Evaluating Cluster-based Budget Utilization in the Government Schools of Balochistan: A Case Study of District Quetta with Focus on Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Abstract

In Balochistan the government schools’ budget is devolved and allocated based on students' enrollment at the gross-root levels. The high and higher secondary schools administer the budget and distribute it among the middle and primary schools in the close vicinity, as fixed in the clustering System. The system is identified in term as education cluster budget. It Ensures transparency in the utilization of the budget. The education officers in all districts are made responsible for evaluating the efficacy and transparent utilization of this budget. The process is called an internal audit. The present study was carried out to evaluate the utilization of the cluster budget and identify the flaws in utilizing this budget. For this purpose, the evaluation research method was adopted to scrutinize and asses the fair consumption of allocated budget. The data was gathered from the principals and head teachers of the high and higher secondary schools in the district Quetta. The district has 138 high and higher secondary schools; however, due to time constraints this study was limited to collecting data from 57 schools. The findings outlined unsatisfactory conclusions in identifying governance, academic and procedural flaws. The schools’ heads were found involved in corrupt practices while showing fake bills, misuse of budget, weak documentation and no or weak delivery in many cases. The study categorized the results into three parts: satisfactory, non-satisfactory, and worst or corrupt, based on different indicators. Contextually, 10 schools were found to be satisfactory, 33 schools were in the category of non-satisfactory, and 14 schools were declared worst or corrupt and completely failed in fulfilling the required targets.