PESHAWAR: Participants of a seminar have stressed the need for efficient and transparent utilisation of education resources, stronger monitoring and oversight, and sustained collaboration among stakeholders to ensure that budgetary investments translated into tangible improvements in girls’ access to quality of education.

A post-budget seminar held here on Friday focused on the budget allocations for girls’ education in the fiscal year 2026-27, and called for gender tagging of the education budget and stronger oversight mechanisms to ensure effective utilisation of financial resources and address barriers to girls’ access to quality education, according to a statement issued here.

The Provincial Oversight and Advisory Committee on Girls’ Education of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) organised the seminar in collaboration with Blue Veins and Malala Fund.

KPCSW chairperson Dr Sumera Shams highlighted the efforts undertaken by the committee to ensure that the education budget for FY2026-27 is responsive to the needs of girls.

Also call for gender tagging of education budget

She said the committee had conducted consultations and meetings with relevant stakeholders and young girls and developed recommendations for gender-inclusive education budgeting, which were formally submitted to the education department for consideration in the 2026-27 education budget.

This year’s education budget increased by 10 per cent to Rs397 billion, with Rs21 billion allocated to the development budget.

The Annual Development Programme 2026-27 includes 73 new projects, including the Chief Minister Out-of-School Children initiative, Taleem Card, outsourcing of low-performing schools, provision of free textbooks, stipends, furniture and missing facilities, reconstruction of damaged schools, construction of additional classrooms, upgradation and standardisation of schools, STEM education, and making functional IT and computer laboratories.

Naseem Khan, deputy secretary (budget), said that a global virtual school had also been established by the education department to support AI-enabled digital learning for students and help address geographical barriers to educational access.

Syed Wiqar Shah, secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, noted that investment in girls’ education was an investment in the province’s social development.

Women parliamentarians Shazia Themas, Rehana Ismail and Aiman Jalil reaffirmed their commitment to using parliamentary tools and mechanisms to raise girls’ education concerns and follow up on the implementation of commitments made through the provincial education budget.

Shazia Atta, secretary KPCSW, emphasised that gender tagging of education budget, schemes and programmes was essential for tracking where resources were going, monitoring implementation on the ground and assessing whether investments were actually improving educational outcomes for girls.

Qamar Naseem, programme manager at Blue Veins, said, “Stronger multi-sectoral collaboration and greater synergy among government, parliament, and civil society are important to take forward the prioritised development initiatives for girls’ education.”

Fatiha Ayaz, member of the Rise and Shine Girls Education Leadership Network, highlighted persistent gaps in the provision of textbooks. She noted that despite annual allocations, girls often receive incomplete sets, books in poor condition, or textbooks only after a significant portion of the academic year has passed.

She called for robust monitoring mechanisms to ensure timely and quality delivery of textbooks to girls’ schools.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2026