pakistan district education management and service delivery … · 2019. 7. 8. · similarly, in...

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Report on Education Management and Service Delivery at the District Level in Pakistan

Pakistan

District Education Management and

Service Delivery Study (P166880)

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Contents

Acronyms .................................................................................................................................. 5

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 7

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 15

1.1 Context and Approach ................................................................................................ 15 1.2 Objective and Scope of the Study ............................................................................... 16

1.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 18 1.4 Structure of the Report ............................................................................................... 18

BALOCHISTAN .................................................................................................................... 21

EDUCATION GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE DELIVERY CAPACITIES ............... 21

2.1 Education in Balochistan at a Glance ........................................................................ 21 2.1.1. An Overview of Education Policy Landscape ....................................................... 21 2.1.2. Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools ............................................................................................................................. 22 2.1.3 Process Flow in Core Education Functions: Horizontal and Vertical Linkages ..... 27

2.2 Horizontal Operational Constraints and Capacity Challenges: The Provincial

Tier ...................................................................................................................................... 29

2.2.1. Administrative Inefficiencies, Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps ...... 30 2.2.2. High Turnover in Appointments at Key Provincial Posts ..................................... 32

2.2.3 Ad-hoc Appointments and Capacity Challenge ...................................................... 32 2.2.4 Lack of Need-based and Demand-driven Budgeting .............................................. 32 2.2.5. Political Economy of Education Service Delivery ................................................ 32

2.2.6. Missing Data on Private Schools ........................................................................... 33 2.2.7. Communication and Coordination Challenges ...................................................... 33 2.2.8. Capacity and Financial Resource Constraints........................................................ 34

2.3 Vertical Coordination and Service Delivery Challenges: The District and Sub-

District Tiers ....................................................................................................................... 34

2.3.1. Inconsistent Transfer Pattern and Frequent Transfers and Postings ...................... 34 2.3.2. Diluting Powers of Education Managers: .............................................................. 35

2.3.3. Management Capacity and Skills Gap ................................................................... 35 2.3.3 Less Involvement of District Tier in Planning ........................................................ 35 2.3.4. Lack of Institutional Capacity for Data-based Planning and Feedback ................. 35

2.3.5. Average Time Spent by District Management on Different Tasks........................ 36 2.3.6. Job Descriptions of Sub-District Officials ............................................................. 36

2.3.7. Initiatives to Improve School Participation and Quality........................................ 36 2.3.8. Time Spent by Sub-district Officials on Different Tasks during School Visits .... 37 2.3.9. Limited Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-

District Tiers .................................................................................................................... 37 2.3.10. District Official Capacity Needs .......................................................................... 37

PUNJAB: ................................................................................................................................ 40

Education Governance and District Service Delivery Capacities ..................................... 40

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3.1 Education in Punjab at a Glance .................................................................................... 40

3.1.1 An Overview of Education Policy Landscape ........................................................ 40 3.1.2 Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools ............................................................................................................................. 41

3.1.3 Management Processes on Core Education Functions: Horizontal and Vertical

Linkages ........................................................................................................................... 45 3.2 Horizontal Operational Constraints and Capacity Challenges: The Provincial

Tier ...................................................................................................................................... 48 3.2.1. Administrative Inefficiencies, Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps ...... 48

3.2.2. High Turnover of Senior Officials ......................................................................... 50 3.2.3. Capacity and Human Resource Deficits ................................................................ 50 3.2.4. Political Will and Support ...................................................................................... 51

3.2.5. Political Economy of Education Service Delivery ................................................ 51 3.2.6. Operational Coordination and Communication Challenges .................................. 51 3.2.7. Delays in Transfer and Release of Funds .............................................................. 52

3.3 District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges ............................................. 52 3.3.1. Frequent Transfers and No Performance Framework ............................................ 52

3.3.2. Average Time Spent on Different Tasks ............................................................... 53 3.3.3. Job Descriptions and Awareness of Mandated Roles ............................................ 53 3.3.4. Initiatives to Improve School Participation and Quality........................................ 53

3.3.5. Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits ............................................ 54 3.3.6. Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-District

Tiers ................................................................................................................................. 54

3.3.7. Delays in Budget Release and Low Absorptive Capacity ..................................... 55 3.3.8. Lack of Institutional Capacity for Evidence-Based Planning and Budgeting ....... 55

3.3.9. District and School Capacity Needs ...................................................................... 56

SINDH:.................................................................................................................................... 58


4.1 Education in Sindh at a Glance .................................................................................. 58

4.1.1. An Overview of Education Policy Landscape ....................................................... 58 4.1.2. Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools ............................................................................................................................. 59 4.1.3 Management Process in Core Education Functions: Horizontal and Vertical


Tier ...................................................................................................................................... 65 4.2.1. Administrative Inefficiencies, Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps ...... 65 4.2.2. Frequent Transfers of Senior Officials .................................................................. 66 4.2.3. Political Economy of Education Service Delivery ................................................ 66 4.2.4. Staffing Gap and Ad hoc Appointments ................................................................ 67

4.2.5 Lack of Need-based and Demand-driven Budgeting .............................................. 67 4.2.6. Coordination and Communication Challenge ........................................................ 67

4.3 District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges ............................................. 68 4.3.1. Frequent Transfers and Postings ............................................................................ 68 4.3.2. Management Capacity and Skills Gap ................................................................... 68

4.3.3. District Top Tier’s Average Time Spent on Key Tasks ........................................ 68 4.3.4. Lack of Orientation on Job Descriptions ............................................................... 68 4.3.5. Initiatives to Improve School Participation and Quality........................................ 69

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4.3.6. Sub-district Official’s Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits ........ 69

4.3.7. Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-District

Tiers ................................................................................................................................. 69 4.3.8. Lack of Competent Teaching Resource in Sufficient Numbers ............................ 70

4.3.9. District and School Capacity Needs ...................................................................... 70

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA .............................................................................................. 72


5.1 Education in KP at a Glance ....................................................................................... 72 5.1.1 An Overview of Education Policy Landscape ........................................................ 72

5.1.2 Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools ............................................................................................................................. 72



Tier ...................................................................................................................................... 78 5.2.1. Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps ....................................................... 78 5.2.2. High Turn-over of Senior Officials........................................................................ 78

5.2.3. Communication and Coordination Challenges ...................................................... 78

5.2.4. Low Share of School Education in Budget Allocations ........................................ 79 5.2.5. Political Economy of Education: Disparities in District Wise Public Spending ... 79

5.3. District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges ............................................ 79 5.3.1. Frequent Transfers in District Management .......................................................... 79 5.3.2. Management Capacity and Skills Gap ................................................................... 80

5.3.3. Coordinating District Education Management with Local Government System .. 80

5.3.4. District Management’s Average Time Spent on Different Tasks .......................... 80 5.3.5. Initiatives to Improve School Participation and Quality........................................ 81 5.3.6. Disconnect between Planning and Budgeting, and Local Level Challenges ......... 81

5.3.7. Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits ............................................ 81 5.3.8. Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-District

Tiers ................................................................................................................................. 81 5.3.9. District and School Capacity Needs ...................................................................... 82

Conclusion and Recommendations ...................................................................................... 84

