Education sector - always at the receiving end

Source: Dawn

Date: 24 Sep, 2010

The issue of the lack of funding to the education sector is no secret in this country. Despite repeated proclamations by every incoming government be it a democratically-elected one or a dictatorship – there has been little improvement in the sector. This much is clear from the fact that Pakistan is bracketed with sub-Saharan states region when it comes to education.

 The present government in its new education policy had also announced that it would achieve over 80 per cent literacy by 2015. Though how it reached either the figure or the year remains unexplained. But it is now clear that this was simply rhetoric because since then the government has not even been able to spare a meagerly two per cent of the GDP for the education sector. 

However, the biggest blow came this year to the HEC. The annual budget of a commission that was the cornerstone of General Pervez Musharraf’s education policy kept on increasing every year till 2008 elections rolled in. Since then, the HEC has seen a scaling down of the finances at its disposal; a downward revision was made last year when the budget was reduced from Rs22.5 billion to Rs15 billion for the development of public-sector universities this year. 

View the link: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/islamabad/education-sector-always-at-the-receiving-end-490