KARACHI: This is with reference to the story “Parha Likha Pakistan?: A means but no end” (May 3). This story mentions that during the five years of the PPP’s coalition government, the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP went down. This statement misses the basic point that after the Eighteenth Amendment (and largely even before it) education became a provincial subject. Thus, we have to examine which province is spending what part of its provincial budget on education.
Notwithstanding the fact that the province of Punjab has a population 2.5 times larger than that of Sindh, the provincial budgets of these two provinces are almost equal in size. Last year, Punjab’s budget was about 10 per cent higher than that of Sindh and since the current trend has continued this year, Sindh’s budget is expected to be higher than that of Punjab. Out of this budget, while Sindh spent 29 per cent of its budget on education (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa spent an amazing 46 per cent on education), Punjab spent merely 11 per cent of its provincial budget on education. Thus, the per capita expenditure on education in the province of Punjab comes to about one-fourth that of Sindh.
Punjab, which has 55 per cent of the country’s population. Despite this, the per capita expenditure on education in Punjab is low and the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has to go down with the increase in GDP.
The promise of spending 4.5 per cent of GDP on education is based on the expectation that firstly, the previous government of Punjab will not be voted in again, tax collection in the province will improve and education will be given priority, and secondly, that the bill for the creation of a Seraiki province will be passed by the National Assembly.
Taj Haider
General Secretary
PPP, Sindh
Published in The Express Tribune, May 4th, 2013.
