education budget as per international standards Sindh Information Secretary Sharmila Farooqui

Sharmila seeks education budget as per international standards
KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Women Wing Sindh Information Secretary Sharmila Farooqui on Saturday stressed the need to raise education budget as per international standards so as to get 100 percent literacy rate and meet the Millennium Development Goals to which Pakistan is signatory.
“India has raised its education budget by Rs24 percent this fiscal year, while the global average of spending on education is around 4.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, Pakistan has been able to manage its education allocation about 1.9 percent of its GDP in fiscal year 2010-11 which needs to be further raised to a reasonable level,” she said in a statement.
Farooqui referred to a report that mentioned the education allocations of some countries as per their GDPs - Cuba 18.7% of GDP, Brunei 9.1%, UAE 1.6%, Iran 4.9%, Sweden 7.7%, UK 5.3%, US 5.7%, Malaysia 8.1 %, Yemen 9.5% and India about 6 %.
She noted that it had been the demand of educationists of the country to increase the education budget by at least 4 percent of GDP in Pakistan. She said that the PPP government raised education budget last year and it was expected that same would also be enhanced this fiscal year.
PPP leader said that there was also need to devise a plan to improve public sector education in Sindh by establishing more educational institutions, appointing more teachers and raising scholarships for needy & deserving students to a sufficient level.
She also called for boosting elementary, primary and high school education besides enhancing higher education at colleges and universities. The boosting education from primary to school level will benefit college and university students in getting higher education, she observed.
She said that the government has adopted a holistic approach to enhance literacy rate up to 90 percent by 2015 and initiated various educational projects to bring development in the country. She urged private sector to invest in education and assured that the government would also encourage it in this regard to promote research in the higher education.
Farooqui said the government attached great importance to development of education sector and was focusing not only on bringing about qualitative change in this sector but also extending the network of education institutions and eliminating ghost institutions in the far flung areas.
“Quality education depends largely on quality teachers and quality curriculum which in turn call for a shift in investment towards developing the human resources in education sector, particularly in the primary school teachers,” she said. pr.Daily times