Public Financing of Education in Pakistan: Analysis of Federal, Provincial and District Budgets

Although significant, the share of education in total provincial budgets is declining except for Balochistan. This year, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated the highest share of its provincial budget for education, i.e., 25 percent. The other three provinces have each earmarked 20 percent of their overall budgets for education in 2015-16. It is worth mentioning that except for Balochistan, the share of education has been on the decline. The share of education has declined from 26 percent of total budget in 2013-14 to 20 percent in 2015-16 for Punjab. For Sindh, it has gone down from 23 percent of its total budget in 2013-14 to 20 percent this year whereas for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the decline has been 4 percent; from 29 percent of its total budget in 2013-14 to 25 percent in 2015-16. For Balochistan, an increase has been reported in the share of education over the last 3 years starting from 18 percent in 2013-14 to 20 percent of the total budget in 2015-16.