Major allocations: K-P only province to allocate 20% for education

Budgetary allocations are in line with UNESCO guidelines

PESHAWAR: Having consistently allocated large portions of its budget for education over the past five years, the overall allocation for education by the government has more than doubled during this time.

According to data from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Elementary and Secondary Education Department, in 2012-13 the budget allocated for education in the province was Rs63.69 billion.

This budget was increased to Rs84.63 billion in 2013-14 by the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. In 2014-15, this was raised by another 20 per cent to Rs93.611 billion. Similarly, in 2015-16 the education budget raised to Rs104.252 billion, and then to Rs118.7 billion in 2016-17.



In the last budget for 2017-18, more than Rs136.19 billion had been allocated for education.

The data showed that since 2013, the overall education budget had witnessed a cumulative increase of 114 per cent, consistently allocating 20 per cent of the budget for education in line with the guidelines given by UNESCO Global Monitoring Report.

During the launch of the Alif Ailaan report, “2013-18 five year of education reform: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa wins; losses and challenges for the future 2018-23”, the provincial government’s education reforms and massive allocation for education was hailed, noting that it had helped make the system more responsive.

The report stated that the provincial government had improved coverage of physical facilities across schools, recruiting teachers, increasing attendance and instituting new development programmes.

To increase retention of girls at the secondary school level, stipends are also being provided to girls under a Rs1.72 billion initiative. Moreover, community schools were set up in remote districts to drive primary enrolment of girls.



It also recommended that government must focus on all means which will help dramatically increase enrolment in middle and high schools. The reforms push must also include an expansion of accelerated literacy programmes and community-based schools.

K-P Information Department Secretary Qaiser Alam praised the K-P government for allocating its 20 per cent of the budget on education.

“It is a good sign for our province’s education and if this allocation for the education sector is sustained in the future, we will achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” he shared.

He added that K-P was the only province which, after the introduction of the 18th Constitutional amendment, which had allocated 20 per cent of its budget for elementary and secondary education.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2018.