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Education & the budget
it a household's, a corporate entity's or a government's - is not just a
document containing a collection of figures indicating the financial status of
the one to be guided by it. It also reflects the priorities and preferences of
its author. This is more so in the case of a government which has the power and
resources to address a wide range of issues to do the maximum good to the
maximum numbers. Hence, the budgets presented by the federal government in
Islamabad and the four provincial governments speak volumes about where we are
heading. The sector which is one of the most important and deserves close
examination in the context of the budgets is education because of its strong
impact on the potential of citizens, the productivity of the economy and its
multiplier effect on every walk of life.
In order to display their
commitment to education - considered to be a yardstick of a government's concern
for public welfare - our rulers have conventionally boasted of the growing
education budget. A few months ago it was promised that the education budget
would be raised to four per cent of the GDP in the incoming financial year. This
has not happened. It would have called for a massive increase in the allocations
for education to reach that goal. Spending on education continues to stagnate at
the level of two per cent of the GDP. However, it also needs to be pointed out
that simply a massive injection of funds in the education sector without
enhancing capacity and instituting checks and balances to control corruption has
proved to be a futile exercise. Take the case of development spending on
education in Punjab. The budgeted allocation for development in 2006-07
(Rs9.3bn) was not utilised fully and the revised estimates for the year stand at
Rs4.2bn. Similarly, Sindh showed Rs12.7bn as the revenue expenditure on
education in 2006-07 but this had to be revised to Rs11.8bn. Even worse is the
case of the growing embezzlement in the education sector as illustrated by
numerous ghost schools, falling standards of education, schools without adequate
physical facilities and the high rate of teachers' absenteeism.
Another
matter of deep concern is the government's misguided approach to the various
sub-sectors of education which betrays its utter lack of understanding of the
educational needs of the country. Primary education has been wilfully neglected
with the bulk of the provincial education funds going to the tertiary sector.
The higher education sector continues to be the blue-eyed boy of the federal
government which funds it generously. It appears that it still has not dawned on
our policymakers that primary schooling determines the quality of university
graduates and not the other way around. It is shocking that teachers' training
has hardly received the emphasis it deserves. Even more surprising is
the
trend to spend large amounts on the infrastructure than on the improvement of
education. The impression one gets is that the governments are happy with the
present state of things. They want the private sector to produce a small elite
of highly educated men and women whose number would suffice to run the country's
top tier. They are not convinced that good education is the birthright of every
child born in Pakistan.
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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