It looks like Rs 362.68 billion has been set aside for education, which is 13 percent more than last year. But this increase is just for show because the extra money will be used for regular expenses, not for any new projects to improve education at any level.
Finance Minister Aftab Alam said that 30 colleges and 350 schools would be opened in rented buildings. The only important project in the education budget was creating a Center of Excellence for Science, Technology, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) education. However, no specific details about this project were provided.
In the budget speech, it was said that Rs 35.82 billion would be spent on higher education, which is 11 percent more than last year. Most of this money is for 34 universities and many degree awarding institutes in the province, but the document did not give any details about them.
The majority of universities are facing money problems , and the province government has no strategy to help them. similarly, 13 percent more money—Rs 326.86 billion—has been allocated for primary and secondary education than the previous year.
The only detail about how the money will be used is that 350 schools will be set up in rented buildings. The reason for using rented buildings is to save time because there is an urgent need for schools.
At the beginning of his speech, the finance advisor listed what the PTI government did for education during its 10 years in power. However, it seemed like just talk because no important projects were mentioned, only big promises.
He said that thousands of new schools were built and many were upgraded. Over 100,000 teachers were hired “on merit”. During the PTI rule, 84 colleges and 10 universities were opened in the province.
The budget speech also mentioned scholarships given to students. The only real project mentioned was the creation of 2000 Girl Community Schools in the province.
The low-cost informal community schools were established by the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation. During the first term of the PTI government, this organization wasn’t very good at its job and got a lot of bad attention from the media because of problems like irregularities, ghost schools, and ghost students.
But in the second term, after a new managing director was appointed, the foundation was completely changed, and most of the planned schools were built while he was in charge.
