KARACHI: Major chunk of education funds to be spent on administration
By Hasan Mansoor
KARACHI, June 15: More than half of the Rs14.55 billion revenue budget for education in Sindh will go towards the funding for the administration while the tertiary sector will receive a hefty amount and the vital primary education just a trifling.
The total education budget for the province has been put at Rs14.556 billion which is 22.65 per cent more than the current fiscal’s revised estimates, which remained at Rs11.867 billion.
The officials had originally estimated Rs12,736,425,000 for fiscal year 2006-07 and revised it to Rs11,867,859,200 in the budget document for the year 2007-08.
In 2006-07, around 60 per cent of the total revenue budget (Rs7,116,852,600) was pumped into the administration expenditures.
For the next fiscal year, a total of Rs8,240,916,500 have been allocated for the administrative expenditures totaling some 56.6 per cent of the total budgetary allocations.
A peltry sum of Rs53.52 million has been allocated for the next year’s estimates for pre-primary and primary education and affairs, Rs2.5 million more than the current year’s estimates which remained Rs51.01 million.
A hefty amount of Rs4,569,442,500 (31.4 per cent of the total allocation) has been allocated for tertiary education affairs and services, which is Rs1.04 billion (29.7 per cent) more than the last year’s revised estimates of Rs3,523,161,400. Originally, Rs4,284,674,200 had allocated in the budget estimates for the year 2006-07.
For college education, Rs1,294 million and Rs1,116 million have been allocated for Karachi and Hyderabad districts respectively.
Under the heads of grants/subsidies and write-off loans, Rs225m has been allocated for the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and Rs421m for the Dow University of Health Sciences. A sum of Rs126m will go to the Nawabshah Medical College, Rs184m to the Chandka Medical College Larkana and Rs62m to the Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Institute of Psychiatry.
