Introduction

Idara-e-Taleem o Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with Oxfam GB (OGB) hosted the ‘Finance More to Educate More’ seminar at the Islamabad Hotel on the 17thof September, in celebration of International Literacy Day 2015. International Literacy Day takes place on the 8th of September every year in order to raise awareness around the world on what our goals in terms of education are and how our progress is so far. According to the Pakistan Data Portal, Pakistan’s education budget for the year 2015-2016 was set as just 2.1% of the fiscal budget. Therefore, in line with the International Literacy Day 2015 theme of Sustainable Societies, ITA created a platform for education experts as well as the youth to discuss and put forward recommendations regarding educationfinancing and effective budget allocations for schools. The recommendations would also be suggested for the upcoming revision of the National Education Policy 2009, scheduled to release in January 2016.
The foundation of the seminar was regarding the Right to Education Act, Article 25-Aand also the Sustainable Development Goal #4 on ensuring inclusive education and promoting lifelong learning.  More specifically, the seminar addressed the need for an increase in funding between three important sessions; ‘Quantity vs Quality’, ‘Gender Responsive Financing’ and ‘Social Accountability’.