EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
The very scale of Pakistan’s education sector -- more than 150,000 public education institutions serving over 21 million students and a huge private sector that serves another 12 million – presents formidable challenges.
Expanding access and achieving gender parity
Literacy in Pakistan rose from 45 to 54 percent between 2002 and 2006, and net primary enrollment rates increased from 42 to 52 percent. But Pakistan’s participation rates remain the lowest in South Asia and there are wide male-female, inter-regional and rural-urban disparities:
- Only 22 percent of girls, compared to 47 percent boys, complete primary schooling
- Female literacy in rural Balochistan is only 32 percent compared to high urban male literacy rates (80 percent among urban male in Sindh)
Sustained efforts are needed to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals in education -- full primary completion and gender parity in enrolments.
Reducing the high dropout rates
School dropout rates are high starting, especially, at the secondary level:
- Only 30 percent of Pakistan’s children receive secondary education
- Only 19 percent attend upper secondary schools
Expanding and modernizing vocational and tertiary education
Better access, teaching and research are needed at the tertiary level to equip graduates with the high-level skills needed to build a knowledge economy. Currently:
- Tertiary enrollment rates are less than 5 percent of the eligible age cohort (17-23).
- Less than 8 percent of the work force receives formal training.
Improving education quality and governance
These challenges call for improvements in governance and greater accountability on the part of education service providers. This requires:
- Continued government commitment to education and policy reforms.
- Capacity building in institutions delivering education services.
- Increased investment in education which, currently at 2.3 percent of GDP, is among the lowest in South Asia.
The World Bank is assisting Pakistan to overcome these key challenges effectively, efficiently, and transparently across the education sector.
Improving Education Quality: Other reform programs in Pakistan are now emphasizing teacher professional development, textbooks development, and examination/assessment with the view to improving student learning and classroom environment. Monitoring of student learning through regular assessments is now happening with a National Education Assessment System supported by the Bank. Emerging analytical work includes a Learning and Educational Attainment in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) project which is based on extensive surveys conducted in three districts of Punjab, Impact Evaluations of specific interventions (including public private partnerships) for their potential scaling up (The impact of female stipend program, the evaluation of assistance to primary education) and a planned Education Sector Review.
Supporting Sectoral Reform: Since 2004, the World Bank has supported education sector reforms through development policy credit operations in Pakistan's four provinces (Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province, NWFP). Development policy credits promote public financial reforms and devolution of roles to local communities, making service providers more accountable. The operations also assist provincial governments with teacher recruitment, monitoring of teacher?s presence, targeted stipends and free textbooks to increase girls? enrolment, infrastructure improvements, and opening up textbook development to the private sector to improve the quality of learning materials.
Increasing Access to Schools: The World Bank supported the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program through a series of four one-year education development policy credits (1st project, 2nd project, 3rd project, and 4th project). It yielded substantial increases in enrollment in government primary and middle schools–especially among girls–in 15 districts identified as having the province’s lowest literacy rates. (See more on impact here and access the formal impact evaluation here.) Other Bank-supported reforms in NWFP (1st project and 2nd project) and Sindh (1st project and 1st series of projects), introduced similar measures to improve educational access and outcomes. Gross primary enrollment among girls increased by 11 percent between 2001/02 and 2004/05 - likely the result of concerted efforts to recruit more women teachers. Improving access and quality of primary education is also the objective of the project in Balochistan under implementation. In Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh, the World Bank is supporting the low cost private sector through education foundations to expand access to education in districts with large numbers of out of school children.
Reforming Higher Education: The World Bank’s Analytical support for the Higher Education Sector has been completed and a Higher Education Support Program is under preparation. Work is also underway to support college sector reforms.