Low education budget worries teachers as varsities struggle to pay salaries, pensions

Teachers on Wednesday voiced their concerns over what they claimed was inadequate budget allocation for the higher education sectors, stating that this allocation is insufficient to meet the rapidly increasing financial needs of the higher education sector. For fiscal year 2025-26, the federal government earmarked Rs66.4 billion recurring budget (non-development expenditure including salaries and pensions) for the higher education sector against the demand of Rs84.6 billion put up by the Higher Education Commission. Sources in HEC stated that regulatory body had submitted a budget proposal of Rs84.6 billion under its funding portfolio as recurring grant; however, the government allocated Rs66.4 billion. For the upcoming fiscal year, the government imposed a cut on the development budget, as for financial year 2025-26, an allocation of Rs39.4 billion has been made for development projects against the previous year’s allocation of Rs65 billion.