Cost of Education

*Dr. Ambedkar in the Bombay Legislature:*
ON GRANTS FOR EDUCATION, 12th March 1927

"Going over the figures which give us information as to the manner by which we finance education in this presidency, I find that out of the total expenditure which we incur on arts colleges, something like 36% is financed from fees; out of the expenditure that we incur on high schools something like 31% is financed from fees; out of the expenditure that we incur on middle schools, something like 26% is derived from fees. Now, Sir, I submit that this is commercialisation of education. Education is something which ought to be brought within the reach of everyone. The education department is not a department which can be treated on the basis of 'quid pro quo'. Education ought to be cheapened in all possible ways and to the greatest possible extent. I urge this plea because I feel that we are arriving at a stage when the lower orders of society are just getting into the high schools, middle schools and colleges, and the policy of this department therefore ought to be to make higher education as cheap to the lower classes as it can possibly be made." ~Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

DBAWS, Vol. 2