Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

179

Figure 64 )

. This initiative is designed to increase the overall education budget efficiency as

increased training should improve the quality of teachers and therefore raise educational

outcomes.

Figure 64 Teacher Training Budgets 2015-2016 in Rs. Million

Source: I-SAPS (2016)

Fiscal decentralisation/provincial allocation mechanisms:

From a governance perspective,

one major challenge for fiscal decentralisation is the limited capacity of district level officials to

manage and oversee large educational budgets.

Another challenge arises in designing the best fiscal allocation rules for the provinces. All

provinces are given their share of funds according to the National Fiscal Commission and the

provinces distribute these funds through Provincial Finance Commissions

466

. The share by

province is largely consistent with population size: Punjab, the largest province, is allocated the

largest share of the education budget, followed by Sindh, KP and Balochistan. However, another

major ongoing debate in the education sector revolves around allocating by population or by

support needed. For instance, Balochistan and KP would receive smaller education budgets based

on their smaller populations but that would not take into account the additional educational needs

and disparities of these poorer provinces

467

as well as their added geography and safety

difficulties.

Policies

468

Long-term strategic plans: Focus on Access, Quality and Governance

While the prioritisation of education has been stated in several development plans, the

implementation of often ambitious education strategies has only been partially completed, as

attested by the educational indicators presented in Section 2. The national education policy

strategies in 1972, 1979 and 1992 all aimed at developing the education sector and to achieve

466

UNICEF (2013)

467

UNICEF (2013)

468

See Annex 3 for further details on policies and program examples

1.260

908

304

454

3.188

858

892

437

500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

3.000

3.500

Punjab

Sindh

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Balochistan

Rs. Million

Pre-Service In-Service