Education budget to rise to Rs800 billion

Baligur Rehman says there has been a decrease in the number of out-of-school children in the last three years

PESHAWAR: The much awaited federal education budget is set to rise from Rs500 billion to Rs800 billion, according to Minister of State for Education Muhammad Baligur Rehman who was speaking at the Inter Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference (IPEMC) on Thursday.

Rehman added that there has been a decrease in the number of out-of-school children from 20.6 million to 20.26 million in the last three years owing to the concrete measures taken by the provincial governments.

The conference had been organised by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government and all provincial ministers for education were present.

Rehman added that in contrast to 2001, the number of out of school children has exponentially receded by three times.



The federal minister lauded the role played by all the education ministers to prioritise education.

He also appreciated the part played by 18,000 private educational institutes nationwide in promoting education.

He also directed the provincial governments to encourage the owners of private schools to open more schools as they assist in the government in service delivery.

“To regularise private educational institutes a committee will be formed on a federal level that will be responsible to check on these institutes,” he said.

 



He said that very soon a law would be put in place to regularise private educational institutes across the country.

Rehman said that the inter-provincial education ministers’ forum was restored back in 2013 while its annual meetings were being held in provincial capital of almost all provinces.