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Acronyms

AEO Assistant Education Officer

ASDEO Assistant Sub-Divisional Education Officer

BAEC Balochistan Assessment and Examination Commission

BEMIS Balochistan Education Management Information System

BOC Bureau of Curriculum

BPEIRRA Balochistan Private Educational Institute Registration and Regulation

Authority

BTBB Balochistan Textbook Board

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CLC Children Library Complex

CW Curriculum Wing

DCAR Directorate of Curriculum, Assessments and Research

DCTE Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education

DDEO Deputy District Education Officer

DEA District Education Authority

DEG District Education Group

DEO District Education Officer

DHRT Directorate of Human Resource and Training

DIRPI Directorate of Inspection & Registration of Private Institutions

ECE Early Childhood Education

EFA Education for All

EMIS Education Management Information System

ERW Education Reforms Wing

ESED Elementary and Secondary Education Department

ESEF Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation

ESRU Education Sector Reforms Unit

FGD Focus Group Discussion

GER Gross Enrolment Rate

GIR Gross Intake Rate

GPI Gender Parity Index

I-SAPS Institute of Social and Policy Sciences

JD Job Description

LC Learning Coordinator

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KPK Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

KP-ESP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Sector Plan

NEMIS National Education Management Information System

NER Net Enrolment Rate

NTS National Testing Service

OOSC Out of School Children

PCTB Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board

PDSA Punjab Danish School Authority

PEC Punjab Examination Commission

PEF Punjab Education Foundation

PESP Punjab Education Sector Plan

PITE Provincial Institute of Teachers Education

PPIU Program Planning and Implementation Unit

QAED Quaid-e-Azam Academy of Educational Development

RITE Regional Institute of Teachers Education

SABER Systems Approach for Better Education Results

SAT Standardized Achievement Test

SBEP School Based Education Program

SDEO Dub-Divisional Education Officer

SDG Sustainable Development Goals

SED-B Secondary Education Department - Balochistan

SED School Education Department

SELD School Education and Literacy Department

STEDA Sindh Teachers Education and Development Authority

SNE Schedule for New Expenditures

SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunities Threat

TEO Taluka Education Officer

TO Taluka Officer

TPV Third Party Validation

UNDP Unite Nations Development Programme

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNICEF United Nations Children Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

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Executive Summary

After the introduction of 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, there has been significant

reconfiguration in education policy, planning, governance management processes and service

delivery across all provinces. Provincial governments have taken a number of steps at

provincial, district and school tiers to improve education services. Despite wide ranging

initiatives at provincial and district levels, the challenge of effective education service delivery

continues to persist across all provinces.

Effective education service delivery essentially depends on the effectiveness of institutional

arrangements, operational coordination as well as management and service delivery capacities

in place from provincial to district and school tiers. Therefore, this study analyses1: (a)

institutional and administrative structure of education departments at provincial and district

levels; (b) the efficacy of horizontal coordination among departments, administrative units and

stakeholders at provincial tier and at district tier; (c) the effectiveness of district’s vertical

coordination mechanisms both up-ward with the provincial entities and down-ward with the

service delivery units (sub-district and school levels); and (d) the institutional and human

resource capacities especially at district and sub-district level.

In this context, this study assesses education management and service delivery capacities and

coordination mechanisms in all provinces. The study also maps horizontal and vertical

coordination challenges within and across respective education departments, attached

institutions and the district tier of education administration in all provinces. In drawing its

inferences, the study benefits from extensive literature review, quantitative and qualitative data

collected through key informant interviews at provincial and district tiers, and survey and focus

group discussions (FGDs) at the district level. The data collection at district level was carried

out through key informant interviews with top-two tiers of district administration and focus-

group discussions with head-teachers of high schools. A survey was also conducted with the

lowest tier of education administration in select districts across all provinces. The study

identifies following service delivery capacity challenges common across the provinces and

districts.

Key Findings and Inferences:

1. Education Departments are Configured Differently across Provinces. For example,

in Punjab there are different departments with administrative heads and paraphernalia

for school education department, whereas there is a different department for non-formal

education named Literacy, Non-Formal and Basic Education (LNFBE) department.

Similarly, in case of Balochistan, the function of non-formal education is the mandate

of the Social Welfare Department. However, in case of Sindh, both functions are

performed by the same department i.e. School Education and Literacy Department.

Like Sindh, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Directorate of Elementary and Secondary

Education (DESE) is the key provincial entity that is mandated to manage both formal

and non-formal education functions. The diverse education governance landscape

warrants distinct and context-responsive approaches for addressing education service

delivery challenges in every province. Furthermore, the different configuration of

education departments also necessitates a nuanced approach when designing job

1 In this report the words ‘study’ and ‘assessment’ have been used interchangeably.

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descriptions and performance management frameworks aimed at improving service

delivery.

2. Duplication of Roles, Mandate Overlaps and Blurring Lines of Reasonability. In

each province the study identifies instances of duplication in roles and mandate-

overlaps in provincial entities. For example, in Balochistan the planning for Public

Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and non PSDP are assigned to Directorate of

Schools (DOS) and same tasks are also being carried out by the Additional Secretary

(Development) and respective Deputy Secretaries of SED. So, simultaneously different

offices are undertaking the same task. Similarly, in Punjab overlap in mandates can also

be seen between the Program Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) and Punjab

Examination Commission (PEC) as various student assessments are being designed and

conducted in the province by different entities. For instance, PEC is mandated to design,

implement and report on standardized assessments for all students of Grade 5 (primary

school) and Grade 8 (middle school) in all public schools in Punjab. At the same time,

PMIU manages six-monthly assessments at Grade 3. While this is not necessarily a

strict overlap, it appears in this case that both the PMIU and PEC have a mandate for

different types of assessments—something which may need further clarification or

explanation to avoid potential confusion among sub-district functionaries. In the case

of KP where the mandate of the Education Management Information System (EMIS)

cell in Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) overlaps with that of

Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) as both are mandated to collect data from schools.

Excessive data collection routines from the schools are reportedly affecting school

administration and teachers’ ability to utilize maximum time in teaching and learning

activities.

The study findings indicate that the overlapping mandates of provincial entities are the

result of expansion in the mandate and responsibilities of some departments through

official notifications, whereas in others cases it is through verbal orders. In all four

provinces there is no comprehensive document that elaborates mandates, management

functions, and responsibilities of provincial education departments and their attached

departments and autonomous bodies. This results in a blurring of lines of

responsibilities and at times leads to overlapping mandates that adversely affect service

delivery.

3. Attached Institutions of Education Departments are not Performing all their

Mandated Functions (i.e., “gaps”). For instance, in the case of Balochistan, besides

development of textbooks in line with curricula, the Balochistan Textbook Board

(BTBB) is also mandated to develop supplementary material and teaching guides.

However, the textbook board has not developed any supplementary material or teaching

guides over the last several years. This directly effects the quality of education at the

service delivery level. Moreover, after the introduction of the 18th Amendment, and

devolution of education to the provincial tier for legislation, policy and planning,

curriculum and standards, the development and revision of curricula have become the

responsibility of the provinces. However, the attached institutions of the respective

school education departments which are responsible to review and develop curriculum

—i.e. Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB); Directorate of Curriculum,

Assessments and Research (DCAR) Sindh; Bureau of Curriculum (BOC) Balochistan;

Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education (DCTE) KP—have not been

performing these functions.

