Usman Qureshi- Education Office Islamabad, USAID/Pakistan (July 7, 2014)

Budget 2014-15: Whats in there for Education?

Over the last few decades, all the ruling governments in Pakistan have been unable to substantially
increase national education budget to a level that Pakistan has agreed upon in education For All (EFA),
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and other international commitments; despite of innumerable
pre and post-election avowed intents. The national allocation and spending on education might have
fractionally increased on an occasion or two but Pakistan is still far from competing with its neighboring
countries that have allocated and spent at least 3% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education.
In south Asian regions Pakistan is at the bottom of the list in terms of its expenditures on education
1
. In
year 2012, Pakistans expenditure on Education as percentage of the GDP was 2.1%
2
only according to
the government estimates -independent sources state even less- considerably less than what it spent on
military the same year i.e. 3.5%
3
.
In last 25 years though military spending have significantly gone down from 7.3% in 1988 to 3.5% in
2012
4
but its unfortunate to mention that the spending on education has been hovering around 2.1%
of GDP from 1980 to 2012
5
. With this trend Pakistan is likely to fall short of touching 4% even after
hundred years which by any means is a threat to its national development and existence in a near
future, especially while having fast growing economies around in the region.


1
Human Development Report 2013/14
2
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
3
The World Bank Data
4
The World Bank Data
5 The World Bank Data
Pakistan Federal KP Punjab Sindh Balochistan
2.1%
0.3% 0.3%
0.7%
0.5%
0.1%
2.3%
0.3%
0.5%
1.1%
0.5%
0.1%
Education Budget Allocation
% of GDP
2013-14
2014-15
Education budget allocation as % of GDP across all provinces
Usman Qureshi- Education Office Islamabad, USAID/Pakistan (July 7, 2014)
Having that picture in mind, whats in there for education in the recent budget announcement is
everybodys question in the education sector and for the people who hold it close to their hearts and for
those who think that the means to their national development and economic growth is only the
education?
A close analysis of the 2014-15 Education budget at federal level and across all provinces, though,
reflects a positive picture of what has been allocated to the Education sector, with a few exceptions, but
analysts still believe that this is far less than what Pakistan needs to address major problems prevailing
in the education sector; out of school children, ghost schools, drop outs, qualified teachers,
accountability, system stability, infrastructure, technology, access and the list goes on.

For the ruling governments across Pakistan the questions isnt merely about allocating enough but also
spending enough to get the desired results. Major share of government expenditure on education is
expended on salaries and other recurring expenses while very little is often left to even think about
development.

After 18
th
amendment in 2009 the federal governments roles in Education has reduced to minimum
which has given the provinces an opportunity to outperform each other in different sectors and develop
a healthy competition amongst themselves; the following graph shows a head to head competition
between the provinces.
This year, the Federal government though has allocated only 2.2% of their budget to Education but their
budget has jumped up from 80 billion last year to 86 billion this year. Overall the federal and provincial
budget allocation also has increased from 504 billion in 2013 to 554 billion this year which is positive and
Federal , 8%
KP, 52%
Punjab, 50%
Sindh, 8%
Balochistan, 12%
Education Budget Allocation 2014-15
% change from last year
% change in education budget allocation across provinces

Usman Qureshi- Education Office Islamabad, USAID/Pakistan (July 7, 2014)
suggests that its headed in the right direction but with a sloths pace. It should also be kept in mind that
with the increase of inflation rates every year this increase in education budget cant be considered a
real increase simply because the rate of increase between the two variable (inflation and allocation) are
pols apart. The recurring expenses keep increasing every year and a lack of a proper framework leaves
the government with limited options to increase their development budget.
Recent budgetary allocation in all the provinces amounts to 468 billion which is 10% higher than last
years allocations. In terms of total budget volume Punjab leads by a huge margin. It has allocated 273
billion whereas Sindh 145, KP 111 and Balochistan has allocated 29 billion in their budget to education
which is respectively 26%, 21%, 27% and 15% of their provincial budgets.


Provincial Picture
6
:
Punjab:
The province has set aside 48 billion for development whereas major portion of allocation is
intended for current expenditures i.e. 225 billion
The development budget includes 28 billion for school education, 14 billion for higher education
and 2.4 billion for literacy.
In terms of budget consumption last year Punjab is ahead again as it expended 85% of their
education budget
Punjab government increased their education budget by 50% as compared last year

6
Through Provincial Budget White Papers 2014/15
9%
2%
27%
26%
21%
13%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
Pakistan Federal KP Punjab Sindh Balochistan
Education Budget Allocation 2014-15
% of total budget
Education budget allocation as % of total budget across all provinces

Usman Qureshi- Education Office Islamabad, USAID/Pakistan (July 7, 2014)
Sindh:
Sindh has earmarked 145 billion for education this year
The development budget has reduced by 37% in the current fiscal year
7% of the allocated budget is set aside for development purposes
15 billion is set aside for elementary, primary and secondary education schemes
5 billion is to be spent on university education

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa:
It is worth mentioning that KP, the disaster prone and considerably shaken province, has
allocated the most to the Education from their total budget i.e. 27%
14 billion, the same as previous year, has been set aside for development while 87% is expected
to go to current expenditures
Despite declaring education emergency last year KP government consumed only 15% of their
education budget
240 million for promoting girls education, 2 billion for additional classroom and renovation, 500
million for Universities and 2 billion has been set aside to provide free books to the students
nursery till higher secondary level
1.75 billion has also been kept for improving the standards of education in Madrasahs
Balochistan:
29 billion out of 215 billion is allocated to education with 15% increase from the last years budget
11 billion, same as of last year, has been set aside for development purposes
Development budget aims to establish two universities, 14 colleges and infrastructural
improvements in primary and middle schools
250 million of free text books for establishing classroom libraries
74% of the development budget is set aside for secondary education while 26% for university
education
Knowing the types of problems Pakistan education system is dealing with and the available resources
there is a need to call a country wide education emergency and deal with it on a war footing. There are a
number of measures that the federal and provincial governments could take to deal with the situation in
the education sector if they were to meet their education as well as economic goals and above all to
uproot terrorism from every inch of its territory:
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/14 states that In Pakistan, tax revenue is just 10% of GDP &
education receives only around 10% of government expenditure. By increasing tax revenue to 14% and
allocating one-fifth of this to education, it could raise sufficient funds to get all of Pakistans children and
adolescents into school.
Usman Qureshi- Education Office Islamabad, USAID/Pakistan (July 7, 2014)
Imaging the change Pakistan can bring if the governments can start collecting 100% of the tax revenues
from everyone, indiscriminately, and from whosoever holds a green passport.
The same report also highlights the fact that according to Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue estimates
only 0.57% of Pakistanis just 768,000 individuals paid income tax in 2012; another important reason
for the low amount spent on education in Pakistan.
The Education situation can also be improved in the country by improving institutional capacity and
appointing right people in the sector who are willing to spend the budget on the portfolio it is allocated
to. Punjab is the only provincial government that consumed 85% of its education budget last year and
KP with 15% only is at the bottom, as already mentioned. The very fact asks the governments to be
brave enough to first chalk out a uniform national education strategic plan for next 15-20 years while
taking all the stakeholders, political parties and civil societies on board and then fully spending the
allocated amount to yield the desired results.


Note: All amounts are in Pak Rupees