It is today’s fact that education is the single tool through which a cure for all social evils is possible. Education plays its role in imparting the advanced skills and knowledge to meet today’s demands. The world in this modernized era is completely dependent on the knowledge economy, which is the sole cause of economic prosperity and development. Similarly, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26 states that “Everyone has the right to education.” And likewise, the United Nations, Education for All slogans and the Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. But unfortunately, education has remained an ignored sector for underdeveloped countries.
Pakistan is no exception; with a 220.9 million population, it is the 5th largest country in the world and has only a 59.13 percent literacy rate, (survey, 2022). This deplorable percentage of literacy rate not only contradicts Article 25 (A) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which ensured that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law,” but also with the valuable words of Quaid-e-Azam, the founder of Pakistan, who insisted that without education it is complete darkness and with education it is light. Education is a matter of life and death for our nation. The world is moving so fast that if you do not educate yourselves, you will be not only completely left behind but also finished up.
Despite being the most populous country in the world, there are 141 public sector universities in Pakistan, where approximately 1.6 million students are enrolled (statistic, 2017-18) and about 56.9 thousand instructors. On the one hand, due to a severe shortage of educational institutions, and on the other hand, the unfair distribution of the budget for the Higher Education Commission further endangers the already paralyzed survival of higher education.
The federal budget for fiscal years 2022–23, which is Rs. 9502 billion in volume, was unveiled on June 10, 2022, and has pushed the situation from bad to worse. Only 65 billion is allocated to the Higher Education Commission, which is less than the rationalized demand of Rs 104.983 billion. The drastic cut in HEC funding has put the survival of 141 public sector universities in severe jeopardy. While hearing about this severe reduction of financial grants, the Vice-Chancellors of more than 120 universities held a virtual meeting on such a condemnable act of the government and strongly demanded an additional grant of Rs. 15 billion from the government. They further warned the government that if the allocated budget was not as per the demand, it would either increase student fees drastically, which would bring severe repercussions and a dent in the quality of learning and graduates, or the universities would not be able to survive and would almost fail to make it possible to pay salaries and pensions.
Similarly, all the nations unanimously agreed on the importance of education and considered it responsible for sustainable development. But unfortunately, Pakistan ranks 125th in the world due to its poor education system. On the one hand, the very deplorable condition of the state’s education system, and on the other hand government’s grant is ashamed. Similarly, the imbalance budget for the Higher Education Commission, the Defense budget, which is Rs. 1523 billion, comprised 45.4 percent of the budget, and the Health budget, which was reduced from 154 billion last year to Rs. 19 billion for the fiscal year 2022–23, amazed the educated slot for such an unfair distribution.
While concluding my views, it is strongly demanded that, if the government is serious about the socio-economic development of the country, it is the need of the day to remove this unfair distribution of funds and to keep the educational institutions on top priorities for sustainable development of the country. There is already a huge gap between the HEC demand and the budget provided to them, if the government ignores this sector further, then what would the future of the state be
