Call for effective spending of public education, health budgets

A charity leader has urged civil society organisations to initiate a proper lobbying effort to ensure that billions of rupees reserved annually by federal and provincial governments as public education and health budgets are spent effectively and transparently to turn around the destiny of millions of people from deprived communities.

Zahid Saeed, CEO of the non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT), said this while speaking as the guest of honour at the Youth Excellence Awards-2024 organised by the NGO Youth Impact to honour and recognise distinguished youth and charity leaders in Pakistan.

Saeed said federal and provincial governments in the country allocate billions of rupees every year to run the public education and health systems, but owing to a sheer lack of accountability and efficiency, underprivileged families do not get much benefit from such massive budgetary spending.

He said proper research conducted by his non-profit has proved that the education budgets of the federal, provincial and regional governments, when combined, are almost the same as the country’s defence budget.

He lamented that despite such a massive allocation of funds, the issue of out-of-school children is nowhere near resolution, but instead, it has been worsening. The government cannot enrol around 26 million out-of-school children in the country, he added.

Highlighting the role of sincere and bona fide charities in educating illiterate children in the country, he told the audience that the GCT had started its journey 30 years ago with just one charitable school in a remote area of District West. He said the GCT now runs a network of 170 charitable schools in remote and deprived areas of Sindh, having an enrolment of over 33,000 students from deprived families.

“Some 46 per cent of our students are girls, and many of them, after completing their schooling, join us as teachers and school principals in the next eight to 10 years to further our cause.”

He expressed gratitude to the donors and philanthropists whose overwhelming support has been helping the GCT continue its fight against illiteracy in the province.

He pointed out that his non-profit launches schools in such neglected areas where there has been no prior schooling facility either by the government or the private sector.

“During the course of our journey, we have busted two myths: firstly, we always get complete support from the local feudal lords for opening schools in their villages, and secondly, the deprived communities in Sindh never discourage their girls from getting an education.”

In his concluding remarks, Indus Hospital & Health Network founder Dr Abdul Bari Khan appreciated the exceptional philanthropic and charitable support extended whenever the country faces any troubling situation, including earthquakes, floods and Covid-19.

Dr Khan said committed charitable institutions have been working shoulder-to-shoulder with the government to extend health, education and livelihood opportunities to deprived families. Representatives of other non-profits, including Alkhidmat Foundation, the Orange Tree Foundation and the Character Education Foundation, also spoke on the occasion.