Pakistan

Punjab is the most populous province in Pakistan, with over 110 million people (54% of Pakistan’s population). Punjab has the largest education system in Pakistan, with over 24 million children enrolled in schools, both public and private.

Punjab province has developed its education development vision and strategies in the New Deal 2018-2023. The Punjab Education Sector Plan (PESP) 2019/2020 - 2023/24 builds on previous education reforms and reflects the vision and ongoing reforms as laid out in the New Deal. The School Education Department (SED), the Special Education Department (SpEd) and the Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education Department (LNFBED) have a joint responsibility for the delivery of basic education in Punjab for children aged 5-16.

The basic education system in Punjab consists of pre-primary, primary (grades 1-5), middle/ elementary (grades 6-8), secondary education (grades 9-10) and higher secondary education (grades 11-12).

In recent years, the government of Punjab has undertaken a series of reforms to address both demand and supply-side education bottlenecks, including campaigns and incentives for school enrollment through stipends to girl students. New governance structures were put in place at central and district levels to strengthen operational capacity and management.

Teacher training was decentralized to the district and cluster levels, and more emphasis was attached to subject content and pedagogy. Curriculum was revised to place more focus on scientific learning. Formative assessments were gradually introduced at post-primary levels. Efforts were being made to improve school facilities to create a more conducive learning environment.

Education outcomes remain weak in Sindh. Inequities in access to education occur between districts, rural and urban areas, the poor and the non-poor, and between genders. Generally, girls in rural areas as well as boys and girls from households in the lowest income quintiles are at the highest risk of being out of school.

Improving governance and accountability within the education system, notably through the better management of teachers and resources, is seen as the most important undertaking to foster improvements in education outcomes.

The Sindh Education Sector Plan 2014-2018 focuses on increasing access to education for the most-marginalized children including girls, and improving learning outcomes along with governance and accountability of the education sector.

The main objectives of the plan are:

1. Increasing equitable access to quality early childhood education, primary, and secondary education with the aim of eliminating social exclusion, enhancing transitions, promoting social cohesion and providing greater opportunities for access, participation and learning to marginalized groups, particularly girls.
2. Improving the quality of learning outcomes by providing teachers with tools to conduct ongoing classroom assessments of learning in core subjects such as reading and mathematics, increasing funding for quality-enhancing inputs such as reading materials, science equipment and textbooks, as well as quality assurance standards focusing on learning outcomes rather than inputs.
3. Strengthening the governance and service delivery by improving capacity at the school, district, and provincial levels including but not limited to agreed school standards and strong public-private partnerships.
4. Enhancing equitable resource allocation and improving the fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of educational expenditure, thereby fostering transparency and accountability in the use of public resources.

The US$66 million GPE grant aimed to strengthen the institutional capacity to generate, disseminate and use information to support the implementation of key reforms under the education sector plan. It was supervised by the World Bank.

The funds financed two components:

1. Systems strengthening, which supports interventions in the following three reform areas:
   • Sindh School Monitoring System to support the design and roll out of a school monitoring system for collecting, analyzing, disseminating and using data on specific school-level indicators, including student enrollment and teacher presence.
   • Human Resources Monitoring and Information System to strengthen the management of teaching and non-teaching staff.
   • Communications strengthening to design a communications strategy and other communication and consultation activities.
2. Program support, focused on technical, advisory, and capacity-building support to develop, implement, and monitor the focus areas under the project.

The Sindh LEG includes 35 members including representatives from the Sindh Education and Literacy Department (ELD), Canada, DFID, JICA, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank, the European Union, private sector and civil society organizations. UNICEF is the coordinating agency.