Pakistan is a country starved of educational facilities at every level, from the primary and most basic to universities and higher education generally. Successive governments have failed to priorities the educational needs of the nation and the poverty of the education system matches the poverty of the common man. It now emerges that the last government has left as many as 40 universities, many of them in far-flung areas and established in the last five years, in desperate financial straits. Not only did the last government cut the allocation for higher education, it also rejected a staggering 95 percent of development projects presented by the universities – a major contribution to their spiral of decline. They struggle to pay their staff salaries, are unable to fund research or equip laboratories and libraries and some run the risk of closure in the near future. If that happens opportunity will be snatched from the grasp of young people in places as far apart as Gilgit, Swat, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan, making a travesty of any promise that was made. Eight percent of the population of Pakistan has access to higher education compared to 12 percent in Bangladesh and 18 percent in India. During the last tenure 72 public sector universities made requests for allocations of 350 development projects none of which were beyond the bounds of being perfectly reasonable, but 334 were turned down and 16 approved. Funds that should have been used to bolster the higher education sector were diverted for political reasons, with former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf directing billions away from the universities for his pet road-building projects. Over five years the PPP government allocated Rs87.08 billion for higher education but only released Rs66.94 billion. Standards set by the UN recommend that the budget for higher education should not be less than a quarter of the total budget. In Pakistan it is less than one-tenth. Pakistan now has a new prime minister who has a lot on his plate. The power crisis may be paramount but the education crisis runs it a close second. The country needs to hear a loud, clear and unequivocal message from PM Nawaz Sharif – there must be education for all, no more raiding of education budgets and a lifeline thrown to our universities before we start losing them.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:20:16 +0000
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