Student results an indicator to rethink spending

The Punjab Government is spending an amount of Rs152 billion on education sector but 75 percent results of the students are below the average. This miserable result requires the need to consider student assessment as the core indicator for measuring the effectiveness of public spending on education. 

This was said by Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) executive director Dr Salman Humayun while speaking at a consultation on Education Budget and its Effectiveness organised by ActionAid Pakistan and I-SAPS on Tuesday.

He said that allocations of education budget and its spending were usually not associated with data and policies. 

“Though government claims to prioritize girls’ education but still some 13 per cent of girls’ schools do not have toilets that lead to low enrolment rate in these schools,” he said.

Dr Humayun recommended that Blind Block Allocations should be avoided as a very small portion of allocations was left for ongoing schemes. He also suggested the need to address the research capacity deficit through public expenditure tracking surveys and districts as well as school level budget analysis.

Presenting Action Aid Pakistan and I-SAPS’ joint research on “Budget Analysis of District Rahim Yar Khan: A Case Study”, Rabia Shabbir said the study underscored significant gender gaps in enrolment at all levels of education.

Despite high number of girls’ schools as compared to boys’ schools, she said, the enrolment of girls was lower than boys, which highlighted the need to provide continuing education facilities to male and female students at an approachable distance. 

She said the issue of low enrolment of girls was also linked with the problem of basic facilities. Thus, she said, provision of basic facilities at all levels of education and repair and maintenance of schools was likely to contribute to increased enrolment of girls as well as boys since parents were concerned about the health and safety of their children.

She said the research recommended that adequate amount of budget should be allocated particularly for development schemes to help promote the education sector in Rahim Yar Khan district. In this district, she said, 554 school buildings required major repair, however in 2008-09 and 2009-10, no budgetary provisions were given for the new approved development schemes of the district. 

Adequate allocation and effective utilization of budget for repair and maintenance of schools would help increase the enrolment of children in schools, she added.