Education budget allocation in Pakistan’s 2024-25 federal budget revealed

In the recently announced federal budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, a total of 18.877 trillion rupees has been allocated across various sectors. However, the amount earmarked for education remains a matter of concern, especially when analyzed in comparison to the total budget and across provinces.

The federal budget for Islamabad’s education sector stands at 79 billion rupees, which constitutes only 0.41% of the total budget. This allocation highlights the challenges faced by the national education system, with limited resources dedicated to addressing the growing educational needs of the country.

At the provincial level, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stands out with the highest percentage of its total budget allocated to education. The province’s total budget for 2024-25 is 1.754 trillion rupees, with 362 billion rupees dedicated to education, which accounts for 20.67% of its total budget. This makes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the leader in educational spending among Pakistan’s provinces.

Balochistan, which has historically faced challenges in education funding, has allocated 48.48 billion rupees for education out of a total budget of 955.6 billion rupees. This constitutes 15.37% of the province’s budget, a significant portion compared to many other regions.

Sindh, with a total federal budget of 3.056 trillion rupees, has set aside 454 billion rupees for education, which is 14.85% of the provincial budget. While this is a substantial sum, it still falls behind Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in terms of percentage allocation.

Punjab, the largest province in terms of both population and economic output, has allocated 669.7 billion rupees for education from a total budget of 5.446 trillion rupees, accounting for 12.3% of the provincial budget.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, the total federal budget stands at 140 billion rupees, with 9.13 billion rupees (or 6.51%) earmarked for education, one of the lowest allocations in the country.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), with a total budget of 264 billion rupees, has allocated 48.48 billion rupees (or 18.38%) for education, marking it as one of the top provinces in terms of percentage spending on education, following Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Despite the allocations, Pakistan remains far behind many countries in terms of spending on education relative to its GDP. According to global rankings, Pakistan stands at 154th in the world for education spending as a percentage of GDP, meaning that 153 other countries invest more in education than Pakistan does.