Haryana’s education budget stagnant at 10% for 15 years

Despite pompous claims by successive governments of giving priority to education, the budgetary allocation to the sector in the state has not gone beyond 10 per cent over the last 15 years. While allocations stood at around 15 per cent in 2010-11, they have remained roughly around 10 per cent ever since.

According to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, ‘State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2025-26’, Haryana lagged behind Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, which allocated 17.5 per cent, 13 per cent, 16.4 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, towards education.

The report also highlighted that the allocation for technical education, skill development and industrial training, as a percentage of total expenditure, decreased in Haryana from 1.08 per cent to 0.6 per cent in the last Budget. The total allocation for education in Haryana was Rs 22,312.46 crore in the 2025-26 Budget.

Haryana spends significantly less on education and health as a percentage of its social services expenditure than other high-income states, despite having a much higher per capita income than the national average, the report stated.

The allocation pattern has rattled educationists, who are now seeking a stronger financial thrust in the 2026-27 Budget to improve the declining educational performance levels in the state, especially in government institutions.

“The future of any state depends on education. While states like Delhi have moved ahead by revolutionising government schools and institutions, Haryana has seen constant depletion year after year. There is a vision crunch, staff crunch and infrastructure crunch. We need to invest more funds and efforts to make our education system better, which is currently lacking,” said Dr Supriya Yadav, a local education reformist.

The report further highlights that, compared with high-income states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, none of the universities or higher educational institutions in Haryana figure in the QS World University Rankings 2026 or among the top 150 higher educational institutions in the NIRF rankings, according to the Haryana Vision Document 2047.

The Vision Document, released in December last year, also highlights a 4.9 per cent secondary-level (classes 9-12) dropout rate and notes its adverse impact on marginalised communities.

It further contrasts the proportion of government schools with internet access (69.3 per cent) with that of private schools (94.5 per cent).

On the technical education front, the Vision 2047 document calls for addressing the high vacancy rate of ITI instructors, which currently stands at 50 per cent.

“The capital outlay for education is a cause for concern for Haryana. The government could, in order to meet the needs of the health and education sectors, consider raising funds for social expenditure through corporate social responsibility funds,” said Rupamanjari Sinha Ray, associate professor, economics & public policy, Management Development Institute (MDI).

Ray, along with Sunil Ashra, professor, economics & public policy, MDI, had prepared a report titled ‘Evaluation of Finances of State of Haryana’ at the request of the 16th Finance Commission last year.

It may be noted that the plight of Haryana’s education sector came to the fore recently during the Vidhan Sabha session, when the State Education Minister, answering a question, highlighted a massive staff crunch across the state.

According to the report presented by Minister Mahipal Dhanda, 298 government schools in the state were functioning without a permanent teacher, while 1,051 had only one such teacher. He further added that government schools in the state are facing a shortage of at least 15,451 teachers. Of these, over 32 per cent of the vacancies (4,954) exist in Nuh-Mewat alone.

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