There is an increase in the expenditure on education but this might not immediately translate into no child being illiterate as the biggest stumbling block is lack of teachers. More investment in the field of education may lead to more students making it to school but true education still might not be possible.

The government's education for all program has taken momentum but the lack of teachers or the failure to appoint them has defeated the long-term purpose of implementing the program. Of the total teachers requirement at the all India level only 35% of requirement has been met and the main States that are the offenders are Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Founder and President of Rai Foundation Vinay Rai says, that "the remote areas are as important as the urban areas but the availability of teachers continues to be low in rural areas, those posted in rural and remote areas usually applied for transfers and the desire to be sent to those areas is significantly low." This is mainly because of lack of infrastructure in these remote areas, he adds.

Some States have made headway in overcoming this problem by decentralizing teacher appointment. States like Jharkhand and Orissa that have allowed local communities and village communities to hire teachers have been successful in appointing larger number of teachers. Orissa has managed to achieve nearly 80% of its target while Jharkhand is close behind at 70% West Bengal and UP have made shown minimal recruitment of about 20% and Chattisgarh stands at 43% of its target. Bihar has been the worst performer that has not been able to make even a single recruitment owing to its highly centralized system of hiring teachers.