Education gets Rs383b in budget

LAHORE: The Punjab government has allocated a total budget of Rs383 billion for the education sector, of which Rs336 billion is current budget mostly going to salaries and other related expenditures, while Rs46.9 billion is development budget, to be spent on development of educational institutions across the province under the Annual Development Plan (ADP) 2019-2020.

In terms of percentage of the overall education budget, only 12.2 per cent will be spent on the development side, while the rest will be used for meeting the non-development expenditures. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led coalition government presented the provincial budget on Friday. The development budget for education sector (Rs46.9 billion) is almost 14 per cent of the total development budget of the province, which is Rs350 billion. In the PTI government’s first budget, which was presented for eight months of 2018-19 in October last year, the government had allocated Rs32.8 billion development budget for education. If compared with that, the present development budget (Rs46.9 billion) shows an increase by 43 per cent.

However, if compared with Pakistan Muslim League-N’s 2017-18 development budget for education i.e. Rs81.9 billion, a decrease of 43 per cent is noted. For that fiscal year, the then government had allocated development budget of Rs53.3 billion for school education alone, which was almost Rs6 billion more than the PTI’s total development budget for education this time. In the overall development budget for education, the maximum share Rs32 billion will go to the school education, followed by Rs7.3 billion for higher education. Special education will get one billion rupees, literacy and non-formal basic education Rs2.6 billion, while sports & youth affairs will get Rs4 billion. The government has come up with an ambitious plan of setting up six new universities in the province including the much discussed Baba Guru Nanak University in Punjab’s district Nankana Sahib – the birthplace of founder of the Sikh religion Baba Guru Nanak. Baba Guru Nanak University was first proposed by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) in 2007. However, over the years except for frequent announcements and claims, no concrete measures have been witnessed vis-à-vis the proposed university. In his budget speech on Friday, Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht once again announced the establishment of the university.

Of the total Rs32 billion for school education, Rs2.5 billion will be spent on the ongoing schemes, Rs3.4 billion on the new schemes while Rs26 billion will be spent on other development programme including Rs19.5 billion for new initiatives of the School Education Department for imparting education through Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Rs5 billion for new initiatives of School Education Department for imparting education through outsourcing of public schools through Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA).

In the higher education, out of total Rs7.3 billion, Rs4.5 billion will be spent on the ongoing schemes, Rs2.3 billion on the new schemes while Rs400 million will be spent on other development programme, Punjab Education Endowment Fund, Rs300 million and Punjab Higher Education Commission, Rs100 million.

Out of one billion rupees development budget for special education, Rs582.7 million will be spent on the ongoing schemes while the remaining Rs417.3 million on the new schemes.

As far as the Literacy & Non-Formal Education is concerned, out of total Rs2.6 billion, Rs1.8 billion will be spent on the ongoing schemes while the remaining Rs800 million will be spent on the new schemes.

Out of Rs4 billion development budget for sports & youth affairs, Rs3.15 billion will be spent on the ongoing schemes, while the rest Rs800 million on the new schemes.

In the development budget for school education, the Punjab government allocated Rs1.5 billion for completion of nine ongoing projects of Daanish Schools.

It is pertinent to mention here that the development budget for Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) has been mentioned in the industries, commerce & investment sector, and Rs400 million has been allocated for each.