Expenditure on education and the economic problems of Pakistan – Daily Minute Mirror

The Federal Budget 2022-2023 is envisaged at Rs. 12,400 billion out of which Current expenditures will be Rs. 11,400 trillion out of which Rs. 530 billion (4.65%) would be spent on civil pensions and another 8.65% on military pension, a total of 13.3% of the budget on pensions, or on that part of the ‘past’ population that are not productive anymore and Rs. 90 billion (0.8%) on education, or on the productivity of our future generation that have to, in the future, contribute to the productivity of the economy and the GDP growth rates in different employments and self-employments in the country.

On the Enrolment side, According to Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-2022, 25.7 million children were enrolled in Primary classes (I-V). Out of these 11.7 million (45.5%) were girls. It is interesting to note that only 8.25 million went up to the next level (Middle stage of VI-VIII classes), out of which 3.8 million (46.0%) were girls and only 2.5 million passed their metric (class X) and reached Inter level, out of which 1.3 million (52%) were girls.  In other world out of a total of 25.7 million children enrolled in primary classes only 2.5 million reached metric levels, or more than 23 million children (45% girls) drop out of the mainstream educational system due to various reasons. The data for universities show that a total of 2 million students were admitted to the universities of Pakistan, out of which 0.84 million (42.0%) were females.

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Total current expenditures of Punjab government in 2022-2023 will be Rs. 1,712 billion, out of which Punjab will spend Rs. 88.6 billion on education and the development expenditure will be Rs. 685 billion, out of which Punjab government will spend Rs. 48.5 billion on education, Or at total of Rs. 137.1 billion (5.7%) on education from a total Punjab budget of Rs. 2397 billion.

Total current expenditures of Sidh government in 2022-2023 will be Rs. 1,200 billion, out of which Sindh will spend Rs. 297 billion on education and the development expenditure will be Rs. 460 billion, out of which Sindh government will spend Rs. 38 billion on education, Or at total of Rs. 335 billion (20%) on education from a total Sindh budget of Rs. 1,660 billion.

Total current expenditures of KPK government in 2022-2023 will be Rs. 872.54 billion, out of which KPK will spend Rs. 56.7 billion on education and the development expenditure will be Rs. 418.2 billion, out of which KPK government will spend Rs. 8.63 billion on education, Or at total of Rs. 65.33 billion (5.9%) on education from a total KPK budget of Rs. 1,291 billion.

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Total current expenditures of Baluchistan government in 2022-2023 will be Rs. 343 billion, and the development expenditure will be Rs. 246 billion, or a total Baluchistan budget of Rs. 613 billion. The details on education spendings are as yet not available.

Total expenditure on education by all Federal and provincial governments in Pakistan (except Baluchistan) in 2022-2023 would be Rs. 627.43 billion. Fedel government will spend 4.65%, Punjab – 5.7%, KPK – 5.9% and Sindh – 20% of their respective budgets on the education of their children. It seems Government of Sindh is more concerned about education of its future generations than any other government in Pakistan.

Almost 70% of the educational institutions in Pakistan are in the public sector and 30% are in the private sector (Hussain, 2015). Also, there are madrassas teaching only Quran based religious education, upper end private schools teaching in English and catering for O & A levies Cambridge exams, government schools teaching in Urdu or reginal languages and catering for metric exams and vocational institutes for a few hundred thousand poor children catering for the industry through skill certifications. Other major issues in the Education System of Pakistan are: unqualified or untrained in modern teaching methodologies teachers, substandard textbooks, and outmoded teaching methodologies, also as most of these schools lack building, infrastructural, toilet facilities, transport etc. therefore dropout ratio in these schools is very high.

Some recent key facts on Education in Punjab Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic were that 22.8 million children of school-going age in Pakistan were not in schools. The majority of these out of-school children are girls. According to conservative estimates by the World Bank, at least one million more Pakistani children in addition to previous 22.8 million are likely to drop out of school by the end of the pandemic.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of statistics (PSLM 2019-20), 16% urban while 28% rural children of Punjab are still Out of School whereas percentage of out of school children is increasing Rajanpur is the least performing district where school attendance is only 40%.  Pakistani children currently spend 9.1 years in school on average, but they only accumulate 5.1 years of learning due to low quality of the school system. The simulations suggest that this number could fall to between 4.8 and 4.3 years by the time schools have fully reopened after COVID-19.

It is also feared by specialists and educationalists, that because of recent price hike in petrol, many of the lower middle-class parents in urban and rural areas would not be able to send their children to school after the summer vacations and usually the axe falls on the girls. Also Punjab assembly and the cabinet has still failed to enforce free education bill, that is lying with the governor and both PTI and PMLN governments have failed to give a timeline for its enforcement.

Education is key to making a person capable in expressing his or her individual choices and becoming empowered towards economic and political decision making in their household, community and the country. Education not only enhances intellectual capabilities of a person, but also if proper training is given, enhances their skills, productivity and income earning capabilities. In Pakistan, education has been on a lower step in the priority list of the policy makers.

Education is key to making a person capable in expressing his or her individual choices and becoming empowered towards economic and political decision making in their household, community and the country. Education should give a person a world vision, scientific thought process, and better employment or business opportunities as enhanced choices. All education and teaching should give productivity & creativity to students; Communication skills and IT skills to students, Scientific knowledge and Analytic skills to the students, Team Work & leadership skills, and Citizenship Behaviors that cater for human rights, legal environment and protecting of natural & man-made assets of the country. The question can be asked what is going to happen to these 30% to 60% youth (almost 110 million) that are either illiterate, or have very little schooling, or do not have access to the modern productive techniques and work habits required for the next 80 years of the 21st Century.

Pakistan policy makers should realize that the basics of present economic crisis is that its labor force, especially its youth is not productive or innovative, and if the situation remains that they cannot contribute substantially to our GDP both as investors or labor, than whatever the policies, Pakistan cannot come out of its present predicaments and we as a nation would carry on depending on foreign ‘aid’ rather than standing on our own two feet’s and depend on our youth to produce, earn an income and become exportable in terms of goods and services.

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