher education has been erratic during the 1980s, it had increased on the whole at a rate of growth of 7.3 percent per annum. The 1990s heralded an era of austerity and higher education suffered greatly. (1998)

Educational Research: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), established in 1961, serves as a resource center in the field of school education and teacher education. It undertakes programs related to research, development, training, extension, and dissemination of educational innovations through various constituent departments at the headquarters in New Delhi and 11 field officers all over the country. Publication of school textbooks and other educational materials, such as teachers' guides or manuals, is its major function. NCERT also undertakes time-bound projects in pre-school education, education for girls, and education for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. NCERT has five constituent units in the field: (a) RIE at Bhubaneshwar, Ajmer, Mysore, and Bhopal; (b) the Central Institute of Education Technology (CIET); (c) NIE; and (d) PSSCIVE, Bhopal. A fifth RIE is proposed at Shillong. CIET is an important unit of NCERT; it is engaged in the production of satellite-based audio and video programs for elementary and secondary levels, which are aired on All India Radio and Doordarshan.