The PTI government presented the budget for 2019 on June 11 targeting economic growth of 2.4 per cent with forecasted inflation of nine to 13 per cent on one hand and a tax revenue increase of 35 per cent on the other. This would decrease the purchasing power of the common man. The budget faced criticism on several fronts and the decline in education expenditure was perhaps the most important one of them. Overall, there is a 20 per cent decrease in public spending on education affairs and services. It decreased from Rs 97,420 million in 2018 to Rs 77,262 million in 2019. These numbers would not improve the conditions of the already underdeveloped education sector. It would hinder the vision of Imran Khan of bringing economic prosperity as Malaysia did. He has been seen quoting Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad on several occasions and even in his very speech aired after the budget was presented. Over the decades, Malaysia has undergone significant shifts in education policy as demanded by economic and sociocultural changes over time. But is our current government willing to take this road? According to Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2017, Pakistan spends 2.6 per cent of the GDP on education compared to 7.4 per cent in Bhutan; 5.2 per cent in Maldives; 3.8 per cent in India; 3.7 percent in Nepal; 3.3 percent in Afghanistan; 2.2 percent in Sri Lanka and 1.9 percent in Bangladesh. Now if we look at the education spending in Malaysia, it has never been less than four per cent of its GDP since 1971. While Pakistan spends around 12 per cent of its public expenditure on education, the education ministry of Malaysia received the biggest allocation of budget 2019, just like previous year, comprising around 20 per cent of the total budget (RM 60.2 billion). Out of RM 60.2 billion, RM 2.9 billion is allocated to provide aid to students from low-income families in the form of food supplies, textbooks and cash assistance. Whereas the government in Pakistan has announced to cut down educational assistance in higher education from Rs 35,830 million allocated in 2018 to Rs 29,047 million this year. If the current government wants to pave the way for economic development to compete in regional and global markets, they need to improve Pakistan’s standing on this front by increasing the public spending on education and working on education reforms, some of which are as following: Access to Education First and foremost factor that needs undivided attention is improving access to education. A policy to ensure all children have access to education; in other words, they have the means to attend, stay and learn in school. According to UNICEF, “Currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged five-16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group.” Access to free education is a fundamental right of each Pakistani child and the constitutional obligation of the State of Pakistan Creating new schools in deprived regions and turning ghost schools into functional schools would improve the poor indicators. Right to Education is also enshrined in Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, added through 18th Amendment, which makes it imperative that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.” Therefore, access to free education is a fundamental right of each Pakistani child and the constitutional obligation of the State of Pakistan. Teacher Development & Training Like education-spending ranking, Pakistan stands at the lowest among South Asian countries for the student-teacher ratio at the primary level. According to UNESCO, student-teacher ratio for schools of Pakistan stands at 44.78 in 2017 in comparison to 44.01 in Afghanistan, 30.05 in Bangladesh, 34.56 in Bhutan, 35.22 in India, 16.59 in Nepal, 16.59 in Nepal and 22.93 in Sri Lanka. In simple words, it means that we have one teacher for around 44 students going to primary schools. The situation is more frightening if we compare it with our new federal inspiration, Malaysia, where the student-teacher ratio in primary schools is 11.66. It is reasonable to blame two per cent population growth rate of Pakistan for increasing number of the school-going population but it cannot be denied that the working-age population has also increased and people would be willing to work as teachers if they are given the opportunity. The government needs to hire new teachers and train those who are already working. Teacher training programs to encourage more interactive teaching practices in the classroom and to eliminate the communication gap between teachers and parents are needed. Installing high-tech teaching equipment is less significant at this stage. What is more important is that students learn to read and write effectively. It is of lesser importance whether they learn it on a slate board or a computer tablet. Curriculum reform Fighting to get better education indicators should not be confined to getting better numbers, the quality of education is said to be more important. To boost the quality of education, we need to revise the curriculum at school and university level. In essence, an update in the curriculum is required for both domains of science and humanities. Moreover, a more inclusive and diverse narrative to unify and bring tolerance in an ethnically diverse nation will help. Technical and vocational education Over the years, the dilemma of becoming an engineer or a doctor is getting subsided. People have started to accept that there are other disciplines, which can be pursued by their children. Now another quandary needs to be tackled. The perception that university education is the only form of education available should be eliminated by awareness and developing training and vocational schools. Good quality of technical and vocational education would produce skilled human capital, according to market demand for labour. Information & communication technology In today’s information age, it is essential to boost the information and communication technology sector with special focus on its subcategories i.e. IT services, business process management, software products, engineering services and hardware. We can learn from the IT industry in India where the IT sector grew by 11.9 per cent annually during 2009 and 2014. Effective government policies to develop technology marks and IT special economic zones (SEZs) result in this growth. Half of the 202 SEZs in India is specialized in IT. Research & Development “Knowledge economy” is one of the seven elements of Pakistan Vision 2025. Knowledge economy refers to a system of production and consumption that is based on a flow of knowledge or information. Investing in R&D is imperative for the transition to the knowledge economy. However, it should be well planned to support research and innovation from lab to market and assist start-ups and SMEs for early-stage development and market sustainability. As they say, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Other than these reforms, the equity of education and decreasing public-private education gap should not be ignored. Bringing this policy shift in the education sector is a long process, taking into consideration both planning and implementation. But unfortunately, we do not see any planning being done. Prime Minister Imran Khan needs to realize that it is not a time for rhetoric but a time for practice. Now is the time for practical steps. The writer is a doctoral candidate at the University of Bremen, Germany