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4. District Education Managers and School Principals lack Specialized Management,

Administrative, and Leadership, Training. A vast majority of education managers at

the district and sub-district levels across the provinces started their careers as school

teachers and were eventually posted over time in management roles. These officials

have not been provided specific training on management and planning skills. Since they

came from the teaching cadre, they often lack adequate skills required for education

planning, budgeting and management; thereby they are unable to perform efficiently.

A substantial majority of education managers at the sub-district level highlighted the

following areas for their own capacity development: needs-based budgeting and

financial management; IT-based approaches for education management; data

collection, analysis and reporting; and school monitoring. Similarly, school head

teachers also identified their own areas for capacity building which include school

management and leadership; school budgeting and financial management;

departmental rules and regulations; subject specific and pedagogy related training to

support teachers, and community mobilization.

5. High Turnover of Provincial and District Officials. The government service rules

provide for the tenure of three years for government officials at the provincial as well

as district levels, however most of the officials reported a much shorter length of tenure

on a particular position. For instance, in the course of only one year, the education

department in KP has had its 6th administrative secretary, while Punjab saw its 4th

administrative secretary of the education department in only a matter of the last few

months. Furthermore, during the current year, the post of administrative secretaries in

KP and Punjab also remained vacant for a considerable period. Similarly, a number of

officials at the district tier in all provinces were found to have served in their previous

official positions from only 3 months to 1.5 years. The unpredictable tenures of officials

and key education managers remains a major impediment to effective oversight of

service delivery at the local levels.

6. Over-Deployment and Administrative Inefficiencies. Only to take the case of

teachers training in Sindh, there are around five attached-institutions that are

responsible for various roles and functions including training needs assessment,

training, and monitoring the conduct of training. The main concerned attached

institutions include Provincial Institute of Teachers Education (PITE), Curriculum

Wing, Sindh Teachers Education Development Authority (STEDA), and Directorate of

Teachers Training Institutions.

In addition to the existing institutional infrastructure, however, the government of

Sindh has also recently established the Directorate of Human Resource and Training.

The directorate is mandated to carry out needs assessment as well as the mapping of

geographical areas where teachers require training. PITE is mandated to design teachers

training modules and forward them to BOC, which further forwards the modules to

STEDA for approval. PITE then involves the Directorate of Teacher Training Institutes

which offers its venues as well as master trainers to conduct the training. STEDA, given

the availability of resources, is mandated to monitor the actual conduct of the training.

This proliferation of similarly-related “attached” teacher training institutions has

resulted in increased administrative inefficiencies which have also contributed to

financial resource constraints for the education sector in Sindh.

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7. Political Economy Considerations. There are various stakeholders who influence

policy, planning and management processes with varying degree of influence and

having significant bearing on the service delivery of education. These stakeholders

include teachers, teacher unions, bureaucracy including officials from the education,

finance and planning and development departments, political parties and public

representatives, just to name a few. They pursue their entrenched, and often narrowly

defined, interests mostly to the detriment of education service delivery. Teacher unions

and teachers are a major group exercising considerable influence, and in most cases as

a disadvantage and impediment to education service delivery at the school level. For

instance, in almost every province, teacher unions have so far been able to resist

significant changes aimed at improving teacher rationalization, accountability

procedures, etc. among others. The parents and local communities are least influential

among the key stakeholders. They not only lack knowledge, but also do not have

appropriate forums to represent their demands and influence decision-making. It is

significant to note that there is an exception to this in the case of access-related

initiatives, which for the most part result in a convergence of interests of most key

stakeholders including the parents along with teacher unions, public representatives and

education department officials since this category of schemes implies additional new

public sector investments to increase the numbers of schools, classrooms, teachers,

teaching supplies etc. Conversely, however, public sector initiatives aimed at

improving the quality of education—such as teacher rationalization, improving quality

of teaching etc.—seldom see such a confluence of interests by the diverse stakeholders

and, in fact, are often resisted by the more powerful entrenched interest groups like

teachers’ unions, etc.

8. Ad hoc Appointments and assigning of Additional Charges is a Common Feature.

Instead of giving permanent appointments, vacant positions are often filled by ad hoc

appointments or delegating/assigning additional charges to the existing officials. For

instance, until the appointment of the current Project Director of PMIU (Punjab) in

November 2017, the post of PD remained vacant for about two years. Similarly, at the

district tier in Punjab, the Chief Executive Officers of the DEAs have not yet been

recruited and senior officials at the district level have held additional charges for the

post of CEO.

9. Lack of Institutional Capacity at the District Level in Pro-equity and Data-based

Planning, Budgeting and Feedback. The district education administrations assist

provincial education departments in the collection of schools’ data, but lack capacity to

use this data for planning and monitoring purposes. Districts also lack the culture of

data-based monitoring and feedback to schools. None of the sampled districts across

the provinces has the capacity to carry-out pro-equity, needs-based sector planning

using the available education data-sets.

10. Limited Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-

District Tiers. During the course of the study, it was identified that the district officials

are less involved compared to provincial service delivery functionaries in decisions

relating to sector planning and budgeting, teacher training, curriculum design and

textbook development. Just like the weak coordination between province and district,

the coordination between district and sub-district tiers is also not very strong. Very few

school visits are conducted by the DEOs or other officials. In Balochistan, there exists

no forum that allows regular meetings between district and sub-district level education

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officials. In Punjab, Sindh and KP monthly meetings are held between district and sub-

district officials. Most of the districts in Punjab conduct District Review Committee

(DRC) meetings that offer an opportunity for intra-district coordination. Similarly, sub-

district officials in Punjab coordinate with school leadership through cluster level

monthly meetings. In the cluster level meetings, schools discuss their issues and

challenges besides sharing progress against key indicators on access and quality of

education. However, in Sindh, Balochistan and KP the coordination between district

tier and schools is weak. So, in these three provinces when schools face any issues the

principals have to report these issues to individual sub-district officials on a case by

case basis and no organized or regular forum exists which deals with the complaints or

problems reported by schools.

11. District Education Managers’ Time is Utilized on Responsibilities Not Linked to

Education Service Delivery. These include inter alia polio and dengue campaigns,

election duties, disaster relief duties and security related duties. These extra

administrative responsibilities consume around 16 percent of these officials’ average

workday. The percentage is seemingly low as a portion of the workday of the official,

however it has significant bearing on how the rest of the workday unfolds for the

official. Additionally, the education managers are mostly performing ancillary

functions, such as public relation activities, responding to miscellaneous information

requests from provincial directorates and the secretariat, etc., thus leaving less time for

actual education management and ensuring quality service delivery.

Recommendations

Keeping in view the findings of this assessment, the following recommendations are shared for

improvement in education service delivery:

1. In order to address the challenges of role duplication, mandate overlaps, gaps,

and blurred lines of responsibilities, each province should devise a consolidated

education management framework clearly delineating roles, responsibilities and

linkages of each entity at the provincial and district level. Such a consolidated

framework should be developed by bringing all provincial entities together to

deliberate upon their mandated roles and responsibilities. Any overlaps,

duplications, gaps and blurred lines of responsibility should be identified and

eliminated through mutual consultation with all stakeholders under the guidance of

the education department and political leadership. While finalizing mandates and

responsibilities of departments, their operational and coordination linkages (both

vertical and horizontal) should also be discussed, finalized, and documented.

