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| February 20, 2002 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 7, 1422 |
Private educational institutes earning 50 per cent profit: study
ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: Around 36,096 private educational institutions in Pakistan earn around Rs22 billion every year, with one of the highest profitability ratio of around 50 per cent.
Still, they have a combined contribution of around 6.09 per cent in Pakistan’s professional, technical and vocational education, a census report of statistics division reveals. With a profitability ratio of 40 per cent, oil and gas sector is considered one of the top businesses.
The report, first of its kind in Pakistan that covers private education system and published in 2001, has found that these institutes contribute around 0.66 per cent of gross domestic product (factor cost), far higher than 0.49 per cent projected for 1999-2000. The improved estimate of 0.66 per cent will now be used as a benchmark for estimating the GDP in future.
Of the total 36,096 private institutes, 64 per cent institutes are registered, 3.4 per cent are recognised, while the remaining are non-registered or affiliated.
Only 1,505 institutes, or 4.17 per cent, impart vocational education, followed by 433, or 1.19 per cent, under-graduate professional and technical education and 265, or 0.73 per cent, graduate or post-graduate professional and technical education.
Most of the private institutes, i.e. 33,893, or 94 per cent, provide general education to the young generation. As many as 304,166 teachers are available in 36,096 educational institutes at an average of eight teachers per school. Overall, 29 per cent male and 71 per cent female teaching staff is working in the private sector.
The census report reveals that a majority of the teachers in the private sector is untrained. In the primary section, 66.86 per cent out of 75,924 teachers are untrained, followed by 63.09 per cent untrained staff in middle section and 58.27 per cent in high section. Around 15 per cent teachers are matriculate.
While there is no authentic information available on income, estimated average receipt amounts to Rs609,000 against an expenditure of Rs329,000. This estimate shows that there is around 50 per cent profit being earned by the private institutions.
Total expenditure during an academic years is recorded at Rs12 billion. Major expenditure of 57 per cent is incurred on pay and allowances, 11.1 per cent on non-teaching staff, 1.4 per cent on repair and maintenance, 2.09 per cent on purchase of store and stationary, 1.5 per cent on travelling, 6.6 per cent on utilities, 9.8 per cent on rent of building and 6.9 per cent on miscellaneous items.
Primary, middle, secondary, higher secondary, FA/FSc, BA/BSc, MA/MSc, M.Phil, Ph.D, O level and A level are defined as general education. Disciplines like commerce, certificates and diplomas in technical education, homeopathic, Tib, Hikmat, textile, agriculture, law and home economics are referred to as technical education. Similarly, industrial arts, para-medical, management, computers, education and home science are treated as vocational education.
Of the total, 66.4 per cent (23,963) educational institutes are in Punjab, 18 per cent (6,457) in Sindh, 12.3 per cent (4,457) in the NWFP, 1.5 per cent (525) in Balochistan, 0.9 per cent (338) in Fata and 1 per cent (362) in Islamabad.
Overall 39 per cent (14,092) total institutes are in rural areas while 61 per cent (22,004) in urban areas. In all the provinces, most of the institutions lie in urban areas except in the NWFP and Fata. In the NWFP, 58.9 per cent institutes are in rural areas while 41.1 per cent in urban areas while 100 per cent institutes in Fata are in rural areas.
In Punjab, 57.9 per cent institutes are situated in urban and 42.1 per cent in rural areas. In Sindh, 88.8 per cent and 11.2 per cent institutes are in urban and rural areas, respectively. The NWFP has 58.9 per cent institutes in rural and 41.1 per cent in urban areas. Similarly, Balochistan has 71.8 per cent institutes in urban and 28.2 per cent in rural areas. In Islamabad, 51.7 per cent institutes are in urban and 48.3 per cent in rural areas.
Examining the sources of income of these institutes, the statistics division has found that 58 per cent source of income is tuition fee and 28 per cent admission fee. Donations contribute around 9 per cent and other sources 5 per cent.
The report notes that the heads of educational institutions were reluctant to supply the information regarding expenditure, investment and receipts due to fear of tax imposition. Despite repeated clarifications that individual data will be kept confidential and that only aggregate data will be used for official purposes, some of the respondents did not supply the information.
Interestingly, there is no information regarding qualification of teaching staff other than general education institutions. Accordingly, information on training of technical teaching staff is also not available.
The census results indicate that total enrolment throughout the country was 6.089 million. Of this, enrolment in Punjab stood at 3.755 million, followed by 1.39 million in Sindh, 708,000 in the NWFP, 109,000 in Balochistan, 72,000 in Fata and around 55,000 in Islamabad.
Enrolment in under-graduate professional and technical institutes was at 0.95 per cent, graduate and post-graduate professional enrolment at 1.1 per cent and 2.09 per cent in vocational education. In general education, around 96 per cent students enrolled while around 4 per cent students are obtaining technical or vocational education.
Region-wise enrolment indicates very interesting picture. Islamabad has the highest enrolment of 17.5 per cent in technical education followed by Balochistan with 10.5 per cent technical education enrolment.
Fata has the lowest enrolment in technical education with 2 per cent, followed by Punjab with 3.3 per cent, the NWFP with 5 per cent and Sindh with 5.3 per cent. A total of 28,811 institutes (79.8 per cent) are owned by individuals, 2,580 (7.2 per cent) by NGOs, 1,134 (3.1 per cent) by trusts and 746 (2.2 per cent) by foundations.
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