Families spend 13pc of income on girls' schooling

Families with a daughter enrolled in a government secondary school spend an average of Rs5,899 a month on her education, about 13 per cent of their income, according to a report released at a conference in Islamabad on girls' education.

The Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) organised the national conference with the Malala Fund, Express News reported. Article 25-A of the Constitution makes education free in government schools, and the conference focused on the gap between what the state allocates for education and what families pay out of their own pockets to keep a girl in class.

Zehra Arshad, executive director of PCE, said the burden of reduced public financing for education had shifted to households. She said that when families have to bear the cost themselves, education stops being a right and becomes a compromise. Their out-of-pocket spending, she said, goes unrecognised in government education budgets, even though the real cost of keeping girls in school should be part of budget-making.

Dr Nishat Riaz, chief executive officer of the Malala Fund, said every budget should include the actual cost of keeping a girl in school and should remove the barriers that limit her access to education, her participation in class and her move to the next stage of study.

The programme included a panel led by girls, where secondary school girl champions described the financial and other obstacles to enrolling and staying in school. MNA Asia Naz Tanoli chaired the session and called for easing the cost burden on families, improving school facilities and raising public investment in education.

In a policy session, representatives of federal and provincial education departments described their efforts to increase public investment in education in the 2026-27 financial year. Participants agreed that limited budgets remain the biggest obstacle to meeting the sector's main targets, Express News reported.

Nausheen Adnan, an MPA and parliamentary secretary for education in Punjab, said key stakeholders, including legislators and senior decision-makers, do not fully understand the economics of education. She said the system should be built on full devolution so that people working locally can take decisions suited to their own areas and conditions.

The conference was told that government secondary schooling remains free under Article 25-A, while the report put the average monthly household cost of a girl's education at Rs5,899, or roughly 13 per cent of family income.