2. Strong evidence-based policy engagement is needed with government officials and

public representatives. In order to deal with strong political interests and to support

evidence-based decision making there is need to a) generate evidence on the

political economy that causes the emergence of parallel structures and/or assigning

of overlapping mandates to existing attached institutions, and b) garner strong

political will to discourage and even reverse the practices of establishing parallel

structures and assigning overlapping mandates to provincial institutions.

3. A specialized pool of new education managers needs to be trained and developed.

Officials from this pool will help provide needed human resources with specialized

management and administrative skills required for effective service delivery. At the

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same time, existing education managers at the district tier need to be provided with

specialized management and administrative training to equip them for effectively

supporting service delivery at the district tier.

4. There is need to improve accuracy, depth and integration of education data

systems in provinces to enable localized and targeted planning and financing that

ensures equitable access to quality education services. The education department in

each province should integrate all available data-sets and information sources (e.g.

EMIS, monitoring unit data, assessment data and teacher’s information system) on

one accessible portal. Besides integration into one platform, the depth and diversity

of data should also be improved especially by regularly collecting data on quality

indicators, social and economic inequities, disability profiles, etc.

5. There is a need to design and effectively implement Performance Management

Frameworks (PMFs) across provinces to link career progression and incentives of

staff with objectively verifiable performance against mandated roles and

responsibilities. Training of officials on PMF, along with instituting a mechanism

to ensure performance evaluation is in line with KPIs and JDs at the provincial and

district levels is imperative to support and improve education service delivery at

school level.

6. Every province should make particular efforts to clarify and improve vertical and

horizontal operational linkages of district education management. Especially,

there is a need to improve the role of districts in provision of missing facilities,

designing CPD programs for teachers, allocation of non-salary and development

budgets and designing direct interventions to improve learning outcomes in the

schools. Within the district there is need to improve coordination, communication

and operational linkages of district education management with the elected local

governments, district administration and stakeholder forums like DEGs in

Balochistan.

7. Initiatives should be designed and implemented to enhance institutional capacities

for equity-responsive, targeted planning and budgeting at the district level. The

provinces should develop comprehensive capacity development programmes to

enhance the knowledge and skills of education managers at the provincial and

district levels towards making pro-equity and gender responsive strategic plans and

annual budgets.

8. Provincial Governments should effectively and practically devolve administrative

functions and financial matters to the district level. Based on the principle of

subsidiarity, functions such as recruitment of staff on contract basis, building of

additional classrooms, purchase of furniture and other equipment, teachers transfers

and posting etc. must be devolved to the appropriate level of district education

administration to better support and achieve effective service delivery.

9. There is need to identify, embed and institutionalize, and share best practices for

effective service delivery. The best practices need to be identified more

systematically focusing on the administrative, operational and capacity challenges

at provincial and district education service delivery levels. In order to ensure

context specific adoption of best practices, these should be shared more widely with

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all relevant stakeholders through a well-designed engagement and communication

strategy. There is a need to develop operational SOPs dealing with planning,

monitoring, and horizontal and vertical coordination at provincial, district and sub-

district levels.

10. The findings of student assessments and examinations data should drive teachers

training programs, teachers training modules and the development of textbooks

and learning materials.

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INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

1.1 Context and Approach

Pakistan has made significant strides towards achieving the goal of equitable access to quality

education over past several years. A number of reform initiatives have been witnessed at both

the federal and the provincial tiers to improve the education sector across the country. These

initiatives entail a range of supply and demand side interventions aimed at improving the

education sector governance, retention and transition of students, student learning

achievements and professional development of teachers and education managers. However, the

evidence indicates that despite a long history of reforms in all provinces, education indicators

in Pakistan still remain low. According to UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), more than 28

percent of primary school age children in the country are out of school. Though there is slight

reduction in number of OOSC from 24 million in 2016 to 22.8 million in 2017, but the situation

is still not encouraging.2

Similarly, it is alarming to note that children who are in the school are not learning well. Gender

disparities in the education sector are also stark. Despite introduction of various reforms

initiatives across provinces, these persistently low education indicators of the country point

towards larger challenges related to sector governance, management and service delivery

capacities. The provincial policy frameworks and sector plans also highlight the need to address

planning, management and implementation capacity challenges especially at the district and

sub-district levels.3

In 2010, introduction of Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment Act led to the devolution of all

administrative and legislative functions relating to education to the provinces4. As a result,

education policy, planning, governance and management processes were reconfigured across

all provinces. Provinces also took initiatives to improve service delivery by giving more

responsibilities and expanding the mandates of district education management. Despite wide-

ranging reforms and initiatives undertaken at the provincial and district levels, the challenge of

effective education service delivery continues to persist across all provinces.

An overview of education services in Pakistan highlights the need for effective and well-

coordinated management processes and service delivery mechanisms at all management tiers

for attaining targets against the key education indicators such as enrolment, student and teacher

attendance, student learning outcomes and reducing student dropouts. Almost all of the above-

mentioned indicators are dependent upon factors and variables that are partially external to the

district domain and that require strong vertical operational linkages of district tier with the

provincial and sub-district tiers. For instance, student learning outcomes are reliant on a

number of determinants including; adequate supply of trained teachers, students’ socio-

economic background; parents’ literacy levels; availability of a conducive learning

environment in the school including access to basic facilities; the quality and availability of

2 NEMIS. (2018). Pakistan Education Statistics, 2016-17. 3 Please see: Elementary and Secondary Education Department. 2015. School Sector Plan 2015-2020,

Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Pg. 18. And Education and Literacy Department. 2014. Sindh

Education Sector Plan 2014-18, Government of Sindh. Pg. 19. 4 The Gazette of Pakistan, Extr. Pt.1, Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act 2010, Act No X of 2010, P 267,

20th April 2010.

16


textbooks and supplementary material; the quality of assessment and examinations etc.

Likewise, increase in enrolment or reduction in dropouts depend upon factors like quality and

perception of public schools in the eyes of parents, which among other things is influenced by

access to basic facilities and teacher availability. While the districts can well ensure teacher

attendance, they are not able to create provisions for improved quality of teaching or ensuring

basic facilities without the support from the provincial governments. In the same manner for

targeted and need responsive planning and budgeting a district requires operational

coordination and technical guidance from the province. In this context, this assessment

employs the approach for assessing challenges and capacity constraints in district education

service delivery. Following frame in Figure 1 explains the overall approach for this assessment:

Figure 1: Assessment Approach: Horizontal and Vertical Operational Frame

Employing the above approach, this assessment maps operational coordination and capacity

constraints within and across provincial education department, attached provincial institutions,

district education management and sub-district structures in each province.

1.2 Objective and Scope of the Study

The report assesses education management and service delivery capacities especially at

provincial and district levels in all the four provinces of Pakistan. The study maps and compares

existing structures, management processes and practices with existing policies and governance

District Tier

Provincial Tier

Schools

17


frameworks in each province. The study also assesses operational disconnects and bottlenecks

at the provincial, district and sub-district levels that impede effective education service

delivery. It also presents analyses of horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms in place

to ensure effective service delivery. Horizontal coordination involves linkages, communication

and liaison at the provincial tier between education departments and attached institutions; and,

vertical coordination involves coordination between province and districts, as well as, district

and sub-district levels. The study explicitly does not address in much detail the service delivery

issues and challenges related to the relationship between district and school-level officials and

personnel, or service delivery within/at the school level—these are simply beyond the scope of

the present report and would be better suited to future efforts focusing on particular provinces

or within the context of specific projects and reform efforts.

