Pakistan education spending & global rankings
Pak education spending at bottom in global rankings
Islamabad, June 05: Pakistan's public spending on education as a percentage to
GDP continues to rank at the bottom end of global rankings, as its
spending is (2.1 per cent as GDP percentage) lower than even Nepal that
spends 3.2 per cent of GDP, revealed the Economic Survey-2009-2010. With
public spending on education as a percentage of GDP amongst the lowest
in the chosen sample of eleven countries, the outcome with regard to
literacy levels is not surprising. Within the region, only Bangladesh
has a worse outcome on both indicators, spending by the public sector
as well as literacy rate. The sources of the sample are World Bank,
UNDP, UNESCO, FBS and Ministry of Education. Nepal spends a
substantial fraction more than Pakistan on education, while its
literacy is marginally higher. The survey says: in the sample, China's
spending on education is not given, but its literacy is 93.7 pc;
Vietnam spends 5.3 pc and its literacy rate is 92.5 pc; Iran spends 5.2
pc while its literacy rate has not been mentioned; Malaysia spends 4.7
pc and its literacy rate is 92.1 pc; Pakistan's literacy rate is 57 pc;
India spends 3.3 per cent on education, whereas its literacy rate has
not been mentioned. The overall literacy rate in Pakistan (age
10 years and above) is 57 per cent (69 per cent for male and 45 per
cent for female) compared to 56 per cent (69 per cent for male and 44
per cent for female) for 2007-2008, the survey noted. The data
shows that literacy remains higher in urban areas (74 per cent) than in
rural areas (48 per cent) and is more prevalent for men (69 per cent
compared to women (45 per cent). However, it is evident from the data
that overall female literacy is rising over time, but progress is
uneven across the provinces. When analysed provincially,
literacy rate in Punjab stood at (59 per cent), Sindh (59 per cent),
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (50 per cent) and Balochistan (45 per cent). The
literacy rate of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has improved considerably
during 2007-08 and to 2008-09. Pointing out various problems
and issues in the sector, the survey noted the poor quality of existing
environment is evident from the fact that a large number of schools are
missing basic infrastructure i.e. 37.7 per cent schools up to
elementary level are without boundary wall, 33.9 per cent without
drinking water facility, 37 per cent without latrines and around 60 per
cent schools are without electricity. The news
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90pc govt schools lack playgrounds
Peshawar: Around 90 per cent government schools in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa have no playgrounds, depriving students of a chance to get
engaged in extracurricular activities, it is learnt. Though
games are considered an integral part of education but students in
government-run middle, high and higher secondary schools cannot
participate in sports due to unavailability of playgrounds in most of
the educational institutions. "Most of the students usually
go to playgrounds of their respective schools to play different games
with schoolfellows during break hours. But if there is no playground
inside or adjacent to the schools, they usually go outside schools for
playing in the streets," an official of the elementary and secondary
education department said. In rural areas, he said, such
students played in open spaces in graveyards or fields near the
schools, which was not a proper place for sports activities. "Sports engage a student in healthy activities which is vital for
character building and diverting his attention from other actions which
can negatively affect his future," he remarked. A physical
training instructor serving in a government school said that there were
two reasons for not arranging sports activities in schools. First, he
said, most of the schools had no playgrounds while the second reason
was that school heads were unaware of the importance of physical
training and games for students. He said it was mandatory for
school administrations to arrange cricket, hockey, football,
basketball, volleyball and gymnastic competitions and physical training
of students at the school level, but such activities were rarely taking
place. There were specific periods for physical trainings of
students but principals of schools often preferred to restrict them
indoors, he said. "Instead of engaging students in games and providing
them physical training, they are asked to sit down silently inside the
classrooms and don't make noise," he added. Additional
director of the elementary and secondary education department,
Hakeemullah Khan, when contacted, confirmed that most of government
schools had no playgrounds. "Keeping in view the high prices of land in
the city and its outskirts it is impossible to purchase land for
playgrounds because the government lacks resources," he said. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had sought funds from the federal
government for establishing playgrounds at the union council level, he
said. Whenever the department launched tournaments at district and tehsil levels, playgrounds of sports boards were hired, he said.
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Admission of five Salu students suspended
Khairpur: Vice-Chancellor, Shah Abdul Latif University (Salu),
Dr Neelofar Shaikh suspended admissions of five students and banned
with immediate effect their entry into it, including hostels. "Zahid Hussain of BS-IV, Department of Chemistry; Shakir Ali of BCom,
Part-III; Mohammad Zaman of BS (IT)-IV Department of Computer Sciences;
Pervez Ali of BS (Computer Sciences) Part-III; and Majid Ali of B.Com
Part I, have been suspended and their entry into campus premises
banned," said a letter released by Salu registrar. Meanwhile,
activists of Jeay Sindh Students Federation and Sindh People's Students
Federation-SB and other nationalist student organisations continued
their token hunger strike on court road. Khadim Sindhi and
other student leaders said that the university administration has
cancelled admissions of position holders and banned their entry into
the campus. They called it an illegal act. They alleged that
the university administration was inefficient and demanded their
removal. They vowed to continue token hunger strike till the acceptance
of their demands. Dawn
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National Conference at KU
Karachi: The Department of Library and Information Science, University of Karachi
(KU), is organising a National Conference on "Cultural and Intellectual
Heritage of Pakistan" on June 11 and 12 in the Arts Auditorium of KU.
It will be a mega event where library professionals and scholars will
present their research papers. The news
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