Only 2pc of GDP spent on education

[Spring Onion]

Only 2pc of GDP spent on education


ISLAMABAD: Describing education as the single-most important factor for alleviating poverty, the Pakistan Economic Survey 2009-2010 says that public expenditure in the sector declined to a paltry 2 per cent of the gross domestic product during the fiscal year from 2.5 per cent of the GDP in 2006-07.

The survey puts the average literacy rate at 57 per cent — 69 per cent for males and 45 per cent for females — compared to 56 per cent in the preceding year. It says the literacy rate in urban areas (at 74 per cent) remains much higher than in rural parts of the country (48 per cent).

Both Punjab and Sindh have a literacy rate of 59 per cent, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (50 per cent) and Balochistan (45 per cent).

Public expenditure on education in Pakistan, as a percentage of GDP, compares poorly with that of other countries of South Asia, says the report. According to figures, Pakistan allocated to the sector 2.5 per cent of the GDP in 2006-07, 2.47 per cent in 2007-08, 2.1 per cent in 2008-09 and 2 per cent in 2009-10.

According to Unesco’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2009, the public sector expenditure on education in other countries of the region is: 2.6 per cent of the GDP in Bangladesh, 3.2 per cent in Nepal, 3.3 per cent in India, 5.2 per cent in Iran and 8.3 per cent in the Maldives.

The poor quality of the learning environment, the document says, is evident from the fact that a large number of schools lack basic infrastructure — 37.7 per cent of the schools up to the elementary level don’t have boundary walls, 33.9 per cent lack drinking water facility, 37 per cent don’t have latrines and 60 per cent are without electricity.

To enhance female enrolment among low-income households, the survey says, the schools should be provided with the necessary infrastructure, thus improving both the output and quality of education.The average school attendance, as measured by the Net Enrolment Rate, is 57 per cent for 2008-09, up from 55 per cent in 2007-08.

The report points out that since the inception of Higher Education Commission in 2002, spending in the higher education sector has generally increased. However, the impact of financial constraints of recent years has been felt in this sector as well.

Funding for non-developmental activities was curtailed in 2007-08. In 2008-09 the size of the recurring grant was similar to that of the preceding year. In 2009-10, however, Rs8 billion provided by the World Bank allowed the government to allocate Rs22.5 billion to the higher education sector.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Only 2pc of GDP spent on education
However, only 60 per cent of the amount has so far been released, says the survey

 

[Aeon]

Jeez, all the non-nuclear countries mentioned are spending a higher percentage than us. I reckon the military would be eating up the largest percentage by comparison, and there's understandable reason for that. But come on, to put it in their terms, can't these guys see if we don't spend on education, how will we attain or intensify the indigenous ability for developing advanced fighter jets and what not... If we want to advance the quality of our society and our people, education and literacy are crucial places to spend the money.

They should make completing up till grade 10 mandatory in government schools if the children are not attending a private one.

 

[Hyde]

Rs34,500mn earmarked for education ​

ISLAMABAD (updated on: June 05, 2010, 23:51 PST): An amount of Rs 34,500 million has been earmarked for Education Affairs and Services in the federal budget.

According to budget figures, Rs 3,174 million have been allocated for Pre-Primary and Primary Education against amount of Rs. 2,887 million spent last year.

Rs 4,232 million have been allocated for Secondary Education Affairs and Services against Rs 3,828 million earmarked last year.

Rs 25,210 million have been given for tertiary education affairs and services as compared to Rs 23,372 million in the outgoing fiscal year.

Rs 42 million have been allocated for Social Welfare and Special Education Division against Rs 39 million spent last year.

For administrative purposes about Rs 1,260 million have been allocated against Rs 808 million spent last year.

 

[farhan_9909]

This is the reason my english is poor then 5th class South indian..

 

[farhan_9909]

Rs34,500mn earmarked for education ​

ISLAMABAD (updated on: June 05, 2010, 23:51 PST): An amount of Rs 34,500 million has been earmarked for Education Affairs and Services in the federal budget.

According to budget figures, Rs 3,174 million have been allocated for Pre-Primary and Primary Education against amount of Rs. 2,887 million spent last year.

