Education budget slashed

Stakeholders are criticizing the government for not giving education its due and claiming that the government has ignored the sector in the upcoming 2011-12 budget as well. Teacher unions, educationists, parents and students are demanding that the government allocate six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the education sector in the budget to be announced in June. They say that the purposed budget reflects that education is no more the government’s top priority. They say that the government has deprived students of education and just being promoting the private sector. The authorities have recommended the budgets for the Schools Education Department (SED), Higher Education Department (HED) and Higher Education Commissions (HEC) and according to the educationists, the commission and the departments are not happy with their budgets.
SED’S BUDGET: An allocation of Rs 14 billion has been recommended for SED under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2011-2012. The Punjab government has announced various developmental programs for the schools, which include the construction of 1,000 science labs and 1,000 computer labs at elementary schools and the up-gradation of 1,000 schools with missing facilities to model schools.
Punjab Teachers Unions President Allah Rakha Gujjar said the government was not sincere with SED and demanded that around six percent of the GDP should be allocated to education. He said that schools across the province were suffering and the dropout ratio was increasing owing to the government’s negligence. An SED official said that the department’s budget had decreased this year, as compared to the previous year’s allocation, which was Rs 23.1 billion.
HED’S BUDGET: An allocation of Rs 5 billion has been recommended for HED this year. The allocation, it is learnt, will be revised and more funds would be made available for the province’s colleges and for higher education. The department was allotted Rs 6.3 billion last year. Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) President Dr Zahid Hussain Sheikh said the recommended amount was not enough to meet the requirements of 468 colleges of the province. He said that government was playing with the youth’s futures and the budget showed that the government was planning to privatize colleges of the province by starting a four-year BS honours program. He said that there were various issues at higher education level and lecturers were lamenting their poor condition but the government was not considering the situation.
HEC’S BUDGET: The federal government has a plan to allocate Rs 13.5 billion for the HEC on the development side in the upcoming budget. This amount is Rs 2 billion less than what was allocated last year. This year the government has planned to spend this budget on various developmental schemes including the construction of new universities. An HEC official, seeking anonymity, said that the government was not sincere with HEC and had earmarked Rs 15.7 billion last year but later reduced it to Rs 14.6 billion. He said that this year, the HEC had proposed Rs 16.5 billion but the federal government had agreed to allocate only Rs 13.5 billion. He said that Pakistani students in foreign countries were suffering owing to a lack of funds and various projects in the public sector universities were being disturbed. He demanded that the government allocate five percent of the GDP to the higher education sector.