“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.
~Benjamin Franklin
Over the past few years, governors, policymakers and other elected officials are having to cut education spending due to immense budget deficits. Within Pakistan, Balochistan comprises 44% of land and only 5% of the total population. The indicators including weak development, low literacy rates and huge poverty levels, making Balochistan different from the rest of the province The government has been struggling for the last six years to endorse education but it still stands behind the other provinces.
The educational system in Balochistan is categorized by low primary school enrollment, lack of access to secondary education, a shortage of middle and secondary schools, inadequate access to female education, high dropouts and high gender disparity. From primary level of education to middle school education, the transition rate from primary to middle levels is only 23%.
The aggregate projected budget of Balochistan is Rs198.395 billion including 23.22% expressively for education. An amount of Rs5 billion has been distributed for the establishment of the Balochistan Education and the majority of this fund will be for infrastructure development. In addition, Rs324.884 million has been allocated for the establishment of facilities to schools and colleges. Rs400 million has been budgeted for furniture and scientific tools to schools, Rs750 million for renovation of schools and Rs500 million for the Chief Minister Endowment Fund. The budget also allocated Rs750 million for the upgrade of 200 primary schools to middle schools, and Rs425 million for upgrading 50 middle schools to high schools. Moreover, the education budget for the fiscal year 2014-2015 is 16% more than last year’s budget.
Budget against Education in Balochistan:
Challenges are faced by Balochistan in the areas of access to primary education to its population. Slow growth in enrollments, low survival and transition rates from one class to another class and higher gender disparity mean a large number of children are out of school. The drift shows that Budget for Education of Balochistan in 2014 was decreased from 23.9 Mn PKR to 22.4Mn PKR but the education score, enrollment score, achievement score and survival score improved, and we can also observe a minor decrease in gender parity as compared to year 2013. Therefore, we can say that budget plays a less bigger role to improve education in a region like Balochistan. However, its management and circulation is significant for progress.
Budget against Education in KPK:
The graph shows that the KPK Budget was increased to 42 Mn PKR in 2014 from 12.3 Mn. This is almost a threefold increase from 2013 and we can observe significant changes. However, the overall education score has slightly dropped.
Does Money Matter in Education?:
On average, aggregate measures of per-pupil spending are positively allied with upgraded student outcomes. The schooling resources which cost money, including class size reduction or higher teacher salaries, are positively related with student outcomes. Continued improvements to the level and distribution of budgets across local public school districts can lead to progresses in the level and distribution of student outcomes. Money alone may not be the answer, more equitable and adequate allocation of financial inputs to schooling provides a necessary underlying condition for improving the equity and adequacy of outcomes. Therefore, increase or decrease in budgets have no effect in an educational system but must be spent wisely to yield benefits.
The Balochistan government should mend the governance and quality of service delivery predominantly in the education sector. Monitoring and evaluating the quality of education and gender equality must be an integral part of an overall strategy of the provincial Education Sector.
Gender participation should be enhanced by providing the prospects for girl’s education and female teachers may be employed for primary schools. Manifold approaches of service delivery such as community supported schools, public-private partnerships and evening classes for school education in existing buildings may be started at those places where education facilities are not accessible. Provincial budget allocation for education, principally for development, may possibly be improved and feasible strategy should be developed for viable support from donors to progress.
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