Rs 4,232 million have been allocated for Secondary Education Affairs and Services against Rs 3,828 million earmarked last year.

Rs 25,210 million have been given for tertiary education affairs and services as compared to Rs 23,372 million in the outgoing fiscal year.

Rs 42 million have been allocated for Social Welfare and Special Education Division against Rs 39 million spent last year.

For administrative purposes about Rs 1,260 million have been allocated against Rs 808 million spent last year.

well this seem almost 20% increase to me..


goood

 

[Progressive]

This is the reason my english is poor then 5th class South indian..

Ah! the truth finally

 

[farhan_9909]

Ah! the truth finally

Not my fault

bt my govt

 

[Neither Right Nor Wrong]

This is the traversity of a being National Security State rather than Social Security State.

Allocation for defence will be $5.3 Billion

Whereas allocation for education will be around $400 Million

And health $ 200 Million.

 

[brahmastra]

In India, we pay education cess. and this is how we collect extra money for education. Pak need similar kinda rule in Tax system to get money for education.

Education Cess
All taxes in India are subject to an education cess, which is 2% of the total tax payable. With effect from assessment year 2008-09, Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Cess of 1% is applicable on the subtotal of taxable income. Mainly education tax is applicable on excise duty and service tax

 

[TaimiKhan]

This is the traversity of a being National Security State rather than Social Security State.

Allocation for defence will be $5.3 Billion

Whereas allocation for education will be around $400 Million

And health $ 200 Million.

As usual, before you or others like you come up with such statements, do take into mind that Pakistan would be giving 350Billion+ to nearly 8 state owned sick public organizations which can't meet their expenses from their own revenue generation, leave aside profit.

Railways, Wapda, PIA, Pakistan Steel etc etc are some of the huge govt owned organizations who will be needing 350+B rupees for their survival, and this has been happening for many years now.

So instead of coming and targeting defence budget or coming up with gimmicks like National Security State, try to point out the things which need improvement and areas which are getting money for survival.

Out of this 350+B being given to these sick units, this amount could have been allocated to education or health, but due to inefficiency of of govt and these giant sick organs, this huge some guys in keeping them alive, that also barely till next budget.

And also try to dissect the budget and see how much is going on the expenditure of the govt, meaning its MNA, Senators, Ministers, MPAs and other public politicians.

State Bank of Pakistan alone last year had a 3B US$ profit, majority of which went to the govt, National Bank of Pakistan alone had 15+B PKR profit, so if other govt run organizations can even have break point regarding their expenses and revenue, we can have a lot of room available, which can be used up for health and education and for disasters and infrastructure development.

Air Blue is a private run airline, with much smaller fleet, and its in profit since many years, but PIA a giant with all the resources has billions in losses. 50B PKR goes into Benazir Income Support Program, from where Billions go into the pockets of the locals public representatives or others.

So as usual instead of coming to defence, highlight other issues.

Defence guys have sacrificed a lot during last few years when coming to budget, as we have lost Rupee value compared to dollar, nearly half of its value, so when 1 Billion US$s were available to army for purchase of defence equipment in 2008, it has become 500m$ by 2010.

Thus the raise was necessary.

Instead of criticizing defence budget, people should see and look for the years where we are wasting billions and no one asks anything about it.

 

[bc040400065]

And one more point to add the development budget is 660 Billion PKR which is 200billion PKR more than the defence budget. and development budget has had more allocations than defence for last 6, 7 years but no one knows where this money is going. So defence budget is not the reasons for less development.

 

[Neither Right Nor Wrong]

As usual, before you or others like you come up with such statements, do take into mind that Pakistan would be giving 350Billion+ to nearly 8 state owned sick public organizations which can't meet their expenses from their own revenue generation, leave aside profit.

Railways, Wapda, PIA, Pakistan Steel etc etc are some of the huge govt owned organizations who will be needing 350+B rupees for their survival, and this has been happening for many years now.

So instead of coming and targeting defence budget or coming up with gimmicks like National Security State, try to point out the things which need improvement and areas which are getting money for survival.

