The cost and financing of the right to education in India: Can we fill the financing gap?

India's Parliament passed the Right to Education Act in 2009, which entitles all children 6–14 years old to at least eight years of schooling. This paper examines the cost of achieving this right to education, and asks whether India can fill the financing gap that must be filled if the right is to be realized. The paper notes the very considerable increase in central and state government allocation implied by the Act, and finds that there will be difficulties in finding the resources, given the large fiscal deficit occasioned by the global economic crisis. However, the paper goes on to suggest a series of measures that can be taken so that the right to schooling is no more denied or delayed.

► Reviving much larger official development assistance on concessional terms.
► Private–public partnership in secondary schools, to release public resources for elementary education.
► Using funds generated by divestments in public sector enterprises.
► Leveraging capital market by National Educational Development Finance Corporation for school and higher education.