What priority?

While our prime minister boasted of his government’s priority for education at the recently held Oslo summit, the facts totally belie his claims. The education sector has a meagre share of Rs7,568.124 million or 1.081 percent of the total proposed PSDP of Rs700,000 million for the FY2015-16. According to the breakdown: federal education and special training has an allocation of Rs2,207 million, primarily to finance ongoing projects whereas only Rs65 million have been reserved for new schemes. In addition, Rs229 million are allocated under the Finance Division for teachers’ capacity-building. The HEC budget is Rs4,577 for new schemes out of Rs20,500 million. Another allocation of Rs555.124 is earmarked for education in the Islamabad region out of which Rs245 million is for introducing new schemes this year.
Somehow development to our PM remains limited to constructing motorways and highways because the lion’s share of funds goes to the infrastructure sector. Another crucially important sector is science & technology which gets only Rs20 million for new projects out of the total allocation of Rs1,060.427 million. Funds allocation for the health sector is not better either. How do our governments set their priorities and for the benefit of whom?
Hussain Siddiqui
Islamabad