Out of this 350+B being given to these sick units, this amount could have been allocated to education or health, but due to inefficiency of of govt and these giant sick organs, this huge some guys in keeping them alive, that also barely till next budget.

And also try to dissect the budget and see how much is going on the expenditure of the govt, meaning its MNA, Senators, Ministers, MPAs and other public politicians.

State Bank of Pakistan alone last year had a 3B US$ profit, majority of which went to the govt, National Bank of Pakistan alone had 15+B PKR profit, so if other govt run organizations can even have break point regarding their expenses and revenue, we can have a lot of room available, which can be used up for health and education and for disasters and infrastructure development.

Air Blue is a private run airline, with much smaller fleet, and its in profit since many years, but PIA a giant with all the resources has billions in losses. 50B PKR goes into Benazir Income Support Program, from where Billions go into the pockets of the locals public representatives or others.

So as usual instead of coming to defence, highlight other issues.

Defence guys have sacrificed a lot during last few years when coming to budget, as we have lost Rupee value compared to dollar, nearly half of its value, so when 1 Billion US$s were available to army for purchase of defence equipment in 2008, it has become 500m$ by 2010.

Thus the raise was necessary.

Instead of criticizing defence budget, people should see and look for the years where we are wasting billions and no one asks anything about it.

Seems like you are basing your opinion on the bases of single post, here are a few others.

^
As I explained in another thread

Pakistan's 3 major non productive expenditures:-

1. Debt financing -paying back country's loan installment for 2010-11 - Approx $ 8.5 billion

2. Defence expenditure - approx $5.3 dollars

3. And to cover losses made by various public sector enterprises eg steel mills , railaways etc for 2010-11 is approx $ 3 billion.

Now it not possible to reduce No 1and 2 at the present moment , but no 3 can reduced by privatizing Pak Steel , PEPCO , PIA, KSE.

Though I m not a Pakistani , I ll still try to answer your question.

Defence budget is some thing which you can not cut down in times of conflict.

I ll try to give an overview of some problems faced in this years budget.

Pakistan's federal budget for fiscal year 2010 -11 will be of approx $20 billion

Budget deficit (money spent over the given budget amount) will be approx $9 billion.

Their are 3 major sources where the budget allocation made are non productive ie investment made by the country wont give any monetary benefits are-

1. Debt financing -paying back country's loan installment for 2010-11 - Approx $ 8.5 billion

2. Defence expenditure - approx $5.3 dollars

3. And to cover losses made by various public sector enterprises eg steel mills , railaways etc for 2010-11 is approx $ 3 billion.

Major sources of non-investment incomes are-

1. Kerry luger bill-$ 1.5 billion

2. Loans borrowed frm various fianacial institutions(WB , IMF , ADB ,FODP) in 2010-11 is approx $4-4.5 billion


Hence we see despite loans and grants from various sources, budget deficit of $ 2-2.5billion (8.5-(4.5 +1.5) needs to be explained.

Hence WB , IMF are giving Pak warning to match this shortfall by-

1. Increasing electricity tariff.

2. Levy VAT

If it does not do the above then either it ll have to approach another financial institution for more loan.
or
will have to defer the payment of the loan installment.

to name a few-

Ok from your above post- you are questioning why am I criticizing defence budget and why not losses made by various PSEs .

As you can see from above , I have bin doing that all along.

Now Pakistan's defence budget is 13 times its education budget and 26 times its health budget. If Pak govt can not cut down its losses then it will have cut down its spending and defence budget will be axed too.

Now the"gimmicks" about being Naitonal security state , you know it better than me, that its true. Its not a recent phenomenon, It has bin like this since 1947 (when Pak in its first budget allocated more than 70% of its resources for defence.) I am not saying it good or bad , I am just it is like that and nobody can deny it.

You raised a point about devaluation of currency, yes it is true , but it is true for all sectors , A F-16 costing Rs X in 2008 will certainly cost more than Rs X in 2010 but so will a MRI machine(or any other supplies) being imported into the country.

 

[TaimiKhan]

Seems like you are basing your opinion on the bases of single post, here are a few others.

to name a few-

Ok from your above post- you are questioning why am I criticizing defence budget and why not losses made by various PSEs .

