Instructions: Sharmila Farooqui calls for increase

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Women Wing Sindh Information Secretary Sharmila Farooqui stressed the need to raise the federal education budget to meet international standards. This was necessary so to meet the Millennium Development Goals, to which Pakistan is a signatory, and to achieve 100 per cent literacy throughout the country. The global standard for education spending is around 4.9 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, Pakistan is currently spending only 1.9 per cent of its GDP, falling far short of the minimum required level. Ms Farooqui referred to a report that showed the education allocation of other countries, with India spending roughly 6 per cent of its GDP on education and Iran around 5 per cent. The PPP government had raised the education budget last year and it is hoped that it would be raised further in the upcoming federal budget.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2011.