Rich Punjab and ‘getting there’ Bihar suffer from the most dramatic fluctuations in the receipt of grants under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), an universalisation of primary education programme, a new study has found.

"In 2009-10, 80 percent of schools in Punjab reported receiving their grants by November. This went up to 91 percent in 2010 and fell to 32 percent in 2011," said the report titled 'Do Schools get their Money?' released by Vinod Rai, the comptroller and auditor general of India, on Tuesday at an event here. The report is based on the findings of a survey conducted between October and November, 2011. The ramining schools have to wait even longer to get the allocated amounts.

Bihar schools had a similarly sorry tale. "In 2009, 77 percent schools reported grant reciepts by November. This dropped to 60 percent in 2010 and further dropped to 30 percent in 2011," said the PAISA national report in Bihar that tracks fund flows and expenditures under SSA.

The government has spent just 70 percent of the funds allocated for SSA and Right to Education in 2010-11 compared with 78 percent in the year earlier. “An increased financial allocation does not necessarily mean better quality of education," said Yamini Aiyar, director of Accountability Initiatives.

The study also found that rates of absence of teacher were 17 percent in Madhya Pradesh and 15 percent in Bihar.

Schools across the country received fewer grants than they did two years back. "In the financial year 2009-10, 59 percent reported recieving grants in the first half of the financial year. This dropped to 53 percent in 2011-12," highlighted the report that covered 14,283 schools across rural India.?

The government has increased the SSA budget — it is now more than double of what it was in 2009-10 (Rs. 26,169 then to Rs. 55,746 crore in 2011-12). But the report had a caveat for the policy makers. "There is no correlation between expenditure on teachers and children’s learning levels," the report added. "

"There is a general feeling that if you give money to the local administration, it is spent in a more fruitful way. Quite often, it doesn't really happen," said Rai. He praised the authors of the report and said that it is an eye-opener for the government.

Few states in India also showed huge variations in the outlays. "Outlays in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal doubled while outlays in Haryana and Jharkhand had a minimal increase of 39 percent and 30 percent respeectively," said the report.

The spending pattern of the schools receiving the grants remains the same, according to the study. 90 percent of the schools have been found spending the amount they got but it was low for quality-related activities. "Between April and November, 68 percent schools whitewashed their walls and buildings, while 69 percent schools utilised a portion of the grants to fund school events," the report noted.

The report also noted the progress in provision of separate toilets for girls and library books.

PAISA is the first country-wide citizen-led effort to track development expenditures. The annual PAISA survey is conducted through the annual ASER survey that tracks learning outcomes. This is the third time that survey has been conducted as a collaborative effort between the Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research and ASER Centre.

The survey focused on four questions. (1) Do schools get their money? (2) Does money reach on time? (3) Do schools get all their money? (4) Do schools spend their money? How do they spend their money?