The assessment provides evidence to inform the efforts for system strengthening and improved

service delivery capacities at provincial and district levels. At provincial level, the assessment

maps overall structure, institutional setup and mandated roles of education departments,

attached institutions and autonomous bodies. Besides mapping governance structures, it

examines overlapping roles and blurring lines of responsibilities as experienced by the

provincial education departments and allied institutions.

At the district level, the assessment focuses on management practices, operational linkages and

capacities of various tiers of district education administration in each province. The assessment

of devolved management tiers covers key functions and areas like human resource and

financial management, planning, monitoring, coordination, communication, reporting, etc.

Within the overall horizontal and vertical operational structure, the study focuses on four key

areas i.e. administrative and structural loopholes, operational gaps, coordination challenges and

capacity constraints that hinder effective education service delivery. The study also provides

recommendations to address these gaps and challenges.

The areas of assessment and analysis are presented in Figure 2 below.5

Figure 2: Four Key Focus Areas of Assessment and Analysis within the Horizontal and Vertical

Operational Structures

5 These four “areas of assessment and analysis” are part of the study’s analytic framework to assess institutional

arrangements, relationships, and the issues and challenges within the horizontal and vertical operational

structures and are not intended to serve as the report’s organizational structure.

Administrative and Structural Loopholes 1

Operational Challenges Impeding Functioning of the Departments 2

Gaps in Existing Coordination and Communication Channels 3

Capacity and Financial Needs and Constraints 4

18


1.3 Methodology The study benefits from extensive literature review, quantitative and qualitative data, and the

findings of key informant interviews at provincial and district tiers, survey of sub-district

officials and focus group discussions (FGDs) at district level. At provincial level, key officials

in the provincial education departments and attached institutions participated in the study.

District level assessment was conducted in a sample of 12 districts. From each province, 3

districts were selected covering geographic diversity and education ranking variants within that

province.

The list of selected districts6 is provided in the table 1 below.

Table 1: Sample of Districts for the Survey, Key Interviews and Observation

District Literacy Rate (15 years & above) Education Ranking Location

Punjab

Rawalpindi 81% 01 North

Sargodha 59% 15 Center

Rahim Yar Khan 42% 33 South

Sindh

Noshero Feroz 64% 02 Center

Hyderabad 59% 04 South

Jacobabad 32% 22 North

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

(KP)

Peshawar 56% 05 Center

Dera Ismail Khan 41% 16 South

Shangla 30% 22 North

Balochistan

Quetta 57% 01 Center

Kila Saifullah 36% 14 North

Chaghi 26% 22 South

Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). PSLM 2014-15

Within each district, the assessment covered a sample of officials from different tiers of

education management (district and sub-district) and head teachers of high schools7. To ensure

maximum representation of different tiers of the district education management as per structure

and staffing in each district a sample (presented as Annexure A) was finalized for this study.

Since the district level management of the education department varies in each province, this

study has attempted to cover at-least the top-two tiers of education management in the sample.

For each data collection method, separate instrument was developed.

1.4 Structure of the Report

The report is structured into six sections and an executive summary. The first section of the

report indicates about the background, objectives and methodology of this assessment. The

6 The districts were finalized in consultation with the World Bank team. 7 As per ToRs of the assignment, only high schools were covered.

19


subsequent four sections review the education management and service delivery capacities for

each of the four provinces: Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Each

provincial section starts with an overview of education indicators in the province, followed by

presentation of policy landscape, existing administrative structure (province, district and sub-

district levels) for education service delivery and processes flow on core education functions.

After setting the context, each section on a province first presents horizontal (provincial level)

service structure, coordination and capacity challenges and then vertical (district and sub-

district level) service management and delivery challenges are discussed. Hence, each section

has three major sub-sections i.e. i) context, policy landscape and structure as well as functions

of education services; ii) provincial operational constraints and capacity gaps; and iii) district

and sub-district service delivery challenges. The last section of the study provides conclusion,

and recommendations for improving education service delivery from province to districts and

school level in Pakistan

20


BALOCHISTAN

21


BALOCHISTAN

EDUCATION GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE DELIVERY

CAPACITIES

2.1 Education in Balochistan at a Glance

Balochistan has a total of 15, 051 schools from pre-primary till higher secondary including

public, private and other public institutions. Out of these 13,845 are public schools with 4,007

for girls and 9,838 for boys8. There has been slight increase in the enrolment of children in

public and private schools (pre-primary till higher secondary) of the province in past two years,

where enrolment increased from 1,163,572 in 2016 to 1,184,050 in 2017.9 While there has been

some improvement in the enrolment rate in recent years, Balochistan continues to lag behind

other provinces on various educational indicators. The overall literacy rate (10 years and above)

of the province was 41 percent in 2015-16, which was far below the national average (58

percent) and other three provinces. There is a marked difference in male (56 percent) and

female (24 percent) literacy rates in the province. The net enrolment rate (NER) at primary

level in the province is 33 percent, which again highlights gender gap i.e. 38 percent for boys

and 26 percent for girls.10

2.1.1. An Overview of Education Policy Landscape

Following the adoption of Eighteenth Amendment, policy and planning in relation to education

became a matter of provincial jurisdiction. Nonetheless, a Joint Declaration on Education was

signed on September 16, 2011 whereby all the federating units unanimously adopted National

Educational Policy 2009 (subject to such adaptations as necessitated by the 18th Constitutional

Amendment). Similarly, the National Curriculum 2006 and the National Textbooks and

Learning Materials Policy, 2007 were also adopted by the provinces in 2011. As agreed upon

in the joint declaration, Secondary Education Department Balochistan developed an interim

policy document Balochistan Action Plan. Similarly, Balochistan EFA Plan 2011-15 and Early

Childhood Education Plans were also developed11.

In 2013 Secondary Education Department developed a comprehensive Education Sector Plan

(BESP) 2013-18 that provides strategic guidance for effective education service delivery in the

province. The plan is based upon the goals as enunciated in the NEP 2009 and the Balochistan

Action Plan. BESP 2013-2018 is the key strategic and planning document in the province. It

focuses on six interrelated areas for education reform namely: improving quality of education;

early childhood education; access and equity; governance and management; and adult literacy

and non-formal education. It also includes a performance appraisal framework as well as an

implementation and monitoring plan. The implementation of BESP primarily rests with the

Secondary Education Department (SED), Government of Balochistan, however, its

8 NEMIS. (2018). Pakistan Education Statistics, 2016-17. Academy of Education Planning and Management,

Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan. 9 Ibid. 10 Government of Pakistan. (2018). Chapter 10. Education. Economic survey of Pakistan 2017-18. 11 I-SAPS. 2016. Implementing Eighteenth Amendment: A Review of Legal, Institutional and Financial

Developments in the Education Sector. Islamabad

22


implementation requires effective linkages and robust horizontal (across provincial entities)

and vertical (between province and districts) linkages and efficient coordination.

In order to be compliant with Article-25-A, The Balochistan Compulsory Education Act

(BCEA), was enacted in 201412. It provides policy and strategic guidance to the Government

of Balochistan (GoB) to ensure universal access to quality education13. Balochistan Private

Educational Institute Registration and Regulation Authority Act (BPEIRRA), 2015 has been

enacted in the province to provide for the registration, regulation and promotion of the private

educational institutions of the province. These two enactments provide an enabling policy

environment to plan and pursue the goal of universal access to school education in the province.