As you can see from above , I have bin doing that all along.

Now Pakistan's defence budget is 13 times its education budget and 26 times its health budget. If Pak govt can not cut down its losses then it will have cut down its spending and defence budget will be axed too.

Now the"gimmicks" about being Naitonal security state , you know it better than me, that its true. Its not a recent phenomenon, It has bin like this since 1947 (when Pak in its first budget allocated more than 70% of its resources for defence.) I am not saying it good or bad , I am just it is like that and nobody can deny it.

You raised a point about devaluation of currency, yes it is true , but it is true for all sectors , A F-16 costing Rs X in 2008 will certainly cost more than Rs X in 2010 but so will a MRI machine(or any other supplies) being imported into the country.

I am not just pointing at you, there are many others who have the same habit. So its not just a reply to your post.

And if you have missed history, we went to war with you guys the moment we were born and we were born with an enemy on our one flank. So having a hike in defence spending was the natural choice as someone did not wanted us to stand and live.

And do remember, when the sub continent was partitioned, the maximum defence infrastructure and equipment went to India, so we had to have defence hike as we had to make something up to defend ourselves. And we went to war within one year of independence.

So these above facts are also non deniable and good reasons for a 70% hike or whatever. As time has passed, our defence budget to total budget has reduced and since past decade very nominal increases had been seen.

And for last many decades, govt has been unable to cut down its loses rather its loses have increased, but still defence budget has been the same or increased, reason being overall economy has been increasing too, thus govt generating more income. What you said will only happen when we go bankrupt or economy collapses.

And raise in defence budget has nothing to do with less education or health budgets, as said, govt if it wants to has many other alternatives and cost cutting measures through which it can safe money and divert the funds towards education and health, but due to their incompetency they can't and don't.

 

[Neither Right Nor Wrong]

I am not just pointing at you, there are many others who have the same habit. So its not just a reply to your post.

And if you have missed history, we went to war with you guys the moment we were born and we were born with an enemy on our one flank. So having a hike in defence spending was the natural choice as someone did not wanted us to stand and live.

And do remember, when the sub continent was partitioned, the maximum defence infrastructure and equipment went to India, so we had to have defence hike as we had to make something up to defend ourselves. And we went to war within one year of independence.

So these above facts are also non deniable and good reasons for a 70% hike or whatever. As time has passed, our defence budget to total budget has reduced and since past decade very nominal increases had been seen.

Nobody is arguing the "justification" of Pakistan being a security state.
I am just stating some undeniable facts.

And for last many decades, govt has been unable to cut down its loses rather its loses have increased, but still defence budget has been the same or increased, reason being overall economy has been increasing too, thus govt generating more income. What you said will only happen when we go bankrupt or economy collapses.

Yes it is true despite having -ve GDP (per capita) growth in last two years , Pakistan defence budget is increasing and this is due to the fact Pakistan is borrowing from various financial institutions and is also
receiving aid.

And raise in defence budget has nothing to do with less education or health budgets, as said, govt if it wants to has many other alternatives and cost cutting measures through which it can safe money and divert the funds towards education and health, but due to their incompetency they can't and don't.

On the contrary increase in spending in any single sector will decrease the funding for the other sector , this is a basic law of economics and cannot be denied.
Can this effect be reduced by reducing the wastage in other sectors??..Yes I believe it can be...Is it happening??..I don't think so.

 

[TaimiKhan]

On the contrary increase in spending in any single sector will decrease the funding for the other sector , this is a basic law of economics and cannot be denied.
Can this effect be reduced by reducing the wastage in other sectors??..Yes I believe it can be...Is it happening??..I don't think so.

No, not in our case.

For example, last year budget was 100B, and this year it becomes 150B.

So the net raise in total budget is 50B.

Now defence may get 20B additional, rest of the 30B is there to other sectors to be distributed.

Health and education can both get whatever govt wants to give them out of the 30B, the hike in defence budget has not taken the share of the health and education.

What you said only happens during wars, when everything is diverted to defence and other sectors see their shares get reduced or when economy collapses and defence is of dire consequences.

In normal circumstances, defence doesn't takes others share.