A report by the Pakistan Education Task Force points out that the government is neglecting education, something visible in the fall of spending on education, from a low 2.5 percent of the GDP to an abysmal 1.5 percent. The report contains a lot of horrendous data about the state sector. No less than 26 countries poorer than Pakistan are sending more children to school. The complaint that government schools do not provide the requisite education must be considered with the fact that while only 35 percent of schoolchildren aged 6-16, can read a story, so can 24 percent of out-of-school children, showing how ineffective is schooling. One problem is that the elected representatives do not seem to feel responsible for a system that their electorate does not demand, that the state fulfill the constitutional responsibility, mentioned in the report, to provide all citizens an education. The provision of education is no favour, but something which the state needs to do to ensure an educated workforce in the future. It should not be left to the private sector, for the profits to be got from education can only be made for some time, so that ultimately it will not be profitable, with only the state left to provide this social good. If it does not, the population will be left uneducated, and thus will not be of much service to the state. This is why the state has always been involved in the provision of education long before it got involved in providing other economic services. If the state in Pakistan does not fulfill this commitment it is because its politicians, whose personal commitment to education was recently shown by how many had fake degrees, do not make the funds available, using them up to maintain their luxurious lifestyles. It also means that the politicians do not want an educated electorate that will hold them accountable on the basis of its information. It wants them to continue to act as uneducated sheep and elect them as usual. There are no real shortcuts to a good education sector, but providing it more state money is something that can and should be done. The report makes clear that the sector is somehow dragging itself along, but some of its information, that 30,000 schools are dangerous enough to be a threat to the children attending them, is as astounding as it is worrying. While there is no doubt that money alone cannot buy an education, there is equally no doubt that there can be no education without money. The state must be ready to put in as much as is needed. If that means curtailing the amounts frittered away on national leaders, then so be it.