Daily Times

Every political party makes a play for the hot seat by tooting the same horn: transformation using education. Now, such priority sloganeering may be construed as an inclination to earmark every available resource for the noble crusade but sadly, reality narrates a rather grim tale. Diametrically opposed to UNESCO’s recommendation of a budgetary allocation between four to six per cent of the GDP, our much-talked-about share for public education dismally hovered well under two per cent last year.

More worrisome has been the rapidly declining trend as opposed to an already lower-than-expected budget of 1.9 per cent the year before. Does this mean that the modest increase registered in the literacy rate (0.4 per cent in two years) would also take a similar downturn soon? Such distressing indicators have come on the heels of a major controversy regarding the annual budget of the Higher Education Commission. Heated buzz over the wide gulf between the actual approved increase (0.3 per cent) and that unabashedly claimed by the Finance Ministry (67 per cent) has run rife.

No matter how earnestly the government may wish to improve “the quality and coverage of education,” words cannot move mountains. An arduous determination needed to finally do something about the world’s second-largest out-of-school children could only work if the state had loosened its drawstrings and carved out strategies to spread education to every nook and corner. At present, Pakistan is spending approximately 54 rupees on education incentives for ordinary Pakistani.

Quite a measly drop when times need an entire ocean. Can distributing laptops among bright students fulfil the needs of an over 71 per cent shortfall in the funds of the Higher Education Commission? While the recently announced pledge of Rs 65 billion is a heartening development, it cannot even begin to address the multifaceted requirements of the public sector educational institutions. The less said about the shambolic quality control, the better it would be for our collective conscience.

Playing tug-of-war over curriculum policies, a severe dearth of proficient educators, stumbling blocks in the form of frailing infrastructure and literally nonexistent facilities–the challenges remain many but the political will to whip up a miracle can nowhere be found (even in the fine print). After all, to borrow the insight from HEC Chairman Tariq Buneri, “it must be realised that education is as much important as the country’s defense and security.” *