ISLAMABAD - The government is likely to scale down the education budget from the projected 7 per cent of the GDP to 4 per cent in the revised National Education Policy 2009.
“The projected 7 per cent GDP allocation for the education sector in the NEP 2009 is irrational; therefore the government in consultation with the provinces is planning downward revision of the GDP allocation,” an official source told The Nation on Wednesday.
The National Education Policy 2009 Review Committee has already approved the roadmap of the policy and formed a focus group consisted of the representatives of all provinces. The focus group will forward its recommendations and in the light of those proposals revised National Education Policy will be formulated. In the revised NEP, several new items will be incorporated while some irrational targets will be deleted.
Besides adding new targets in accordance with Pakistan’s international commitments such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), the committee will also delete some irrational items.
“Some irrational clauses of the NEP 2009, including 7 per cent GDP by 2015, 16 years of education for teachers and attaining the literacy rate of 85 per cent, will definitely see revision,” the source claimed. The then PPP government in the National Education Policy, 2009 had set ambitious goals of raising the annual budgetary allocations for the education sector to 7 per cent of the GDP and increasing literacy to 85 per cent by 2015.
Attaining the 7 per cent GDP target is irrational and the government is discussing various proposals with the provinces and likely to finalise it during the 8th meeting of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) to be held in January or February 2016, the source informed.
The source said that after the 18 Amendment, education is no more a federal subject; therefore the central government is only playing the coordinating role between the provinces.
The source revealed the projected budget allocation of 7 per cent of the GDP allocation is irrational and unattainable; therefore it has been decided to downward revise the GDP allocation toward a reasonable and realistic target. The target of 7 per cent allocation was hard to achieve in the next ten years as in the budget 2015-16, the allocation for the education is only 2.5 of the GDP.
The government wants to set the target of 4 per cent of the GDP allocation for the education sector in the revised NEP, the source maintained.
The current education allocation is 2.5 per cent and with 0.5 annual increase by 2018, the government will be able to attain 4 per cent target,” the source added.
Inclusion of 25-A in the existing education policy, quarterly implementation review of the education policy at IPEMC, early childhood education of age group 4-5 may be included in the revised national education policy. Furthermore, in the revised education policy, national education standards would be defined for teachers, students and educationists in order to achieve goals.
All the provinces will nominate their policy experts to the Ministry of Education about their participation in the national dialogue to be organised in Islamabad in November this year. The final draft of the revised NEP-2009 will be submitted to the 7th IPEMC conference meeting for approval. After this, it will be sent to the cabinet for final approval and announced in the 8th meeting of the IPEMC to be held in January or February 20016.