pakistan need education budget to international standards

Need to increase education budget to match global standards’
Karachi:There is a need to raise the education budget to international standards in order to increase the literacy rate. This was stated by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Women Wing Sindh Information Secretary Sharmila Farooqui on Saturday.

In a statement, she pointed out that the average education spending in the world is around 4.9 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

However, she added, Pakistan has been able to manage its education allocation about 1.9 per cent of its GDP in 2010-11, which needs to be further raised to a reasonable level.

Sharmila referred to a report that mentioned the education allocations of some countries as per their GDPs - Cuba 18.7 per cent of GDP, Brunei 9.1 per cent, UAE 1.6 per cent, Iran 4.9 per cent, Sweden 7.7 per cent, UK 5.3 per cent, US 5.7 per cent, Malaysia 8.1 per cent, Yemen 9.5 per cent and India about 6 per cent.

She noted that it has been the demand of educationists of the country to increase the education budget by at least four per cent of GDP in Pakistan.

Sharmila pointed out that the PPP government raised education budget last year and it is hoped that it would be enhanced further in the next fiscal year.

She 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 and deserving students to a sufficient level.

Sharmila also called for boosting elementary, primary and high school education, besides enhancing higher education at college and university level.
She urged the private sector to invest in education and assured that the government would also encourage promoting research work in the higher education, especially technical and vocational institutions. She informed that the government is trying to eliminate ghost institutions in far-flung areas.The news