Political economy of external aid for education in India
2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/17516230701835898
ISSN1751-6234
Autores Tópico(s)Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities
ResumoAbstract Following the structural adjustment policies, a social safety net programme was launched in India, primarily aimed at protecting the sectors of primary education and primary health care in the beginning of the 1990s. The paper presents a critical review of the politico-economic dynamics of the business of aid for education in India, and in the process reviews the rationale for aid for education and its impact. It unravels quite a few important dimensions of the external aid business from which valuable lessons can be drawn for India and other developing countries. Keywords: foreign aideducationWorld BankDPEPconditionalitiespolitical economyIndia Acknowledgements Revised version of the Sri C.V. Subba Rao Memorial Lecture 2006, delivered at the 24th Annual Conference of the Andhra Pradesh Economic Association, Maris Stella College, Vijayawada, India (11–12 March 2006). The opinions expressed in the paper are those of the author and are not to be attributed to the Institution with which he is associated, or to the Andhra Pradesh Economic Association. The comments of the participants of the conference and of the anonymous referees of the journal are gratefully acknowledged. Notes 1. See Jones (1992 Jones, P. W. 1992. World Bank financing of education: lending, learning and development, 2nd, London: Routledge. 2007. [Google Scholar]) for an in-depth discussion on the evolution of World Bank policies on education. See also King (1991 King, K. 1991. Aid and education in the developing world: the role of the donor agencies in educational analysis, Harlow: Longman. [Google Scholar]), Tilak (1994 Tilak, J. B.G. 1994. External financing of education: a review article. Journal of educational planning and administration, 8(1): 81–86. [Google Scholar]), and for a more general discussion Mason and Washer (1973 Mason, E. S. and Washer, R. E. 1973. 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India was classified in category (d). 6. It is not only the World Bank research, but also others were highly optimistic about India's economic growth in the 1990s. For example, Adams (1990 Adams, J. 1990. “Breaking away: India's economy vaults into the 1990s”. In India briefing 1990, Edited by: Button, M. M. and Oldenburg, P. Boulder: Westview Press. [Google Scholar], p. 9) concluded: ‘India remains well poised to continue its rapid growth through the 1990s’. See also Rosen (1991 Rosen, G. 1991. “The Indian economy: muddling through in a year of turmoil”. In India briefing 1991, Edited by: Oldenburg, P. 75–95. Boulder: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]). 7. The policies affected the other levels of education also. See Tilak (1996a Tilak, J. B.G. 1996a. Higher education under structural adjustment. Journal of Indian School of Political Economy, 8(2): 266–293. [Google Scholar]) for an analysis of the impact of these policies on higher education. 8. However, it may be mentioned that India was borrowing liberally from the World Bank for other sectors for a long period. For example, between 1973 and 1990, as many as 257 projects were funded by the World Bank. Seven of them refer to social sectors. 9. There were a couple of minor projects in operation earlier. They include non-formal education projects in a few selected villages financed by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and primary education projects in 328 schools in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the southern part of India funded by the British Overseas Development Administration (ODA). 10. The government of India is justified in launching this umbrella programme, as education is, after all, a concurrent subject, after the 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India was made in 1976, though states still enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy in making education policies and programmes. See Tilak (1989 Tilak, J. B.G. 1989. 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District primary education programme: staff appraisal report (India) Washington, DC [Google Scholar]) and also Ayyar (2005 Ayyar, R. V.V. 2005. What lessons can DPEP offer?. Journal of educational planning and administration, 19(1): 49–65. [Google Scholar]). A couple of projects, namely, Shiksha Karmi and the Lok Jumbish projects in Rajasthan, both funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Mahila Samakhya project financed by the Dutch government, however, remained separately. Others merged with DPEP or perished. 12. A crore equals 10 million. In 1993–94, US$1 equalled Rs.31.4; and in December 2007, Rs.39.0. 13. Elementary education in India includes primary (five years of schooling) and upper primary (three years of schooling), in all eight years of schooling. 14. More than the reduced interest on the part of the government, it is probably the less enthusiasm on the part of the aid agencies that might be responsible for the slowdown in growth in aid. The decline in the enthusiasm on the part of the aid agencies is not confined to India; there is an overall decline in aid to education in many countries both from multilateral and bilateral sources. For example, the World Bank (IBRD plus IDA) commitments to education declined form US$1.8 billion in 1990 to US$0.8 billion in 2001 (in 2000 constant prices); and bilateral aid from US$58.1 billion (1990–92) to US$43.9 billion (1997–2000). See UNESCO (2002 UNESCO. 2002. Education for all: is the world on track? EFA global monitoring report 2002 Paris [Google Scholar]). 15. India also refused to accept foreign aid to deal with the aftermath of the Tsunami in December 2004. 16. GNP (gross national product) deflators (base: 1993–94), based on Government of India (2005 Government of India. 2005. Economic survey 2004–05, New Delhi: Ministry of Finance. [Google Scholar]), are used for conversion into real prices (in Rs.). 17. All rates of growth are estimated using a semi-log regression equation. 18. Converted at the year-wise exchange rates. 19. See Bordia (2000 Bordia, A. 2000. Education for gender equity: the Lok Jumbish experience. Prospects, 30(3): 313–329. [Google Scholar]) for a description of Lok Jumbish, Jagannathan and Karikorpi (2000 Jagannathan, S. and Karikorpi, M. 2000. EC–India collaboration in primary education: sector-wide approaches to development cooperation. Prospects, 30(4): 409–422. [Google Scholar]) for a description on the European Commission's involvement in education in India, and Varghese (1998 Varghese, N. V. Investment in education and implications for poverty reduction in India: a study of primary education projects funded by the European countries. Occasional Paper No. 25. 1998. National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. [Google Scholar]) and Tilak (2000 Tilak, J. B.G. Education poverty in India. NIEPA Occasional Paper No. 29. 2000. 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In the case of total aid in India, it has been found that foreign aid substituted government spending, union government reduced its transfers to states and that union government's expenditure choices are unaffected by external aid. See Devarajan and Swaroop (1998 Devarajan, S. and Swaroop, V. 1998. The implications of foreign aid fungibility for development assistance, Washington, DC: World Bank, PPR 2022. [Google Scholar]) and for a study on India, see Swaroop et al. (2000 Swaroop, V., Jain, S. and Rajkumar, A. S. 2000. Fiscal effects of foreign aid in a federal system of governance: the case of India. Journal of public economics, 77: 307–330. [Google Scholar]). 24. This is not altogether surprising. External aid to education in sub-Saharan African countries in the 1970s and the 1980s have not led to an increase in total expenditure on education – total or relative shares in GNP; in fact, they declined. See Tilak (1990 Tilak, J. B.G. 1990. 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