Summary of Educational Financing

The unit began by making a brief reference to the linkage of educational development to poverty and income distribution. It then addressed the issue of public versus private funding in education.The trends in policies of education finance which reflect a gradual shift towards resource mobilisation and privatisation was then discussed followed by an outline of the principle and methods of cost sharing.

A brief comparison of inter-country practices on raising resources for education by a special tax and using the same for specified or earmarked purposes was discussed next. The argument that raising the educational expenditure to 6 per cent of GNP would serve the needs of all the levels of education well was based on the analysis and expert opinions of researchers and planners in the field.