Suresh Sambandam, CEO of Chennai-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm Kissflow and a known Dravidianist sympathizer has once again sparked controversy with his claims on Tamil Nadu’s education budget. Amid ongoing debates over the three-language policy and Tamil Nadu’s spending on education, Sambandam recently made a post on his X handle asserting that the state spends ten times more on education than the national average.
Sambandam’s Claim
In his post, Sambandam wrote, “This is #TamilNaduModel #DravidianModel. TN Spends 10x more (2% vs 21%) for education compared to India. If you educate people ofcourse the educated citizen will come back after 10 years and ask the same politicans tough questions and challenge them. This is absolutely okay, without this any society cannot grow and progress. India and other states that understand this nuance will grow. If your politicians are not investing in education (budget allocated) then they are directly implying that they want to keep the people uneducated so that they don’t challenge the politicians.”
This is #TamilNaduModel #DravidianModel . TN Spends 10x more (2% vs 21%) for education compared to India. If you educate people ofcourse the educated citizen will come back after 10 years and ask the same politicans tough questions and challenge them. This is absolutely okay,… pic.twitter.com/MVyZ4AQVxt
— Suresh Sambandam (@sureshsambandam) March 16, 2025
Reality Check: How Tamil Nadu’s Spending Compares to Other States
Contrary to Sambandam’s claim, official budget data indicates that several other states, including Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, allocate significantly higher amounts to education:
- Uttar Pradesh has earmarked ₹1.06 lakh crore for education in its 2025-26 budget, making it one of the largest allocations in the country.
- Maharashtra allocated ₹98,438 crore for education and allied sectors in its last budget. The state utilized ₹95,523 crore in the previous fiscal year and ₹91,647 crore in 2023-24. In 2019-20, education, sports, arts, and culture collectively accounted for 17.6% of Maharashtra’s total budget allocation.
- Tamil Nadu, in comparison, allocated ₹43,799 crore for education in FY23, which is significantly lower than UP and Maharashtra. For the 2025-26 financial year, the Tamil Nadu government has allocated ₹55,261 crore to the School and Higher Education Department, with ₹46,767 crore designated for School Education and ₹8,494 crore for Higher Education. In percentage terms, Tamil Nadu allocated 14.1% of its budget to education, close to the national average of 14.7%. Only this year
- States that allocated a higher percentage of their budget to education include Rajasthan (19.5%), Chhattisgarh (19.4%), Delhi (22%), Assam (20%), and Himachal Pradesh (19%).
Misleading Comparisons
Sambandam’s assertion that Tamil Nadu spends 10 times more on education appears to rely on percentage comparisons rather than absolute figures. While Tamil Nadu’s budget allocation for education is comparable to other states in percentage terms, larger states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have significantly higher overall expenditures on education due to their larger economies and populations. Moreover, states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh allocate a much higher percentage of their total budget to education than Tamil Nadu.
Data from PRS Legislative Research’s State of State Finances 2023-24 indicated that all five South Indian states allocated a lower percentage of their budget to education than the national average.
Critics argue that Sambandam’s claims are part of a broader narrative attempting to present the Dravidian model as superior without a nuanced understanding of state budgets.
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