Despite decades of rhetoric and a plethora of promises, the education sector in Pakistan suffers from underinvestment, misallocation, and policy inconsistency. The Federal Education Budget for FY 2025 — with an allocation of PKR 102 billion — has been presented. It is a sign of renewed commitment to national progress; however, complex and troubling realities persist. Pakistan remains one of the lowest spenders on education in South Asia, and this budget does little to break that pattern.
The current government hails the 12% increase from last year’s allocation of PKR 91 billion as a milestone. However, these increased figures remain insufficient to tackle the problems infesting the education sector in Pakistan—a country where 22 million children are out of school, where 75% of Grade 5 students cannot read a sentence in Urdu or English. In addition to the gender disparities, persisting across rural districts, hampering access to education. Under such circumstances, this fiscal bump is neither ambitious nor transformative.
Systemic and Fiscal Limitations
Undoubtedly, the allocation of PKR 102 billion appears significant. Pakistan’s education spending remains under 2% of GDP — far below the global average of 4.3% and UNESCO’s recommended 4–6%. The gradual rise in allocations is neutralised by inflation, population growth, systemic and structural problems. When adjusted for purchasing power and per-child spending, the budget reveals a regressive trend, not a progressive one.
Furthermore, provincial education budgets remain constrained due to financial and spending limitations. The persistent disconnect between constitutional devolution and financial control remains a key bottleneck in addressing education sector disparities across provinces.
Focus on Infrastructure
The 2025 budget focuses on infrastructure as well. Allocations have been earmarked for constructing classrooms, upgrading school buildings, and expanding access in rural areas, particularly in Balochistan, Southern Punjab, and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These interventions are needed, considering the lack of physical facilities and infrastructural development in these regions.
However, focusing on infrastructure without parallel investment in quality of education, curriculum reform, teacher training, and learning assessments risks creating school structures that fail to deliver substantive educational outcomes.
Historically, up to 85% of public education budgets in Pakistan are consumed by salaries and administrative costs. Spending on pedagogy, training, and innovation — the real levers of education quality — remains negligible. The current budget reflects this same imbalance, with no major allocations for digital learning, modern pedagogical tools, or performance-based teacher evaluations.
Promises of increased spending on the education sector sound wonderful and beneficial; however, past patterns suggest a stark gap in implementation. Even the policy of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) now stands as a cautionary tale. Initially positioned as a unifying reform, it has been criticised for ideological bias, poor planning, and failure to account for regional and linguistic diversity.
Overlooking Equity: Women, Rural Communities, and Special Needs
Pakistan’s educational crisis is also about equity and gender disparities. The majority of out-of-school children are girls, from rural and tribal districts, showing the highest dropout and non-enrolment rates. In places like Tharparkar, Kohistan, and Makran, distance, insecurity, and sociocultural norms amalgamate to impede women’s access to education. A truly responsive budget would offer conditional incentives, community outreach programmes, and gender-segregated facilities to overcome this issue.
Similarly, early childhood education — a proven determinant of long-term learning outcomes — remains severely underfunded. Special education and inclusive access for children with disabilities are absent from the national discourse, despite ratified commitments.
Devolution Without Decentralisation
While education is a devolved subject post-18th Amendment, effective decentralisation remains elusive. Provincial education departments lack adequate resources to implement positive changes. Without empowering provinces to make context-specific decisions, monitor outcomes, and manage schools based on local realities, national targets will remain elusive.
Global examples such as Vietnam and Rwanda demonstrate how decentralised accountability, paired with robust national frameworks, can yield measurable improvements in literacy and learning.
Disconnect between Demographics and Job Realities
Crucially, the education budget remains disconnected from broader economic and human development strategies. In a country where nearly 60% of the population is under the age of 25, education policy should be closely aligned with labour market needs, technological shifts, and global competitiveness. There is little in the budget that addresses technical and vocational education (TVET), digital skills training, or alignment with Pakistan’s evolving employment landscape.
The consequence is a growing skills mismatch, with graduates emerging from the education system unprepared for either local or global job markets — a costly oversight in an already fragile economy.
The Leap Pakistan Still Needs
The Education Budget 2025 marks a modest step forward in numbers, but it remains a cautious, politically calibrated document rather than a transformative blueprint. Without systemic reforms — including decentralised governance, targeted equity programmes, curriculum overhaul, and quality-focused funding — the promised gains are unlikely to materialise.
For education to become more than a political slogan, it must be backed by strategic intent, measurable outcomes, and institutional reform. Pakistan does not merely need more schools — it needs an overhauled education system that is inclusive, responsive, and fit for the future. Until that vision takes root, budgetary increases will remain unfruitful, negligibly contributing to national progress.
