KARACHI: In the Sindh Education Budget 2017-18, the allocation percentage has been decreased from 21.03 percent from 2016-17 as total allocation for education in 2017-18 is Rs 202.7 billion which is 20.06% of the total Current and Development budget allocation. Budget experts believe that the total volume of education has been increased by 15% from last year but it in reality it has been decreased in the percentage terms with respect to the total budget. In the provincial budget Rs 202.7 billion is for education, Rs 178.6 billion or Rs 88% is for Current budget while Rs 24 Billion or 12% is for Development budget. This distribution between the Current and the Development budget is unchanged from last year. For the financial year 2017-18 total budget under pre-primary and primary education has also decreased from Rs55.3 billion in 2016-17 to Rs50.9 billion. However, budget for secondary education has increased from Rs 48 billion in 2016-17 to PKR 67.9 billion, which shows 41% enhancement. Educationists believe that budget trends for primary and secondary education is incomprehensible because secondary education budget is increasing by 41% and primary education budget is decreasing by 8% which can’t make head or tail to these ups and downs in the budget. “Unless the Federal government shows political commitment for education and motivation to increase the education budget to 4% of GDP, the provinces will never be able to know their respective share of education budget allocations to achieve the 4% magic number” an educationist and budget experts, Shahab Siddiqui said, adding that 4% of GDP was a promise made by the present Federal government and it should lead in determining the funding gap for education budget allocation for each province. He further said that the proposed amount Rs. 202,691 for education by Sindh government, represents an increase of 13% over 2016-17 included Rs. 178,658 million allocated for Current budget and Rs. 24,033 million for Development budget. The Current budget is meant for meeting operational expenses like salaries, utilities, repair and maintenance and other for the provincial education departments and their spending agencies and other institutions engaged in education function while Development budget represents allocations for specific projects and schemes for infrastructure, development and enhancing capacity for service delivery and improving the quality of education, he explained.