With a comprehensive sector plan and a robust legal framework in place, recent evidence

indicates that the province continues to struggle for addressing the challenges of low enrolment,

retention, learning outcomes, and poor school infrastructure. It has been largely attributed to

institutional capacity deficit and weak operational linkages between province and districts for

evidence-based and context specific planning, financing and effective performance

management14.

2.1.2. Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools

Balochistan has an elaborate education management structure at province, district and school

levels for planning, financing, management of teachers, data collection, teacher training,

curriculum development, preparation and provision of textbooks, literacy, as well as private

schools. The key actors in education service delivery and their operational relations at province,

district and school levels are explained below:

2.1.2.1 Provincial Institutional Setup

Balochistan Secondary Education Department (SED) is the administrative department15

responsible for education policy, planning and service delivery in the province. At provincial

level, and as seen below in Figure 3, SED is supported by its attached departments and

autonomous bodies/special institutions including16;

a. Attached Departments17:

i. Directorate of Education – Schools

ii. Bureau of Curriculum (BOC)

b. Autonomous Bodies/Institutions/ Board

i. Balochistan Text Book Board

ii. Provincial Institute for Teachers’ Education

iii. Balochistan Education Foundation

12 Originally promulgated as Balochistan Compulsory and Free Education Ordinance, 2013 on March 15, 2013. 13 Balochistan Compulsory Education Act 2014. Balochistan Act No. V of 2014 was passed by the Provincial

Assembly on January 28, 2014 and was assented to by the Governor on February 4, 2014. 14 Please see: The World Bank. (2018). Strengthening Budget Management to Improve Education Service

Delivery. Islamabad. and Alif Ailaan. (2018). 2013-2018 Five Years of Education Reforms in Balochistan.

Wins, Losses and challenges for 2018-2023. Islamabad. 15 Administrative Department is defined as a “… self-contained administrative unit in the Secretariat …

responsible for the conduct of business of Government in a distinct and specified sphere and declared as such by

the Government; Rule 2(1) j The Balochistan Government Rules of Business, 2012. 16 Please see, Schedule II and III (Rule 2 (1) (c), The Balochistan Government Rules of Business, 2012 17 Rule 2(1) (b), The Balochistan Government Rules of Business, 2012

23


iv. Balochistan board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE)

v. Policy, Planning and Implementation Unit (PPIU)

vi. Balochistan Assessment and Examination Commission (BAEC)

vii. Balochistan Education Endowment Fund (BEEF)

Figure 3: Secondary Education Department- Balochistan

The mandates and responsibilities of these attached departments and autonomous

bodies/special institutions in provincial education policy, planning, financing and service

delivery are elaborated here in Table 2:

SecretaryScondary Education

Director Schools (DOS)

Bureau of Curriculum(BOC)

Autonomous Bodies

Balochistan Text Book Board

Provincial Institute for Teachers’ Education

Balochistan Education Foundation

Balochistan board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE)

Balochistan Assessment and Examination Commission (BAEC)

Adl Sec (Adm)

DS Judicial

SO Inquiry

DS Adm

SO Adm

Adl Sec (Schools)

DS Schools

SO Schools

Adl Sec (Development)

DS Develop-I

SO Budget

DS Develop-II

Policy Planning and

Implementation Unit (PPIU)

24


Table 2: Matrix on SED’s Key Attached Departments and Autonomous Bodies/Institutions/ and

their Assigned Responsibilities

Provincial Institution Responsibilities and Functions Assigned

1. Directorate of Schools

(DOS)

• The Directorate of Schools (DoS) is responsible for all public sector

schools and issues ancillary to this mandate. These include

management of the teacher cadre and the administrative and financial

matters related to them.

• It has field formations at divisional tier headed by Director Schools

(6 Divisions) and at district levels led by District Education Officers

(DEOs).

• DOS is the executing arm of the Department having the primary

responsibility for education service delivery.

(Source: Balochistan Education Sector Plan, 2013-2018. Pg. 14) 2. Policy, Planning and

Implementation Unit

(PPIU)

• Lead planning and coordination of education sector initiatives;

o Develop policy in coordination with relevant provincial departments

o Develop sector plans and action plans

o Undertake occasional targeted research in support of planning (e.g.

understanding the major barriers to access)

• Monitor performance and implementation

o Further develop the BEMIS system to provide more information on the

performance of schools

o Monitor implementation of initiatives, with regular meetings to assess

what has been done and what results have been achieved

o Commission third party evaluations of impact

• Coordination and communication

o Communicate sector and action plans throughout the system

o Coordinate implementation of key priorities (e.g. textbook

improvement)

o Ensure coordination between government agencies, districts, donors,

and the provincial leadership

3. Provincial Institute of

Teachers Training

(PITE)

The institute is responsible for the provision of in-service teacher

education in Balochistan. PITE’s stipulated responsibilities include:

• To enhance the quality of education through in-service teacher’s

professional development.

• To work in the sphere of material development for the professional

development programs of teachers.

• To carry out research activities in the field of education to enhance the

quality of teaching practices.

4. Balochistan Textbook

Board (BTBB)

The main functions of the Balochistan Textbook Board include;

production and publication of error free quality textbooks on

affordable price, supplementary material and teaching aids.

25


5. Bureau of Curriculum

(BOC)

BOC has the primary responsibility of Curriculum

development/review, prepare and monitor curriculum implementation

framework (CIF), development of standards of education, and

conducting audit the output standards,

6. Balochistan

Assessment and

Examination

Commission (BAEC)

The key functions of BAEC include:

• Improve the quality of examination at all levels to shift away from

testing of memory to assessment of critical analytical ability

• Shift to curriculum-based examinations from textbooks-based

examinations.

• Ensure credibility of public examinations at all levels.

• Enhance provincial capacity to develop and conduct quality

examinations.

• Develop provincial capacity to conduct diagnostic assessments to

support decisions on systemic improvements.

7. Balochistan Education

Management

Information System

(BEMIS)

BEMIS is responsible for collection, collation and analysis of data on

education. It conducts an Annual School Census (ASC) of public

schools under the provincial education department. (Source: Balochistan Education Sector Plan, 2013-2018. Pg. 14)

8. Balochistan Education

Foundation (BEF)

BEF is mandated to register, regulate and support the privately

managed educational institutions in Balochistan.

2.1.2.2 District and Sub-district Administrative Arrangements

Government of Balochistan (GoB) in recent years has introduced a number of reforms aimed

at better organisation and improving service delivery at the District and Sub-district tiers.

Besides introduction of administrative reforms, a number of functions have also been devolved

to the districts and schools in order to streamline and ensure effective education service

delivery in the province. With Directorate of Schools at the provincial tier and supported by

six subordinate Directorates of Education at Divisional tier, each district has an education

office headed by District Education Officer (DEO). Each DEO is assisted by two District

Officers (DOs) one for boys’ schools i.e. DO (Male) and other for girls’ schools i.e. DO

(Female). At the Sub-district (Tehsil) level the education services are managed by Assistant

District Education Officers (ADEOs). (Please see Figure 4)

In order to provide a forum to diverse stake holders for supporting the efforts for improving

education at district level, SED created District Education Groups (DEGs) in 2013. With DEOs

as the Chair and DOs as the Secretary, the groups besides having representation from Social

Welfare Department, and Principals of Degree Colleges also had one representative of

Teachers Union and three from Civil Society18.

