KARACHI: Education dept wants 20pc increase in allocation
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 9: The provincial education department wants 20 per cent increase in the existing government allocation for free supply of textbooks, scholarships for students and school management committee funds.
A source in the education department said that high ups of the education department met the senior officials of finance department. They pleaded for increase in the existing budgetary allocations for the purpose of free supply of textbooks to students of Class-I to Class-VIII, monthly scholarship to the girl students of Class-VI to VIII, capacity building training of staff and funding to school management committees.
The department has especially requested for raising the said allocations of funds, which did not come under the heads of annual development programmes or salary component, from Rs1,000 million to Rs1,200 million for 2003-2004, added the source.
In its last budget, the government had announced allocation of Rs600 million for free distribution of primary school textbooks and for award of monthly scholarships to girl students of middle schools. Out of Rs350 million for primary school books, about Rs220 million could be spent this year, said an official of the department.
It was learnt that now the department wanted to broaden the scope of free distribution of books and was considering a distribution of books to each and every student of Class-I to VIII at government schools without involving any foreign funding.
For the first time, the education department under Decentralized Elementary Education Project (DEEP) started distributing books free to the students of Class-VI, VII and VIII in May. The DEEP has many educational components spread over a period of six years with a total cost of US 100 million dollars, funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Another source in the department said that since the fund allocated for primary school books was underutilized, it would be appropriate if government resorted to add some more amount to the left over fund to provide books to every student of Class-I to VIII free of cost.
“It does not make sense that you borrow any amount from foreign bank and use that for free distribution of books or scholarships,” maintained the source, adding that the amount available under DEEP could be reappropriated for construction at shelterless schools.
In the meantime, it was learnt that finance department released Rs276 million, which was only 50 per cent of the total allocations meant for distribution of scholarships to the middle school girls at the rate of Rs1,000 each during the ongoing fiscal year. However, the total amount of scholarship too could not be passed on to students till the last month in many districts of the province, added the source.
