Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. Unfortunately, the country remains far from achieving this target. According to media reports, the national literacy rate has reached 63%, with male literacy at 73% and female literacy at 54%. Sadly, around 26 million children are currently out of school, with girls accounting for 13.7 million of them. This disparity is largely unaddressed due to the government's neglect of the education sector.

Only 2.0% of GDP is spent on education, and just Rs66.4 billion has been allocated as a recurring grant to the Higher Education Commission, whereas Rs838 billion has been allocated to the Benazir Income Support Programme. Is this not a clear case of underinvestment in education?

The state must reset its priorities and allocate more than 6% of GDP to education. Without that, Pakistan will only produce people who are dependent on state support rather than scientists, engineers, doctors,........

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