March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

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PESHAWAR, March 8: The NWFP government’s decision to provide free education up to matric level involves annual financial implications of about Rs55 million as the move is set to affect the already meagre resource base of the province, official sources told Dawn.

The NWFP government recently announced that it would provide free education up to matric in an attempt to fulfil one of its election promises.

However, interviews with senior officers of the education department revealed that students would get only a slight relief as only their tuition and admission fee would be waived under the decision.

According to figures collected from a concerned agency of the provincial government, students in grade six to eight would get the benefit of Rs80 per annum, including tuition fee of Rs72 and admission fee of Rs8.

In contrast, students of the 9th and 10th grades would get financial benefit of Rs104, including annual tuition fee of Rs96 and annual admission fee of Rs8.

“That would hardly benefit even a poor family in view of the increasing cost of living and ever-increasing price-hike, but it would certainly cast a negative impact on the provincial resources, reducing the poor revenue base the successive provincial governments tried to improve,” said the sources.

The students of grade six to ten would continue to pay Rs58 per annum under the head of medical fund, examination fee, poor fund, sports fund and Red Crescent fund.

A high-ranking official of the education department said that contrary to the provincial government’s announced move of making education free up to the matric level, the 10th grade students would continue to pay their annual examination fee — required to be paid to the Board(s) of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Students of humanities group would continue to individually pay slightly over Rs400 examination fee, while science students would approximately Rs475.

The sources said that the education department had recently carried out an exercise to know the financial implication of the decision.

The move has been estimated to cost the province between Rs55 million and Rs 60 million every year. The decision, said the senior government functionaries, was likely to be implemented during the current financial year.

However, they said, if the decision was implemented during the ongoing fiscal year, then it would make it impossible for the provincial government to collect the revenue the provincial finance managers had anticipated to raise during the financial year through different types of receipts collected by the education department.