PAKISTANI EDUCATION SECTOR Posted on 19 July 2014 at 10:38 The most significant step in elevating the education sector would be to ensuring a remarkable increase in the expenditure on the education.The policy documents are blank on this question of what extraordinary things are going to happen which enable Pakistan to raise the expenditure on education.From 1972-2009 levels of spending remained significantly unpredictable.Given this disappointing trajectory increasing public expenditure on education to 7% of the GDP would be nothing less than a miracle but it is not going to be of godly nature. Unless Pakistan adopts an unconventional approach towards education this sector cannot reach its desired destination.Education should be treated as a special sector by immunizing budgetry allocation and securing it from fiscal stress and political or economic instabilities .Allocation for education should not be affected by squeezed fiscal space or surge in military expenditure or debts.At the same time ,there is need to debate other option about how Pakistan can invent the miracle of raising education expenditure to 7% of GDP by 2015 as the govt.pledges to. The govt sector of education should have collaboration with the private sector in order to ensure the provision of the quality education to non privileged class of the society .The ‘Education Sector Reform’s Action Plan’ prioritized the provision of primary and elementary education to all children and provided incentives to public- private partnership (PPPs) to flourish the education sector .It is a hopeful sign that due to govt’s favorable the education approach to private participation in education large number of institutions not only flourished but also catered socio economically disadvantaged rural and urban poor.In Balochistan ,Punjab and Sindh the World Bank is supporting the low-cost private sector through education foundations to expand access to education in districts with large number of out of school children .These are good omens but much more is required to make the quality education a possibility for all.
