Additional Rs 100 Bln Needed Per Annum to Achieve Education MDGs

An additional amount of Rs 100 billion is needed per year to reach the educational Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a 50 percent increment on today’s expenditure, revealed a report ‘Education Emergency Pakistan 2011’.The report recently launched by Pakistan Education Task Force stated that Pakistan is committed to spend at least 4 percent of the GDP on education but the budget has fallen in the recent years from 2.5 percent in 2006-07 and 2 percent in 2009-2010.

According to the report, primary and secondary schools probably receive less than 68 percent of government expenditure in education and under 1.5 percent GDP is going to public schools that are on the front line of Pakistan’s education emergency. Full primary enrolment may not be achieved before mid century, if the country moves on same pace of progress. With only 23 percent enrollment at secondary school level, Pakistan is far away from fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide all children an education upto the age of 16.

National data does not exists for private schools but only 36 percent of public schools are judged to be in a satisfactory condition. According to the findings, only 35 percent of school children aged 6 to 16 can read a story while 50 percent cannot read a sentence. The report demands sharp acceleration in the efforts to achieve MDGs within next ten years. ‘Year 2011’ has been declared as an year of education but it seems that Pakistan will not be able to achieve MDGs and comply with Article 25 A which reminds of the state responsibility of ensuring access to free education.