Budget 2020-21: Punjab's education outlay slightly raised to Rs71.8b

Rs2b allocated for primary, Rs30b for secondary, Rs34b for tertiary education

LAHORE:

Punjab government has slightly increased the annual budget for the education sector from last year’s Rs71.311 billion to Rs71.802 billion in its annual budget for 2020-21.

According to the budget documents, the provincial government has divided the education sector in six categories for the allocation.

It proposed an allocation of Rs2.089 billion for the primary education affairs and services against the previous year’s Rs1.712 billion.

Similarly, Rs30.366 billion was allocated for secondary education, Rs34.852 billion for tertiary education, Rs271 million for education services, Rs566 million for subsidiary services and Rs3.657 billion for education services not elsewhere classified.

An overview of the budget suggested that the revised estimates of expenses on the sector for the year 2019-20 were Rs61.107 billion and the government had opted to increase the budget to Rs71.802 billion for the coming year.

The budget documents say education is one of the most significant social sectors as it draws the interest of all policymakers and practitioners alike. Improvement in human capital and the quality of employable labour has a direct causal relationship with investment in the education sector, it was observed.

“The government expenditure in education sector has clearly shown positive impact on economic growth after some time lag, although it may show a negative impact on the growth in the short run,” the documents read.

“Increased and effective government spending on education sector improves social cohesion, which indirectly affects the health sector through consequentially improved nutrition, preventive care and sanitation, and the educated population has a more informed participation in public decision making.”

The budget documents say that since the primary and secondary education is a legislative subject devolved to local governments after promulgation of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2019, an amount of Rs215 million has been allocated for the district education authorities. In addition to this, an allocation of over Rs70 billion was proposed for the education sector at the provincial level.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2020.