Financing Education

Malik, R., &Naveed, A. (2012). Financing Education in Pakistan: The Impact of Public Expenditure and Aid on Educational Outcomes. RECOUP Working Paper, 42.

This paper presents a broad picture of the state of education financing in Pakistan by tracing the trends in two sources of public financing – state and donor funding and also analyses what these trends a) reveal about relationship between the country and donors; b) imply with regard to the trajectory of trends in observed educational outcomes. It is demonstrated that the nature and success of donor influence varies at various levels. Despite the apparent commitment of the state, prolonged donor presence and influence, as well asfinancing and governance reforms in the education sector as a whole, obligations to ensure minimum basic outcomes have not been kept up.However, this paper has demonstrated that aid to education has played a significant role in determining policy priorities since the 1990s. It appears to have made a greater impact through project aid – such as teacher training or school sponsorship – than through the newer modalities such as SWAps. Despite being less aid-dependent than many of its developing counterparts in South Asia, donor involvement in the education sector in Pakistan has contributed to improvements to a number of indicators of educational outputs in the country since the 1990s, however significant gender, regional and rural-urban disparities remain.

http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/PDF/Outputs/ImpOutcomes_RPC/RECOUP-Pakistan-WP42.pdf

Mukhtar, E.M. (2011). Macro Trends in Financing of Education in Pakistan. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

This study presents national trends on financing of education in the context of achievement of the EFA goals and MDGs. It analyses the data on budget allocations or actual expenditure of the education sector to ascertain trends and priorities of the government. A comparison of the education and non education expenditure shows that the non education expenditure shows a much steadier trend. This is due to the fact that any fiscal shock leads to a cut in the social sector expenditure. Furthermore, it is the development expenditure rather than the current expenditure, which falls short of the budget. This is because a development budget is easier to cut without political repercussions since it does not involve salaries. The report also draws attention to the prioritization in the subsectors, demonstrating that the primary sector has the most allocation, while vocational education is the most neglected sub sector.

http://unesco.org.pk/education/documents/publications/Macro_Trends_in_Financing_of_Education.pdf