K-P schools may make own budgets

Minister says budgeting is a mechanism for financial decision making from the district office to schools

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education has introduced a school based budgeting system to enable middle and primary schools at a local level to prepare budgets and track expenditures acquired through both salary and non-salary components.

Talking to The Express Tribune K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan shared that in previous times, financial matters of the local schools remained unresolved for several years and the school administration would have to visit the education department many times.

The minister said that school administrations do not even have the funds to fulfil basic requirements of the schools. He said that the incumbent government has started a school based budgeting system. He explained that school based budgeting is a mechanism for financial decision making from the District Office to the schools.

Provincial education minister shared that school based budgeting system was initiated in district Karak. The districts where school based budgeting will be operational during 2017-18 are Abbottabad, Bannu, Battagram, Charsadda, Chitral, D I Khan, Nowshera and Swat.

He elaborated that school based budgeting is based on education resource strategies that promote better planning and transparency at the school level.

“We cannot claim 100% responsibility for the improvement in the education system in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but credit goes to this government for hiring 40,000 teachers and providing basic facilities in 90% of the schools,” Atif Khan stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2018.