Provincial issue: Education is a concern, but only on paper

Budget allocations by provinces show non-development spending draws largest chunk.

ISLAMABAD:

The incumbent government has been vowing to increase budgetary allocations for education during the next four years, but data released regarding the new fiscal year paint a very different picture.

In the previous fiscal year, the federal government and provinces allocated Rs504 billion — about eight per cent of total expenditure and 1.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Last year, the federal government total allocated Rs80 billion in total for education including the Higher Education Commission (HEC). This year it has announced Rs86 billion, which includes Rs20 billion for the HEC development budget and Rs 43billion for non-development expenses. This is the highest-ever HEC development budget allocation and will finance 55 new projects.

After devolution under the 18th Amendment, the role of federal government is nominal in education and the provinces are now responsible for the sector.

For the new fiscal year 2014-15, an allocation of 554 billion has been made for the federal and provincial governments, which is a hefty increase and accounts for about 5.61 per cent of the total budget.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has allocated the highest amount for education, about 27.4 per cent of its provincial budget. Punjab has allocated 26.1 per cent, Sindh 21.13 per cent while Balochistan will spend just 13 per cent.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

K-P has earmarked Rs 111billion for the education sector, which is 27.4 per cent of its total Rs404.8 billion budget.

The K-P government has announced about Rs14 billion for development, the same as the previous year, while the other Rs97 billion are for current expenditure.

According to the budget White Paper, the operational budget for maintaining the existing service delivery network, which includes provision of classroom consumables, repairs, inputs, and utilities, is declining in real terms, while the salary and pension liabilities are rising at an alarming rate. “Such increase leaves little room for the provincial exchequer to set aside adequate funds for operation, maintenance and development.”

But the surprising detail in the budget documents is that the government has spent only 15 per cent of the total development budget for the ongoing fiscal year despite the declaration of an “education emergency”.

Programmes in the new budget include Rs240 million for promoting girls education in Kohistan and Torghar, Rs2 billion for additional rooms, toilets, building renovations, water and power connections with community collaboration, Rs500 million for the CM Endowment Fund for deserving university students; Rs2.5 billion for free academic books till intermediate level, and Rs1.75 billion to raise the status of 100 madrassas to primary schools.

Punjab

The Punjab government has allocated Rs273 billion for education, which accounts 26.1 per cent of the total budget outlay of Rs1.044 trillion, second highest allocation after KP.

The province has earmarked about Rs48 billion for development, but the major chunk here — Rs224.69 billion — has been earmarked under the head of current expenditure. The Rs48.3 billion development budget includes Rs28.1 billion for school education, Rs14 billion for higher education, Rs2.4 billion for literacy and Rs2.9 billion for sports and youth affairs.

Incidentally, the Punjab government was most efficient in utilising its allocation for the previous year — about 85 per cent.

Sindh

Sindh has earmarked about Rs145 billion for education in the new fiscal year, which is 21 per cent of the budget outlay of Rs686 billion. In 2013-14, the allocation was Rs134 billion.

The development budget, however, has decreased to Rs10 billion compared to the previous year’s Rs16 billion.

The education department has gotten a massive 31 per cent of the government’s total non-development expenditure in the new fiscal year, as claimed by the CM in his speech, but the official documents reveal the figure is only 25.9 per cent. Only seven per cent will be spent on development.

The projects include Rs15 billion for different elementary, primary and secondary education schemes and Rs5billion for universities.

Balochistan

The Balochistan government has raised its education budget, setting aside Rs28 billion after having marked Rs25 billion for the previous year. The Rs 28 billion allocation represents 13 per cent of the total outlay of Rs215 billion and a 14.49 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

Rs11 billion have been earmarked for development budget of the province which include establishment of two universities and 14 new colleges, and up gradation of 200 primary schools to middle schools.

Alif Ailaan Campaign Director Mosharraf Zaidi said constant increases in teachers’ salaries without the establishment of a framework to ensure that teachers provide a quality learning experience for children shows, “We don’t take education and education budgets seriously”.

Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (ISAPS) Researcher Ahmad Ali commented that given the government-estimated inflation rate of 8.1 per cent, the education budget is decreasing year-by-year, but an encouraging aspect is that governments are at least taking education seriously and consider it an issue.

Pakistan ranks dead last in the South Asian region in terms of public expenditure on education — 2 per cent.

Province vs province

Comparison of education allocation

Entity	2013-14	2014-15	% of total budget
Federal	80	86	2.17
KP	73	111	27
Punjab	182	273	26
Sindh	134	145	21
Balochistan	25	28	13
Total	494	554	5.61

 

Rs in billions

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2014.