The Punjab government spent just Rs0.15 per child on education in 2011-12, down from Rs308.79 per child a year earlier, according to a report made by Save the Children. The same year, Balochistan spent Rs774.28 per child.
The Punjab government’s spending on child health rose from Rs18.85 per child per year in 2010-11 to Rs27.53 in 2011-12, while spending on social welfare rose more than tenfold from Rs2.28 in 2010-2011 to Rs27.1 in 2011-2012, the NGO report stated.
“Children under the age of 18 make up more than 48 per cent of Pakistan’s population, but a brief glimpse at the budget for the year 2011-2012 shows that child-focussed schemes and programmes continue to struggle to make a place for themselves in the mainstream budgetary agenda,” said the report.
The report states that the provinces had received greater autonomy, via the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and greater resources, through the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, but budgetary allocations for children had not improved much.
“Though revenues increased by 22.2 per cent in 2011-2012 from the previous year, there has been no substantial increase in the total budget expenditures on child health, child education and child social welfare,” said the report.
The report states that in 2011-2012, only 1 per cent of foreign assistance received in the forms of loans and grants had been allocated on child-focussed schemes. In 2010-11, a large portion of the health budget was diverted to relief and rehabilitation activities for flood-affected people. It urges civil society to lobby for the allocation of more funds for children. Wajahat Ali Farooqi of Save the Children said that the Punjab government had not complied with international commitments or national commitments. He said that the Punjab government’s tax system was weak, which meant it had to borrow from banks and countries.
He said that in 2012-13, budget allocations for education, health and social welfare had decreased from 2011-12: education from 5.961 percent to 4.946 percent, health from 4.823 percent to 4.576 percent, and social welfare from 0.64 percent to 0.516 percent.
He said spending per child had improved dramatically in 2012-13, but the spending on child-focussed education was still just 3.323 per cent of total expenditure. Child-focused health and social welfare expenditures were only 0.214 per cent and 0.053 per cent, he said.
He said spending on child healthcare was also “dismal” as it had decreased almost 100 per cent. There had been a very small increase in the social welfare expenditure for children.
Other provinces
Sindh spent Rs280.37 per year per child on education in 2011-12 and Rs283.31 in 2011-2012. It spent Rs0.085 per child on health in 2011-2012 and Rs0.067 in 2010-2011, Social welfare spending rose from Rs2.29 per child in 2010-2011 to Rs2.97 in 2011-12.
KP spent Rs114 per child on education in 2010-11 and Rs122.048 in 2011-2012; Rs1,323.509 per child on health in 2010-11 and Rs1,757.192 in 2011-2012; and Rs4.411 per child on social welfare in 2011-2012, up from Rs0.0031 in 2010-2011.
Balochistan spent Rs 691.54 per child on education in 2010-2011 and Rs774.28 in 2011-2012; Rs681.61 per child on health in 2011-2012; and Rs36.93 per child on social welfare in 2010-2011 and Rs0.7 in 2011-12.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012.
COMMENTS (17)
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there is some reporting error here. but we know that the total budget spent on education in 1.5 which makes Pakistan in the group of those 7 countries spending less than 2% of GDP. Shame anyway.
Some times we get twisted the facts. These paisas come from the total development budget, it does not include the current budget. If you look at the report by SCI there will be no exaggerated figures given in it.
i doubt that ... lets say there are 50 million child in punjab (its an exaggerated number though) and we multiply 0.15 Rs. with 50million , then the answer comes out to be 7.5 Million Rupees .. com on it can never be the budget of education ... one cant simply digest this 15 paisa propaganda .. bye the way i am a very strong supporter of PTI :)
Punjab Government failed to deliver any facility to the people, so Punjab Government should quit from politician.
this report is fake 10,000%
punjab government you need to rise
I am yet to see the actual report... When can that be put up? Because there are serious discrepancies in numbers between them and UNDP, so one of them is doing something wrong
There has to be an error here. 15 paisas per child means 65 lack education budget. I find that hard to believe. Here is how I arrived at the number 48% of 91,379,615 = 43862215 people in Punjab are under 18 and 15 paisas per person would mean 43862215 * 0.15 Rs = ~65,79,332. Sanity Check! PS: Please do not send any political comments my way. I just want common sense to prevail.
Danish Shool and laptop Schemes are showbaz projects to gain political mileage. PTI education policy is One Education System = One Nation.
@Liberal Are you serious? Danish schools are a waste of public money. That money could have been used to build or renovate thousands of primary/secondary schools. How can a learned person like you support such a project? Even if you support the PML-N you should criticise such silly projects.
And they spent billions on laptops and flyovers. What is the use of laptops and flyovers and bridges and roads if large part of the nation stays illiterate. Khadam-e-Ala (read Drama-e-Ala) believes in showcase projects which can earn them some quick popularity to counter PTI.
Please provide a link to the source
We need to spend more on primary and then secondary education. Danish Schools are not the solutions. Only limited students can get admissions there. We need reforms who benefit all nation. We should raise the standards of all existing schools in govt. sectors by hiring new and competent teachers who're well equiped of new and modern techniques of teaching. Arrange continuous training/refresher courses of the existing teachers so that they do not become redundant. We should improve the infra structure of all govt schools and facilitate them with furniture, computer labs, clean drinking water etc. Provide free books to the kids.
It is pathetic approach to mention Danish Schools and laptop scheme as something good. it is product of devil mind to advertise government policy instead serving the millions who does not even have boundary walls around their schools. come on wake up lahore do not support the proved cruel after bakery incident.......
Well if u include laptops and danish schools in child education it will standat Rs 100/Child .. but what Pakistani elite can understand ... they know nothin ...tlaptops and danish schools are creating the best minds of Pakistan .
And if you exclude the billions spent on the luxury of DANISH schools, the net will be, perhaps, 1 paisa per child.
And if you exclude the luxiary