ISLAMABAD: Although a federal budget of Rs3,985 billion was announced for the financial year 2013-14, only Rs80 billion was allocated for education. The government has been spending only 1.9 per cent of GDP on education, due to which Pakistan is ranked 177 in terms of education spending. Literacy rate of the country is only 58 per cent, which is 30 per cent short of the 2015 target.

These were the key notes of the report on “Public Financing of Education in Pakistan” launched by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) in collaboration with Alif Ailaan and Department for International Development (DFID) at a local restaurant, on Thursday.

Report also says that the Ministry of Finance does not release all the funds allocated for education in the budget, because education sector is not its priority.

More interestingly, the government of Sindh has been spending Rs 5 billion from education budget on training of Lady Health Workers.

Report also mentions that the provinces have been spending huge amount of their budget on education; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spends 29 per cent, Balochistan 18 per cent, Sindh 23 per cent and Punjab spends 26 per cent of its budget on education.

“If government wants to spend 4 per cent of GDP on education, it has to allocate funds from federal budget,” report says.

Education researcher, Ahmed Ali, while briefing about the report said that still huge amount is being allocated as ‘Block Grant’ in all four provinces which should be minimized.

It is pertinent to mention that block grant is a discretionary fund, which remains at the disposal of heads of ministries and provinces. This grant can be spent without any accountability.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, Prof Ahsan Iqbal, said that Pakistan is ranked at the very low in terms of education spending, though it falls among the middle income countries in the world.

The minister said that transparency in public financing of education was a key component to make available financing effective in terms of outcomes. He regretted that the respective provincial governments had stopped investing in the teachers’ training and it was being looked after by the donors.

Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly, Shehla Raza, said that Sindh has allocated 200 per cent more education budget as compare to last year.

“Sindh generates 20 percent resources and gets 80 per cent from federal government. We are not getting due share from federal government due to which issued are increasing,” she said.

While talking on “Balochistan Education Financing: Insights from Balochistan”, Mr. Ghulam Ali Baloch, Secretary Education Balochistan said that Education Sector Plan had been approved by the cabinet and will be presented to the provincial assembly for final approval.

Campaign Director Alif Ailaan, Mosharraf Zaidi, said that the manner, in which Pakistani taxpayers’ money was spent, forms a vital part of our democratic process. This report opens up a new critical dimension in that process by shinning a light on the public financing of education.