BY: SAWAN KHASKHELI
- Despite a heavy budget allocation, education sector remains neglected
The district Badin’s education sector needs the attention of the higher authorities and elected representatives in the upcoming budget as the current budget was unsuccessful in meeting the requirements.
According to a report, in the district, despite the heavy budget allocation, 300 schools remained closed, 56pc children were confirmed to be out-of-school whereas 67pc schools do not have basic water facilities. More than 70pc schools have been running without the electricity and 46pc schools are not equipped with functional toilet facilities and more than 55pc schools run without the protective boundaries.
According to the education budget of year 2016-17, Rs94, 027,000 of the budget were specified for 2676 primary and middle schools of the district which was further broken down into categories, including Rs 7050,007 reserved for the promotion of sports’ activities, Rs23, 506,750 allocated for school materials, Rs4,850,764 reserved for library and laboratories, Rs 16,456,743 fixed for co-curricular activities, Rs 18,655,986 for stationary, and Rs 18,805,400 was reserved for furniture of schools; however, most of the schools were still deprived of many basic facilities.
Moreover, the budget of Rs1, 517,641,000 reserved for primary schools out of which Rs 1,421,245,000 were reserved for staff salaries and Rs 96,396,000 were fixed for non-salary for the present posts of 5942 of district Badin, whereas, the secondary education budget for 1,158 posts was Rs803, 798,000 out of which Rs 34,940,000 was reserved as salary budget and non-salary budget was Rs768, 858,000; however, there was no budget reserved for development.
Unfortunately, in the previous budget, a huge amount was fixed for salaries and non-salaries and a very low budget was reserved for the development work which needs the attention of authorities and elected representatives of the district.
The quality education is a dream of the people of the district and education, whereas, the private schools are demanding high fees. The government needs to prepare a public-friendly budget to ensure quality education.