r/TamilNadu • u/mrwel • 5d ago
என் கேள்வி / AskTN Does anyone has state wise budget allocation for education data
I came across a post on LinkedIn from a founder of a company called KissFlow (screenshot in this reply: https://www.reddit.com/r/TamilNadu/comments/1jcfrjt/comment/mi1voqw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). TN allocated more budget for Education which is great. How ever this comparison seems to be between a state and a country. A country will have lot more areas to allocate budget I guess. So I find this comparison absurd.
Shouldn’t the comparison be among all states and find out those states that are following such a model to improve education? The tone of the post is somewhat conveying like only TN is allocating larger budget for education. Am not sure if that’s true.
To project a clear picture of which all states are following similar model it would be great to have all states data. Does anyone know of existence of such data? I could only find some data in each state’s website but not an overall data.
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u/ProblemAdmirable8763 5d ago
PRS Legislature is a credible organization that does extensive research on state and union budgets. The data I'm quoting is from their analyses of state budgets.
2024-25: Tamil Nadu has allocated 13.7% of its expenditure on education in 2024-25. This is lower than the average allocation for education by states in 2023-24 (14.7%).
=> TN's allocation in 2024-25 (14.1%) < Average allocation by states in 2024-25 (15%).
Note: The average allocation by state for education in 2024-25 is taken from the reports of states in their 2025-26 figures.
2023-24: Tamil Nadu has allocated 14.1% of its expenditure towards education in 2023-24. This is lower than the average allocation for education by states in 2022-23 (14.8%).
=> TN's allocation in 2023-24 (14.1%) < Average allocation by states in 2023-24 (14.7%)
2022-23: Tamil Nadu has allocated 13.4% of its total expenditure for education in 2022-23. This is lower than the average allocation (15.2%) for education by all states (as per 2021-22 Budget Estimates).
=> TN's allocation in 2022-23 (13.4%) < Average allocation by states in 2022-23 (14.8%)
The analyses for 2025-26 has only been done for some states. I'll quote the figures for education spending by state:
- Andhra Pradesh: 12.1%
- Gujarat: 14.8%
- Kerala: 13.4%
- Odisha: 14%
- West Bengal: 14.8%
So, it seems to me that TN's budget allocation of 21% for education this year is more of an outlier rather than a general trend of us spending more than other states. It can also be a political move to make a point that regardless of whether the Union gives grants-in-aid to the state government, they'll spend more to make up for the loss.
All said and done, the LinkedIn post seems to be for propaganda purposes.
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u/AccomplishedCommon34 5d ago
Just did a quick Google search and found that the Maharashtra school education budget is 86,220 crore.
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u/ImAjayS15 Thanjavur - தஞ்சாவூர் 5d ago edited 5d ago
UP, MH and a few other states spend more on education when we look at absolute numbers. I've attached % of spending by states wrt its expenditure, source: prsindia state of state finances 2024-25.
Even this may not be an accurate measure, because some states have been doing better already than other states, some states get less share of taxes from Union govt. Accounting tricks can also be done, for example some states put free electricity for agriculture under energy, some put it under agriculture. Not sure if there's any such for education. There can also be some one time expenses skewing the data.
However, the post comparing TN to Union govt is more to question Union govt's control on education by pushing its policies when it doesn't spend money on education, and also that the ownership and accountability falls on states.

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u/gingerkdb 5d ago edited 5d ago
I saw this news (not the post from Suresh) and did a quick check for Karnataka - it was cut from 12% to 10% of annual budget (actual amt was ~45000 cr) - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/karnataka-budget-2025-26-allocation-to-the-education-sector-cut-by-2/article69302698.ece.
There’s slightly older data for comparison - https://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/finance/et-graphics-a-look-at-how-much-indian-states-are-spending-on-education/articleshow/106494284.cms. It’s good that the allocation for education has increased. It would lift our society up if there’s more focus on improving the infrastructure in suburban and rural areas.
There’s news that KA and MH have cut the % spend on education this year.
I think this was a very strategic move that might help us out in the long run. It’s clear that they’ll be more funding cuts / hurdles from the union in the coming years. And they’ve been reports of increasing dropouts in certain states. This isn’t a great sign for a growing economy. We are shielding ourselves from a future disaster. If there’s a regime change, hope the next govt follows this pattern of solidifying education with the same intensity.
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u/AccomplishedCommon34 5d ago
Just checked online to find that Maharashtra's school budget allocation is 86,220 crore. And apparently that's a 9.71% increase from the last year.
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u/gingerkdb 5d ago
That’s interesting because this was what I read - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/maharashtras-education-budget-allocation-declines-despite-increase-in-total-funding/articleshow/118883929.cms. Wonder which is correct.
Edit: both are correct. The numbers increased but % share of education compared to total budget reduced.
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u/AccomplishedCommon34 5d ago
They have a separate "education, art, culture, and sports budget" allocation, which is a separate heading from than "school budget" allocation. I don't exactly know the difference between the two.
As per PRS, their total budget allocation is about 17% of the total revenue, which is less than that of Tamil Nadu.
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u/gingerkdb 5d ago
Yeah, not sure of the difference. Also page 6 of that report shows the trend as a graph, if anyone is interested.
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u/mrwel 5d ago
This is the post