La lógica del presupuesto

Manuel Navarro Weckmann

Nos encontramos en un periodo en el que se presentan y autorizan presupuestos, en este sentido, resulta muy importante el poder observar aquellos puntos en donde se deba de generar la idea de mejora, para colocar en el diálogo de la sociedad, aquellas circunstancias que se consideran pertinentes en este tiempo.

La educación, por la implicación que tiene en el contexto nacional, con 35 millones de estudiantes, más de un cuarto de millón de escuelas y alrededor de 2 millones de Trabajadores de la Educación, representa siempre un foco de atención, por lo que la Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) obtendrá un total de 280,969 millones de pesos en el marco del presupuesto para este 2018, el cual será del orden de los 5 billones 279,667 millones de pesos.

Al margen de los aspectos globales de este presupuesto, no debe de pasar desapercibido que, por cuarto año consecutivo, según datos de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP), se ha incrementado en un 45% el costo financiero del sector público.

Otra circunstancia que nos debe de ocupar, tiene que ver con los recursos que se aportan hacia el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología CONACyT), de donde se desprende gran parte del actuar de las Instituciones de Educación Superior de nuestro país, el cual, a pesar de que se asignaron 300 millones de pesos adicionales, va a contar con un presupuesto similar al del año 2014, así como el nulo aumento presupuestal a la educación indígena o el recorte al sector cultural en México.

Un claro punto de lo afirmado anteriormente, tiene que ver con la poca importancia que el gobierno federal brinda a los sueldos en el magisterio, como afirmó Claudia Costin, profesora de la Escuela de Educación de la Universidad de Harvard y exdirectora de educación del Banco Mundial a inicios de esta semana en el marco del Foro Mundial para la Innovación de la Educación WISE 2017, celebrado en Doha, Qatar, quien afirma que se requiere que México invierta “Más dinero porque uno no va a volver atractiva la carrera de profesor si se paga tan mal a los profesores, entonces, ¿cómo atraer talento para la profesión más importante de una sociedad, que es la transmisión de los conocimientos y las competencias para el futuro, si se paga tan mal a los profesores?”.

Afirmó además que lo que México invierte, que es el 5.2% del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) es muy poco y es superado por muchos países, de ahí que ello sea, además de las lamentables decisiones en el ámbito educativo por parte de las Secretarías del ramo de los diferentes niveles de gobierno, un factor muy importante de los lamentables resultados de la educación mexicana en exámenes internacionales como PISA, TALIS entre otros.

Lamentablemente la discusión en nuestras y nuestros legisladores más que en estos aspectos, se centró en la viabilidad de su “bono de marcha” en el que, por ejemplo, cada senador recibirá 2.4 millones de pesos por Seguro de Separación Individualizado, cantidad que se aleja mucho de lo que un trabajador común termina su relación laboral por haber servido 6 años a su empresa.

Fuente del articulo: http://www.educacionfutura.org/la-logica-del-presupuesto/

Fuente de la imagen: http://www.educacionfutura.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/presupuest

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Pakistan: Only half of education budget utilised thus far

Pakistan/ 30 may 2017/By Ammar Sheikh/Source:https://tribune.com.pk

LAHORE: 

Despite a steady increase in the development budget of schools in Punjab, the provincial government was able to spend only half of the allocated amount in the fiscal year as of April 30, 2017.

According to a summary of the development budget expenditure in the current fiscal year, the Punjab government has spent a little more than 52.56% of the total amount for the education sector. The summary of the Punjab Finance Department details expenditures up to April 30, 2017 of the development budget allotted in the budget of fiscal year 2016-17.

Documents available with The Express Tribune revealed that around Rs63.01 billion were allocated in the development budget under Education Affairs and Services. The document also provides an estimated expenditure until April, 2017, according to which a total of Rs52.51 billion were expected to be spent. However, the provincial government only managed to spend Rs33.12 billion until April, 2017.

The document breaks down the total development budget into four different heads for Pre and Primary Education Affairs and Services with a total development budget of Rs1.88 billion and expected expenditure of Rs1.56 billion. Just Rs354.292 million was amount spent until April, 2017. For the Secondary Education Affairs and Services, Rs47.29 billion had been allocated, with an expected expenditure of Rs39.41 billion and the spent amount stood at Rs22.33 billion.

 

For Tertiary Education Affairs and Services, Rs13.16 billion had been allocated with an expected expenditure of Rs10.96 billion with Rs10.28 billion spent. For Education Services Non-definable by Level, Rs669.013 million had been allocated with Rs557.511 million expected to be spent by April, 2017. However, only Rs148.593 million was spent.

A similar trend has been seen in previous years during which the Punjab government failed to utilise the allocated budget for development. According to the annual budget documents also available on the Punjab Finance Department’s website, for the fiscal year of 2014-15, Rs25.968 billion were allocated for school education, but only Rs19.653 billion were spent. Similarly, for the fiscal year 2015-16, a total of Rs32.849 billion were allocated for schools in the development budget, while only Rs13.926 billion were spent and reported in the revised expenditure for the fiscal year.

Associate Professor of Economics at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) Faisal Bari said the problem lay in the system whereby budgetary allocations were not released on time and were delayed in bureaucratic circles and the departments involved. With all the built-in delays in the system, a lot work remained incomplete. He said another problem was that government officials remained hesitant to spent money because of the lengthy mechanisms in place to account for funds spent. “An overhaul is needed in the government system with devolution of the decision-making process.”

Other problems Bari pointed out were that the government announces projects in the budget for political reasons, but did not intend to implement them. Because of such projects, he said, funds remained under-utilised. Another reason, he said, was reappropriation of funds, especially in the education budget.

“There is a need to increase the education budget even if we don’t have the capacity to spend the whole amount. Even with the argument that we have been unable to spend the allocated budget on education, we need to increase the capacity and fulfill the constitutional responsibility of Article 25-A and our international commitments of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Bari said.

When contacted for comments, Punjab School Education Minister Rana Mashhood said he was attending a ceremony in Multan and would be able to comment later. He was contacted several times subsequently, but did not respond.

Source:

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1420111/half-education-budget-utilised-thus-far/

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