The education outlay during the 12th Five Year Plan might be affected due to the downward revision of national growth rates, Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, indicated here on Monday.
Plan outlay
The 12tH Five Year Plan period will begin in 2012 and continue till 2017. According to him, a final decision on plan outlay for education is likely to be decided within a month.
Growth constraints
“It is likely to be decided in the next one month. But it is constrained by the growth rate (of the economy). The allocation to the plan will be commensurate to the growth rate,” Jadhav said while speaking at an interactive session organised by the MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“You know we started with a 9 to 9.5 per cent growth rate and there is serious talk of revising the target downwards,” he said indicating that the growth target for the first year (of the Plan period) has been revised downwards and the picture was uncertain for “another two years”.
Priority sector
“To what extent it has to be done (growth target revision) will have to be decided first. The situation is fully fluid,” Jadhav said.
He, however, maintained that education will be an “overriding priority” for the Centre during the Plan Period.