RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP stood at 2 percent, the lowest in the South Asian region, while literacy rate further declined from 60 percent to 58 percent, revealed the Economic Survey (2014-15), released here on Thursday.

The total expenditure on education has remained around 2 percent of GDP for the past decade, with a high proportion being spent on recurrent heads mainly salaries, leaving a small amount for education sector development. According to UNESCO’s EFA Global Monitoring report 2015, the Public Sector expenditure on Education as percentage of GDP, in other countries of the region was 2.1 percent of Bangladesh, 4.9 percent in Bhutan, 3.2 percent in India, 4.7 percent in Iran and 8 percent in Maldives.

Literacy rate is one of the important indicators of education as its improvement is likely to have a long run impact on other important indicators of national welfare. However the literacy rate of the population (10 years and above) is 58 percent as compared to 60 percent in 2012-13 showing a decline of 2 percent. The data shows that literacy remains higher in urban areas (74 percent) than in rural areas (49 percent), and is more prevalent for men (81 percent) compared to women (66 percent) in urban areas. Province wise data suggests that Punjab leads with 61 percent followed by Sindh with 56 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa with 53 percent and Balochistan with 43 percent.

According to the survey the overall education situation based on key indicators such as likely enrolments, number of institutes and teachers depicted a slight improvement. The total number of enrolments during 2013-14 was recorded at 42.1 million as compared to 41.1 million during the same period last year. This indicates an increase of 2.4 percent and it is estimated to increase to 43.4 million during 2014-15. The number of institutes stood at 240.9 thousands during 2013-14 as compared to 241.5 thousands during last year, showing a slightly decline of 0.2 percent. However, the number of institutes is estimated to have increased to 244.9 thousands during 2014-15. The number of teachers during 2013-14 was recorded at 1.53 million as compared to 1.55 million during last year showing a decline of 1.2 percent. This number of teachers is estimated to increase further to 1.57 million during the year 2014-15.

The Net Enrolment Rate (NER) at the national level during 2013-14 remained at 57 percent. Province wise comparison reveals that Punjab NER slightly improved to 64 percent in 2013-14 as compared to 62 percent in 2012-13 while NER of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa remained at 54 percent. Sindh NER declined to 48 percent in 2013-14 as compared to 52 percent in 2012-13; while Balochistan also witnessed a declined to 39 percent in 2013-14 as compared to 45 percent in 2012-13. The decline in Balochistan and Sindh enrolment rates is probably due to tribal and feudal social systems, not supportive of education for female and poor classes.