In addition to the formation of DEGs, with the purpose of strengthening education service

delivery at the district level, SED also established District Education Authorities (DEAs) in

18 PPIU Notification No: 242-47, September 10, 2013

26


201419. With DEO as the Chairman, the eight member DEAs included; Deputy Commissioner

or his representative, District Accounts Officer, DO- Male, DO- Female, Deputy DOs (Male

and Female), Head Teachers and Learning Coordinators. The composition of DEAs was

revisited in 2016 and Deputy Commissioners (DC) were made the Chairman of DEAs in 2016.

Additionally, in order to achieve BESP targets, District Monitoring Coordinators were placed

in the Deputy Commissioners’ offices. The District Monitoring Coordinators were tasked with

operationalizing Real Time Monitoring System (RTMS)20.

Figure 4: Mapping Education Administration

In order to guide and inform the planning process at the district tier SED Balochistan has also

developed District Education Plans (DEPs) for all the 31 districts in Balochistan. The DEPs

have been developed in line with the strategic priorities, planning and targets presented in the

BESP. However, an overview of DEPs indicates that SED was predominantly steering the DEP

development process and the role of district authorities in need identification, planning and

target setting was minimal and mostly passive.

At the district level, School Clusters have been established as the education management

entities. Each cluster is led by a High School, which plays a key role in education service

delivery through cluster-based management. In case of boy schools each cluster has 5 to 40

feeding elementary and primary schools. While in case of girls’ schools each cluster consist of

20 to 60 feeding schools. Additionally, Parent Teacher School Management Committees

(PTSMCs) serve as the forum where community, parents and school administration work

collectively to improve education service delivery. It is important to note that DEP

19 Notification No. SO (Admn.) 15-63/2014/2219-240, February 3, 2014 20 UO No. PS/CS/Misc: 98-Vol-XII/9819-29. May 5, 2016

27


implementation and delivery of key education services require that DEAs have effective

horizontal (with province) and vertical (with clusters and schools) operational relations.

2.1.3 Process Flow in Core Education Functions: Horizontal and Vertical Linkages

In order to perform the core education functions there is need for effective operational linkages

and coordination within and across provincial and district education managements. Following

description of the process flow in performance of core education functions highlights the

horizontal and vertical operational linkages required for effective education service delivery.

2.1.3.1 Teacher Recruitment

The process for recruitment of teaching staff in schools is elaborated in the Recruitment Policy,

2014.21 The policy provides a merit-based system for the recruitment of teachers. Key features

of the new merit-based system comprised screening test to be conducted by the National

Testing Service (NTS), weightage policy on the basis of proximity of candidates to the school

of duty, formulation and engagement of district recruitment committees (DRCs)22, preference

to hiring female teachers for primary schools and making recruitments non-transferable. The

following flow chart (see Figure 5) presents that process flow for recruitment of teachers in

Balochistan as per the Recruitment Policy, 2014:

Figure 5: Teacher Recruitment Process Flow

The District Recruitment Committee is chaired by DC, as observed in the case of DEAs, the

role of DEO has been relegated even in the affairs pertaining to education. This has a direct

bearing on the service delivery of education at the district and sub-district levels. The

recruitment process is not responsive to the challenge of quality of incumbents appointed as

21 Government of Balochistan. (2014). Recruitment Policy - 2014 for appointment of teaching and staff of SED

BPS 5-15 (other than drivers). Quetta: Secondary Education Department, Government of Balochistan. 22 District Recruitment Committee has five members: Deputy Commissioner Chairs the committee, with DEO,

District Accounts Officer and DO (Male and Female) as the members of the committee.

Vacant Posts (Alresady lying vacant or created through SNEs)

Advertisment of Vacant Posts

Submission of Application Forms to Appointing Authority and NTS

Candidates Appearing in NTS Categtory-wise NTS Result Merit

List

DRC Prepares Recommendation List based upon NTS Results and

other criteria

Appointing Authority Finalizes List with the approval of

Chairman DRC

Selected Candidates Issued Letter of Agreement

Appointing Authority Verifies Academic Degress/Certificates of

Final Candidates

Finalize Appointment and Replacement

28


teachers. For instance, despite that a third-party, NTS, has been involved by the SED to make

recruitments more transparent and merit-based, the process does not adequately test subject

specific skills, knowledge and competence of the candidates. Furthermore, the recruitment

process also does not assign due weightage to the degree-awarding institutes of candidates. The

review of the process also indicates that though with clearly defined steps, it has yet to be

embedded in the governance routines.

2.1.3.2 Curriculum Development

Under the chair of Secretary Secondary Education, the Department with the assistance of a

Steering Committee comprising heads of all provincial education institutions is responsible for

making decisions regarding development and revision of curriculum, its approval, monitoring

and implementation. Bureau of Curriculum (BOC) Quetta, is the key provincial entity

responsible for development or revision of curriculum. BOC is also mandated for the final

review and approval of textbooks. The Bureau is headed by the Director and supported by

Deputy and Assistant Directors. Figure 6 presents the process flow of Curriculum Development

as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), 201323:

Figure 6: Curriculum Development Process Flow

BOC takes lead in the curriculum development and during this process requires strong

coordination and support from BTBB, DOS, BISE, BAEC and PITE at provincial level.

Whereas, curriculum implementation requires coordination, communication and capacities

both at provincial and district levels.

2.1.3.3 Textbook Development and Distribution

As per the SOPs for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Curriculum Development and

Revision, Textbook Development, Review and Approval 2013, the BOC is responsible for

23 Government of Balochistan. (2013). Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Curriculum Development and

Revision, Textbook Development, Review and Approval. Quetta: Secondary Education Department, Government

of Balochistan.

Conduct Needs Assessment -BOC, BTBB, DOS, BISE, PEAS

& PITE

(1 month)

SWOT Analysis

Constitute Curriculum Revision Committee and Sub-Committees

(3 Weeks)

First Draft of Curricula

(1 Month)

Consultation/Appraisal/Feedback

(1Month)

Incorporate Feedback and Comments

(1Month)

Prepare Second Draft

(1Month)

Piloting (as Modularized Texbooks) -BOC, BTBB, DOS,

PEAS & PITE (2 Months)

Final Draft

(2 Weeks)

Approval of Final Draft from Competent Authority

(1Month)

Curriculum Implementation

(1Month)

29


ensuring the quality of textbooks and BTBB is mandated to manage textbook development and

internal review. Figure 7 elaborates the process for textbooks development in Balochistan.

Figure 7: Textbooks Development Process

According to SOPs, private publishers are engaged to develop textbooks in Balochistan. The

textbook writers are hired by the publisher. Both the publisher and authors are hired based upon

a pre-defined criterion. BTBB establishes an Internal Review Committee (IRC) which ensures

that manuscripts are aligned to the national curriculum. The BOC constitutes a Provincial

Review Committee (PRC) that reviews the revised manuscripts shared by publishers to ensure

that all manuscripts completely adhere to the guidelines provided to authors for textbook

writing. If manuscripts are found compliant then BOC issues a No Objection Certificate (NOC)

to publishers for printing, binding and dissemination of textbooks. The textbooks distribution

process is coordinated by Directorate of Schools, where Additional Director (Books) is

responsible for the timely provision of textbooks to the respective districts. At the district level

the textbooks distribution to schools is made possible with the support of district education

officials and school heads.

