Budgeting

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. - Diogenes Laertius

Education is a crucial ingredient for a person's professional development. Not only this, but it also helps a country to raise their standard of human resources, which could lead a country towards a path of success in the future ahead. But this could only be possible, if a country provides quality training and education facilities to their young generation.

An annual budget 2008-09 that outlines expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year of Pakistan has been announced and has broken all the expectations of the people of Pakistan. People were expecting lots of thing from the new government; but once again, our voices were unheard. The current budget has taped our lips to raise our voices regarding the rise in the price of even the basic commodities. Generally the budget is an addition to the woes of the poor as most of the subsidies on oil and food items have been slashed. The question is, what about us! It was promised by our Government that this year, the budget will be the Pro Poor Budget; but it proves to be the Rich friendly Budget. This is anti-poor and elitist budget. The government has announced the budget without considering that what will be the real outcomes of it on the lives of individuals.

We call ourselves living in a democratic country; but truly, we have no rights to raise our voices against the problems going on in our country. Due to deficit budget and lapse policies of our government, the rich people are becoming richer, while the poorer are trying their best to re-think about their existence.

The current budget, 2008-09 has not satisfied most of the ministries, especially the Education Budget is very low. The teachers, educators, writers and researchers are not satisfied with the decision, taken by government of our country, and it has thrown our intellectuals in the phase of shock. Every teacher expressed their grave concern over the allocation of inadequate budget for education sector in the new fiscal year and said that insufficient budget has exposed the priorities of the federal government as it has earmarked Rs 24.6 billion for this sector in the federal budget for 2008-09, which is just Rs100 million more than last year's. Education funds are more focused on higher education rather primary and secondary education. Every one was expecting that this time, the education budget will be improved, but the quality education is not in the luck of the citizens of Pakistan. The government says it is stepping up its allocation to deliver personalized learning for every child, but especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Government also claims that they will work for women education, especially for early children development; but despite of these tall talks, it is not yet achieved by our country.

Academicians, scholars and all the teachers are once again shocked and are in doubt, whether our country will ever look into the current situation of our education system? Our neighboring countries are trying their level best to provide good and sound education to their citizens, but in Pakistan, even the primary education is not available free of cost to the poor class, even though, it was the mandate of our national education policy 1998-2010. Despite a great deal of effort since the day of independence, academic achievement among students in Pakistan continues to lag behind. No doubt that we are moving towards the successful future, but our education system somehow, is hampering the progress of our country.

It is true that if we will prepare quality human resources in our country, then they will definitely serve our country and would help us to sustain in the world. But what education is for our government? I believe that it is an icon of burden for our government and it feels as if they don't want our country to survive and progress in the upcoming years. Although we know, that the solution to all the problems of our country is the provision of quality education, but that wish cannot be fulfilled, if the budget for education will not be increased. We have no proper resources, no stable human resources, no quality education; then how we can expect to survive in the upcoming years? The funds are being provided to our government for setting up schools, printing quality books, working for women education, primary education, etc., but what we have achieved independently to date?

It is truly said, that an education is a preparation for life; but the question is, how we can prepare our life, if the basic ingredient, i.e., education is being snatched from us!!

Our country is far more deprived in terms of providing quality education; not only because of the lack of serious attitude of the new generation towards this professions, but certain policies, methodologies, and restrictions are also playing a role of binding force behind our education system. Above all, the current budget is the basic reason for the depriving situation of education.
In our country, private schools have become a necessity for contemporary Pakistani society since the government has failed to provide quality education for its population. The condition of government schools all over the country and the quality of education being imparted there are going from bad to worse, day by day. Thousands of government schools are "ghost schools". We use to blame the private schools and colleges management for adding burden to the expenses of families; but what about the conditions of our government schools? Just visit their once, and you will appreciate the decision taken by you by entering your child to a private school by making both ends meet.

It is indeed very shameful to see that our defense budget is always more than our education budget. Our country progress is based on the younger generation. But it seems as if our government is not interested in the progress of our country. Until and unless quality education will be provided to our future generation, we couldn't expect any changes in the development of our country. The whole nation base is based on education. But just look at the status of our education system, text books, school set ups, and you will be glad to see that despite of our higher expectations from all the education policies, we have not reached to give primary education to the students. There is no doubt about that the current budget has been increased than the last budget, but the increament is very less. which shows that education is not in our priority. No government had paid much attention to the primary and women education sector in the country during 60 years as higher education has been promoted in the last few years only.

Currently, the government claims Pakistan has a literacy rate of 47%.But I believe that it is less than 10%. According to Ministry of Education, a literate person has been defined as "One who can read newspaper and write a simple letter in any language." If this is the definition of literacy, then we can't move ahead in this world.

To nurture the child in all dimensions, curriculum plays a significant role. If we look at the curriculum of our education system, we will be in a doubt whether it is a curriculum or not. Our curriculum is totally stagnant are being made under the panel of unqualified professionals. The best curriculum is the one, which can develop intellectual openness in pupils. But it's an unfortunate situation in Pakistan that our national curriculum did not have a functional, occupational, and cultural impact on students. Our curriculum is fragmented, because the learning experiences are organized in a way, which prevents learning itself. Every successive policy lays down a long list of objective, many of which are contradictory to each other. The proper allocation of budget could have solved this problem, but now, it is high time for the education ministry to work and focus on it.

Teachers training institutions are also not being set-up by our government, because we have a very less budget to cater the whole dimensions of education. The teachers in Pakistan are the victim of exclusive school and government policies. If a teacher initiates to bring changes in curriculum, or plan an action research, they are either being fired from job, or force to fasten their valuable opinions. The curriculum is not being designed according to the psychology of the students; but the teachers are being forced to teach, what is being given in the textbooks, which still are not standard one, due to lack of budget allocation every year for education.
ministry.

During my 8 years of teaching, I've evaluated that our education system is not meant to develop effectual skills and ideas in students. It's only promoting the culture of rote-learning rather than promoting logical thinking. The challenge for a teacher is to discourage rote learning and to appreciate intellectual learning. Our policy makers claim, that the national curriculum is designed in such a way, that it can build ethics, and social skills in students. But I disagree!

Overall, it is a high time for the people of Pakistan to raise their voices against the budget allocation for education. Because, education is the only way through which we can built our nation and could progress in all the areas in the coming years.