Education outlay doubled but peanuts for new projects

Islamabad: As the economy shows signs of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has announced that it will double the education ministry’s development funding in the next fiscal.

However, there are peanuts for new initiatives. According to the 2021-22 Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) documents unveiled on Friday, the ministry, which oversees formal education in Islamabad and spearheads national and international cooperation and coordination on academic evaluation in the post-devolution regime will receive Rs9.7 billion in the upcoming financial year against the outgoing year’s Rs4.53 billion.

Of the outlay, Rs9.09 billion is for the ongoing schemes and Rs612.89 million for the new ones. A hefty amount of Rs5 billion has been fetched by the Prime Minister’s Special Package to Implement Skills for All Strategy’ as Catalyst for TVET Sector Development and Rs1 billion for the Response, Recovery and Resilience Plan for COVID-19 (GPE Grant).

As for the ongoing projects approved for the next fiscal, Rs463.29 million has gone to the renovation and rehabilitation of the physical infrastructure of 200 educational institutions in Islamabad under the Prime Minister’s Education Sector Reform Programme.

The others include the establishment of Islamabad Model College for Boys Margalla Town (Rs333.38 million), Islamabad Model College for Girls G-14/4 (Rs253.21 million), Islamabad Model College for Boys G-13/2 (Rs213.62 million), Directorate General of Religious Education (Rs200 million), Graduate Block in National College of Arts Lahore (Rs150 million), 1,600 scholarships for the students from Indian-occupied Kashmir (Rs146.34 million), Islamabad Model College for Girls G-13/1 (Rs140.27 million), Islamabad Model College for Boys G-15 (Rs118.44 million), National Curriculum Council Secretariat (Rs105.7 million), provision of ‘leftover infrastructure’ to Islamabad Model College for Girls Bhara Kahu (Rs105.33 million), Federal Government College of Home Economics, Management Sciences and Specialised Disciplines F-11/1 (Rs100 million), the pilot project for STEM Teaching Grades 6-8 (Knowledge Economy Initiative) (Rs90.07 million), upgradation of National College of Arts and related facilities (Rs78.66 million), pilot project for blended e-learning in 200x classrooms of federal capital (grades 1–10) (Knowledge Economy Initiative) (Rs70 million), and establishment of Islamabad Model College for Boys Pakistan Town (Rs69.62 million).

The budgetary allocations for new projects in the next fiscal include Rs409 million for the provision of basic educational (missing) facilities in the government educational institutions in Islamabad, Rs106 million for the introduction of four years BS and BEd (Hons) programme at the Federal College of Education H-9 and Rs50 million for Visual Arts Centre of Excellence at the Gilgit-Baltistan-National College of Arts.