Two recent disclosures in Pakistan’s education sector illustrate a troubling reality: the system is neither receiving the resources nor the governance it urgently requires.
First, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) informed the National Assembly that its federal budget has remained virtually unchanged since 2018. With inflation, rising operational costs, and expanding enrolments, this stagnation is unjustifiable. Universities face financial strain, and students’ access to quality higher education is increasingly precarious.
Second, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued show-cause notices to 17 private school systems for forcing parents to purchase expensive branded notebooks, uniforms, and study packs. This exploitation of captive parents is a symptom of a tiered educational system, where quality depends on what a family can pay, more than what institutions deliver.
Together, these issues underscore how education has been reduced to a political football. The neglect of higher education funding and the unchecked commercialisation of private schooling reveal the same core failure: a governance system that treats education as expendable rather than foundational. Education cannot remain a partisan issue. The notion that access to quality schooling and university should depend on socio-economic status undermines societal progress and equity. When part of the population receives sub-standard schooling while another is subjected to exploitative practices, the state is failing its obligations to all citizens and diminishing the country’s future growth potential.
To reverse this trend, several initiatives are required: a comprehensive review and increase of higher education funding aligned with inflation and expansion; stronger regulation of private schools to prevent profiteering; enforcement of transparent fee structures; investment in teacher training and infrastructure; and policies aimed at uprooting regional and class-based disparities in education.
A system that fails to invest in its people forfeits its promise. Pakistan’s lost potential can only be retrieved through strategic thinking, governance reform, and authentic commitment to education for all.
