A Quick Observation on Educational Expenditure in Nagaland

By Dr. Marchang Reimeingam

Published: Morung Express, Nagaland, 12th March 2010

Expenditure on education is regarded as investment in human capital. Irrespective of the society in Nagaland the general household expenditure on education is increasing over the years due to the rise in earning as well as income level apart from the rise in educational level and dearer cost in accessing educational infrastructure. During the 1999 (55^th Round) to 2004 (60^th Round), the National Sample Survey data shows that average monthly per person consumption expenditure on education has slightly decreased by less than one percentage point from a mere 4.76 percent of the total monthly consumption expenditure to 3.97 percent in rural Nagaland (Readers should note that the figure for 2004 for the state is generalized for North Eastern States excluding Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Tripura in rural areas and Assam, Manipur and Mizoram in urban areas). However, in rural India, it shows an opposite scenario that it has increased by slightly less than one percentage point from the level of 1.93 percent to 2.86 percent. The declined in consumption expenditure in rural Nagaland is a matter of concern. Moreover, the introduction of various central government schemes of incentives such as Mid Day Meal and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan possibly might have lowered the consumption expenditure on education. In urban areas, it has steadily increased by one percentage point from 6.52 to 7.52 percent in Nagaland; in case for India, the increase was more prominent where expenditure on education has rose by slightly more than 2 percentage point from 4.33 to 6.52 percent during the same period. The growing importance of education as well as parents motivations and incentives to educate quality education might have led to increase in spending and a higher proportion of household members going for school possibly led to the increase of it. The increasing share of consumption expenditure on education may partly due to the unmatched increased of cost on education and non-educational cost and partly due to the growing importance of education or higher demand for education in the household. The higher demand for education may mostly be induced demand in a sense it exerts demonstrative effect. The above mentioned schemes has also to be affected in urban areas expenditure pattern; however, due to the higher level of education as well as higher cost of education in urban areas in comparison to the rural areas the general increased of expenditure in the state and at the national average is observed. The level of expenditure on education is considerably higher in the state when compared to the level of the country in both rural and urban areas in all the periods. This can partly because of higher growth of educational attainment in the state as compared to the country. Financing for higher education outside the state can be another factor. Also, an inflationary factor which induces to higher cost of education might have driven to higher spending in the state. The expenditure is considerably higher in urban than rural areas for the state as well as the country. It is possibly due to the larger students’ enrolment in private educational institution which normally incurred higher cost compared to government institutions. Disposable income are less expended on education in rural areas as compared to the urban spending patterns on it, as expected, possibly due to the wide differences in the cost of education as well as prevalence of lower level of education in rural as compared to urban areas.

For citation: Marchang Reimeingam, A Quick Observation on Educational Expenditure in Nagaland, Morung Express, Nagaland, 12^th March 2010