Why is education so important?

The National Education Policy 2009 envisages a graded raise in education budget from 2.05 percent of GDP at present to as high as 7 percent by 2015, in a move that is intended to meet the MDG on education, while the formula for proportional allocation out of available funds to different sub-sectors of education will be evolved by the provincial governments in the wake of passage of 18th Amendment, under which education has been made a provincial subject.
Can budgetary raise envisaged in 2009 Policy by as much as 5 percent of GDP put us on the way to achieving a knowledge-based economy? Under the strategy, the government plans to raise budgetary allocation by around 7 percent of GDP by the year 2015. UNESCO recommends that at least 4 percent of GDP should be spent on education by developing economies, but in Pakistan allocation has rarely exceeded 2 percent. After abolition of the Concurrent List under the 18th Amendment, the burden of providing funds would wholly fall on provinces for promotion of literacy, with the provincial governments bound to provide larger budgetary shares for promotion of literacy in view of the enhanced provincial share in the 7th NFC Award. As literacy and primary schooling are closely linked Pakistan's literary rate comes to a merely 57.9 percent, which is one of the lowest in the region. Secondly, with federal education ministry about to be disbanded the question as to who will assume charge at the national level will assume greater prominence.
Who, for instance, will ensure sufficient symmetry in standard of school curricula at provincial level so that this does not further lower national education standard, which is already poor at the regional level? There has been no indication so far as to how the government plans to address these issues that are likely to arise with the implementation of a 5-year plan. The policy does not spell out, in clear-cut terms, the implementation mechanisms the government plans to adopt for achieving the ambitious target.
As issue is the widening mismatch in sectoral and sub-sectoral allocations, and their productive utilisation, with the minimum possible pilferage. Pakistan's social sector has already sustained severe beating at the hands to those whose priorities do not match popular aspirations. Incidentally, the $7.8 billion package President Obama had announced was meant for constructing highways, bridges, universities, health facilities and increasing pensions etc ---- issues that seem to carry hardly any priority in the scheme of things of people who matter in our country. (The last government used to talk endlessly about the nine worldclass universities it planned to build. What became of the project?) Studies by international institutions have established that a country's literacy rate and its per capita income are closely co-related. Pakistan's low literacy rate, at least in public sector institutions, has not only helped lower the per capita income; it has also done grievous harm to the country's economy.
It is said that Malysia and Brazil with their respective literacy rates of 78 and 81 percent respectively, have per capita incomes of $2,520 and $2,940 (2004 figures). The third critical factor is the poor quality of education that is provided in public sector educational institutions. This needs to be raised. Further, the government needs to determine the priority it wants to give to vocational training, which mostly creates technicians to man the wheels of industry, and engineering graduates. Parameters of medical education need too to be determined. Does the National Education Policy adequately address all these issues? With productivity is connected the economy's tax collection ability, upon which rests generation of sufficient resources for upgradation of infrastructure. Modernisation of machinery and improvement of professional skills of the workforce provide a boost to the productive potential of the economy. Have all these issues been adequately addressed under the new policy to enhance budgetary allocation to education by 2015.
The policy needs to be further fine-tuned to make its applicability comprehensive and productive. Secondly, the policy can produce results by ensuring minimum possible waste of resources through targeted use and clamping down hard on corruption at all levels. The government must ensure that raising education budget to 7 percent of the GDP should not open additional avenues of corruption. Secondly, the Planning Commission needs to work out requirements of education sector by 2015, when the number of students and the faculty strength will both be much higher. Success of the policy will lie in prudent planning and its implementation. -Khalil-Ur-Rehman