Federal Education
Budget 2015-16
Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar presented the Rs 4,451.3 billion federal budget 2015-16, with a 3.5 per cent higher outlay than the budget of 2014-15. Out of the total,Rs71.5 billion has been allocated for higher education, a mere 1.6 per cent of the total, but 14% more than the previous year.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will get Rs20.5 billion, which is Rs4.5 billion less than the previous allotment. The HEC did not get an increase in its development budget, which is Rs 20,500 million for its 47 on-going and other new development projects.Rs3,450 million have been given to the federal education ministry for nine ongoing and three new schemes.Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training got Rs 3.45 billion.
Sindh: Education gets 28.65 per cent
The Sindh government presented the total Rs739.3 billion budgets for the fiscal year 2015-16, with an overall increase of 7.7 per cent in non-development expenditure.
The provincial government allocated Rs 144.67 billion, 28.65 per cent of the total current budget for the education sector with an increase of 7.6 %. In the previous budget Rs 134.37 billion (21.13 per cent) were allocated for the education sector. The budget includes grants for universities and other educational institutions, proposed at Rs 6.12 billion against the previous allocation of Rs 5.89 billion.
“Government of Sindh attaches top most priority to education,” Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah said while presenting the budget. He said the current allotment of budget for education included medical education and technical education.
Punjab: Education gets 21.4 per cent
Punjab saw an overall decrease in its education budget – in terms of the total percentage of the total. Punjab government announced total budget of Rs 1,447.42 billion – an increase of 40 percent over the previous budget. The budget for education sector increased by Rs 50.6 billion in 2015-16 – an increase of 19.5 per cent over the 2014-15budget. A total of Rs 310.2 billion has been set aside for education in 2015-16, which constitutes 21.4 percent of the total provincial budget – down from 24 percent (273 billion) in 2014-15. Percentage allocation for education has gone down from 26 percent in 2013-14 to 24 per cent in 2014-15 and 21.4 percent in 2015-16. However, govt claimed to allocate 27 per cent budget to education.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Education gets 24 per cent
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s total outlay forfiscal year 2015-16 Rs 488 billion, 17 per cent higher than the previous year’s Rs404 billion.
However the education budget for 2015-16has been reduced by almost 3 per cent – in terms of the total percentage – as compared to the previous fiscal year. The education sector will get Rs 119.2 billion, 24 per cent of the total.In the previous fiscal year, the provincial government allocated a total of Rs 111 billion – 27.4 per cent of its budget.
According to the breakdown, elementary and secondary education departments have been allocated a total of Rs104.2 billion, whereas higher education has been given Rs15 billion.
Balochistan: Education gets 16.8 per cent
The Balochistan government presented the total budget of Rs244 billion for the fiscal year 2015-16, with the commitment of spending the bulk on infrastructure development, especially electricity generation.
The provincial government has set aside Rs40.9 billion, 16.8 per cent of the total budget for education. For the fiscal year 2014-15 the government allocated 28.937 billion – 13.45 per cent of the total budget.
A total of Rs2.5 billion has been set aside for developing the education sector –17 per cent increase over the previous fiscal year. With this money, Balochistan will build 200 new primary schools, and upgrade 456 primary schools to add middle school classes. The government will also hire 1,741 new employees in the education sector, most of them teachers. Four new colleges have also been planned in districts currently without colleges.