Although the government has claimed that it has given importance to education sector and that the education budget has been increased. That is not the case in actual practice.
In real terms, the federal education budget, announced on June 3 has been decreased by over Rs1 billion. And after vectoring in inflation the education budget has been decreased by 11 per cent.
It is pertinent to mention that an estimate of Rs80 billion was announced for education in the fiscal budget of 2013-14. And during a revised estimate, a budget of Rs87.8 billion was allocated.
However, on Tuesday, a federal education budget of Rs86.4 billion was announced, which is 1.6 per cent less than the revised estimate of last year.
According to Economic Survey 2013-14, inflation was 8.7 per cent. So, if inflation rate is deducted from the education budget, an overall decrease of 11 per cent will be observed and the budget becomes equal to Rs78.9 billion in real terms.
