The Sindh government has allocated at least Rs 7,733 million to boost the education sector in its 2011-12 budget, but recoveries from this sector are minuscule when compared to how much is being spent.
As per the documents circulated by the Finance Department at the budget session, as well as the comments received from officials of various departments, there is a planned 69 percent increase in allocation for the education sector for fiscal year 2011-12, from Rs4,560.50 million in 2010-2011 to the Rs 7,733 million for 2011-2012. International donor agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have also injected millions of rupees in Education.
Despite the heavy investment, returns are considerably low – in terms of both increasing the literacy rate as well as recovering money in terms of tuition fees. The overall revenue collected from the Sindh’s education institutions in 2010 totalled Rs 320 million, sources said, while the government expects Rs 350 million to be recovered this fiscal year. Despite heavy spending being continuously made, the reputation of government-run institutions was declining by the day.
“Sindh has quite a few major universities – the University of Karachi, NED, Sindh University, and Khairpur University, to name a few. Education has now been devolved, but no allocation has been made in the current budget for recoveries from these varsities,” sources said. The majority of receipts in the education sector come from tuition fees received from students of arts and professional colleges of the province. Recoveries from special and technical schools, commercial institutes and industrial schools are also made, sources explained, but sums received are “not satisfactory.”
The Sindh government collected Rs 240.614 million as fees from government university arts colleges, but this year, this sum is expected to rise to Rs 264.480 million. Some Rs 40.930 million had also been collected from government university professional arts colleges but the government has set a target of Rs46.100 million for the next year – an increase of Rs 6 million.
Fees collected from government secondary institutions, including intermediate schools, during the last year stood at Rs 16.40 million. The collection target for the next year has been set at Rs 17.40 million.
Additionally, an amount of Rs 11.924 million was also collected under the head of fees and other receipts while Rs 10.132 million were recovered under the head of “others.” The government plans to receive Rs 11.92 million from government special schools this year.
Interestingly, recoveries from fines under Sindh Primary Education Act-1947, local bodies for primary education, receipts of technical and commercial institutions, general income from endowments, hostel fees, admission fees, recoveries of overpayments, collection of payments for services rendered. and receipts from Sindh’s museums were zilch.
