PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday claimed a significant increase in the education budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 to address out-of-school children, improve literacy rate and upgrade infrastructure at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
The budget was presented by Provincial Minister for Law, Human Rights and Minority Affairs, Aftab Alam, during the budget-session of the KP Assembly on Friday.For primary and secondary education, the government has claimed to have increased the budget from Rs 327 billion last year to Rs363 billion for the next fiscal year, which records an increase of 11 percent.
Certain other claims were made in the budget speech by the provincial minister, saying that a comprehensive set of reforms and investments have been outlined in the budgets which are aimed at tackling long-standing educational challenges.
Elaborating on the key initiatives for school education, the minister said an Education Emergency has been declared to enhance literacy and reduce the number of out-of-school children in the province for which funds amounting to Rs5 billion have been earmarked.
A total of Rs5.9 billion has been previously allocated for improvement of basic facilities in 32,500 government schools, including the provision of teaching materials, classroom maintenance and promotion of extracurricular activities such as sports and school events, he said.
He further said that funds1,593 Girl Community School teachers will benefit from dedicated funding of Rs1593 million. A significant amount of Rs8,545 million has been allocated to provide free textbooks to students across the province, he said.
An iconic project worth Rs3 billion has been announced for the construction of a Girls Cadet College in Dera Ismail Khan to enhance girls’ access to quality education.Protection and reconstruction of historical schools would be ensured at a cost of Rs855 million on the protection and restoration of historical schools, preserving KP’s educational heritage. The government has set a target of achieving at least 50 percent enrollment of currently out-of-school children during the fiscal year.
To address temporary teacher shortages, Rs1 billion has been allocated for the recruitment of temporary teachers through Parent-Teacher Councils (PTCs).An additional Rs 36 billion has been allocated for new teacher recruitments in the upcoming year.
The budget for higher education has also been increased from Rs50 billion to Rs60 billion, with 20 percent amounting to Rs10 billion rise from the corresponding year. Funds amounting Rs5 billion have been allocated for construction of new colleges to meet growing demand for post-secondary education.
A sum of Rs3.5 billion has been allocated for conversion of existing public colleges into Applied Science and Technology Centers to equip students with modern, job-oriented skills.Similarly, Rs2.772 billion will be spent on expanding and upgrading various educational projects, while an additional Rs1.24 billion has been injected into the Scholarship and Endowment Fund to support talented students in higher education.A new program has also been launched to provide free education to female students in public colleges in order to remove financial barriers for young women seeking higher education.