In the 11th Plan, the states will have to spend more on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The funding pattern has now become 50:50 between the states and Centre. For the last five years, ever since its inception, the funding pattern was 75:25 where the Centre paid 75 percent and the states 25 percent of the entire year's budget on elementary education. The situation is particularly bad for the northeastern states, which used to get preferential treatment and had 90:10 funding pattern. But the state governments want to continue with the ratio of 75:25. The states had already expressed their inability to spending more on SSA. Whether the new funding pattern will derail the elementary education is a matter that has to be taken seriously. It has also to be remembered that that providing Universal Primary Education is one of the Millennium Development Goals
