PESHAWAR: Participants at a consultative session on education financing have stressed the need for equitable allocation and effective utilization of funds to promote quality education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The session was organized by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) at the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences), Peshawar. Collaboration was struck with the German development agency GIZ and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department. Representatives from various media organizations attended the event.
The session was part of the activities of a research project titled “Promoting Equity Budgeting in Elementary & Secondary Education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”It aims to strengthen inclusive and equitable education financing by improving budgeting, planning, and accountability processes within the provincial education system.
The project is focused on supporting the education department in analyzing existing budgeting practices and institutionalizing equity-based budgeting tools through organizational capacity building, with a particular emphasis on improving access to education for vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Presentations were delivered by Dr. Zafar Saleem, Team Leader at CPPR, and Sumaira Shams, gender expert, who highlighted the concept of equity in education budgeting and shared insights from ongoing research.
This was followed by a discussion in which participants identified key gaps in the education system and offered recommendations to address the problems.
The speakers said that despite constitutional guarantees under Article 25-A, which mandates free and compulsory education for all children, an estimated 4.9 million children in KP were out of school.
Participants observed that current budgeting practices largely rely on uniform allocations, which spread resources thinly across the system and fail to address the distinct challenges faced by marginalized groups.
They said that children’s educational barriers vary widely based on factors such as poverty, geography, gender, disability, minority, refugee status and legal recognition. As a result, equal distribution of funds does not translate into fair outcomes. A child from an urban, middle-class background, participants noted, has vastly different opportunities compared to a rural girl, a child with a disability, a transgender student or an Afghan refugee child.
While the provincial government’s declaration of an education emergency reflects recognition of the crisis, participants stressed that focusing solely on enrollment numbers without addressing underlying inequities risks producing superficial results. They argued that equity budgeting -directing greater resources to areas and groups with greater needs – is essential to break cycles of exclusion.
Research findings shared during the session revealed that vulnerable and disadvantaged areas remain underfunded, with no dedicated allocations to address shortages in infrastructure, teachers, accessibility measures, or targeted support programs.
Household surveys and budget analyses further indicate disparities between urban and rural areas, boys and girls, and rich and poor households, with rural girls being the most excluded.
