Minister of State Engr Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman attended the National policy Dialoue on Public Financing of Education in Pakistan (2010-2011 to 2015-2016) and Education Budget Proposals for 2016-2017 (Launch of Report and discussion) today.
Minister of State congratulated I-SAP (Institute of Social and Policy Sciences) for launching the report and said that such reports are very useful not only for the educationist but for the government as well. Government must know that where it is lacking in education budgeting and public financing, a healthy dialogue on such a pertinent issue is extremely beneficial for the education. But we must not forget about our present constraints along with the improvements that have been occurred in education system over the period of time, said the Minister.
Minister of State talked about the performances of AEPAM and NEAS in last two years, he also talked about the decrease in dropout rate, increase in literacy rate and increased provincial education budget in last three years. Due to paucity of time Minister of State had to cut short his speech as he was supposed to attend an important meeting
An analysis of previous federal and provincial education budgets reveal some encouraging facts. It is heartening to see a visible increase in education budget for all the provinces in 2015-2016, Balochistan increased its budget to 19%, KPK increased it to 12%, Punjab with 10% and Sindh increased it to 7%. Despite this increase there is still room for improvement. It has been seen that budgetary allocations are generally not leveraged against the major challenges like access and quality of education. Also there is a weak link between policy proviso, education data and the budgetary allocations. Therefore this report seeks to analyze education expenditure of the federal, provincial and district governments. The study examines the pattern of allocation and expenditure at the aggregate and sub sector level at the federal, provincial and district levels over the past six years. In order to inform the debate on forthcoming education budgets, I-SAP has formulated proposals for education budget 2016-2017. The process includes all parties conference, post budget dialogues with stakeholders, discussion with the relevant government officials, political representatives, budget experts and international partners etc. the aim of this exercise is to articulate a set of proposals and recommendations which conform to the needs of the system, are equitable, balanced and geared towards improving the learning outcomes.
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