Following sub-sections capture the education service delivery challenges and capacity needs

at provincial, district and sub-district levels in Balochistan.


Tier

The following sub-sections present the opportunities and challenges identified after review of

administrative structures, management practices, operational linkages and core capacities at

BTBB to Provide Learning Materials

and Textbooks

(4 Weeks)

Invitation of BTBB to Private Publishers

(4 Weeks)

BTBB Sets Criteria for Publishers

(4 Weeks)

Set Criteria for Selection of Authors

(3 Weeks)

Agreement of Publishers with

Authors

(1 Week)

Checklist for Desk Review at Balochistan

Textbook Board

(1 Week)

Composition of Initial Review Committee

(IRC)

(4 Weeks)

Review Criteria for IRC

(2 Weeks)

Standard format for IRC report writing

Checklist for publishers after

incorporating IRC recommendations

(3 Weeks)

Composition of Provincial Review

Committee

(3 Weeks)

Review Criteria for PRC

(4 Weeks)

Standard format for writing PRC report

Resubmission as Pre-Press Copy

BOC issues NOC Letter

Printing, Pricing, Binding and Distribution

30


the provincial level in Balochistan. It also points out specific areas for improvement in

education planning, management and service delivery capacities.

2.2.1. Administrative Inefficiencies, Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps

There are significant gaps and overlaps among various provincial institutions in terms of their

mandates and assigned responsibilities, signifying inefficient use of the available resources.

The study finds that all departments/institutions are well aware of their mandated roles and

functions. However, there are few allied provincial education institutions that are currently

focusing only on select assigned responsibilities and are not carrying out some of their

mandated functions. The following are some of the cases which highlight such gaps and

overlaps.

a. Duplication of mandated roles and responsibilities is major challenge at the provincial

tier. For example, PSDP for overall school sector is maintained at DOS. Therefore, the

planning for PSDP and non PSDP are also assigned to the Directorate, where officials

have been dedicated for this particular subject in accordance with the guidance and

supervision of the Secretary SED. However same tasks are also being carried out by the

Additional Secretary, respective Deputy Secretaries and PPIU. So, at one time three

different offices are undertaking the same task. Moreover, matters pertaining to transfer

posting of teachers, matters related to their General Provident Fund (GPF), pensions are

in the mandate of Directorate of Schools. However, these are simultaneously being dealt

with by the secretariat officials including the Additional Secretaries and their

subordinate staff. Such instances not only result in unnecessary deployment of the

available human resource but also has implications in terms of time and also contributes

towards administrative inefficiencies.

b. Balochistan Assessment and Examination Commission (BAEC) is mandated to conduct

diagnostic assessments and provide support in education decisions-making.24 However

BAEC has not conducted diagnostic assessments for last many years. For last two years,

the data on grade 5 and grade 8 student examination by BAEC has not been made

publicly available. It was found during the course of the study, that the report has also

not been made available to the relevant departments/organizations working within SED

Additionally, the data is not being used by the relevant institutions in the decision

making for teacher trainings, budgeting and preparation of learning materials.

BAEC is also mandated to provide support in teachers’ training on students’ assessments

but it has not been able to provide any support in this regard. As per mandated function

of BAEC the commission is required to recommend measures for the capacity building

of the teachers for improving the system of formative assessments at school level25. In

line with this mandated function, the commission prepared a concept note and shared

the same with the Secretary Education, but there is no progress on the assessments

beyond this.

c. Balochistan Textbook Board (BTBB) is mandated to develop textbooks in accordance

with the curricula besides providing enriched and research-based supplementary

24 As mentioned on the government website. Please see the web-link:

http://emis.gob.pk/website/BalochistanAssesmentCommision.aspx 25 Section 9 (f) Balochistan Assessment and Examination Commission Act, 2014.

31


material and teaching aids26. Currently, the textbook board is developing manuscripts

and printing textbooks. However, for last several years, it has not developed any learning

materials for students or the teachers’ guides. It is being attributed to limited demand for

such materials from the districts and schools. Furthermore, the manuscript development

is outsourced by BTBB to the private publishers for learning materials and teachers’

guides. However, private publishers do not show much interest in applying for

manuscript development in view of small volume of material to be published.

d. The role of PPIU is defined as of a unit for undertaking planning, performance

monitoring, research on education related issues and implementation activities. The unit

was created to strengthen the existing administrative structures, however instead of

strengthening key institutions like Directorate of Schools, Divisional Directorates etc.

findings from the field suggest a number of issues. The challenge of lack of clarity of

PPIU role and its relation vis-à-vis Directorate of Schools, has been documented in a

number of cases. For instance during the implementation of Early Childhood

Development Project (ECDP) in Balochistan, notification of PTSMCs and hiring of

ECD teachers was delayed due to a turf war between DOS and PPIU. Both the entities

considered these actions to be performed by them. Which had to be settled by the then

Additional Secretary, by clarifying the role of both the entities. The ambiguity in the

roles have a direct impact on the quality of service delivery. The unit is aimed at

strengthening the planning and implementation of education service delivery it would

have been practical to situate it within the Directorate of Schools where actual planning

is done and most of the implementation activities are carried out and supervised.

e. Bureau of Curriculum (BOC) is also carrying out limited functions from its stipulated

mandate. BOC is the primary custodian of standards and other relevant provincial

entities must align their processes and outputs (such as textbooks, pedagogies and

assessments) to the standards notified by the Bureau. However, there has been no

progress towards the development of education standards in the province. The study

found that the development of standards remain a low priority area for the Secondary

Education Department, Balochistan. The delay in development of education standards

has serious implications for ensuring delivery of quality education in the province.

f. BOC has developed the curriculum for

Urdu language for grade 1 to 5.

Curriculum for the rest of the subjects

has yet to be developed. It is also

important to note that after the

devolution of education to provinces,

BOC has not received any budgets to

conduct stakeholders’ consultations

and workshops etc. for development of the curriculum. It is important to note that 93%

of the allocated budget for BOC in 2017-18 was for salaries and related expenditure

while only 7% budget was earmarked for non-salary purposes that can be used for

undertaking activities like workshops etc. Because of this limited non-salary budget, the

93% budget (for salaries and related expenses) also becomes ineffective as the

department is unable to perform its core mandated function. Furthermore, a comparison

26 Please see the mandate mentioned on web-link: http://emis.gob.pk/website/BTB.aspx

Despite being the mandate of

the Bureau of Curriculum, there

has been no progress towards

development of education

standards in the province

32


of allocated budget and expenditure shows that 50% of the allocated budget for BOC

remained unspent during 2017-18.

2.2.2. High Turnover in Appointments at Key Provincial Posts

The appointment of senior most government officials at a particular post for at least 2 to 3 years

helps to ensure effective education planning, leadership and service delivery. However, the

education department and attached institutions in Balochistan are used to frequent transfers and

postings at senior posts. For example, there have been frequent changes in the senior

management of PITE and BOC, which has adversely affected the performance and

coordination of these two provincial entities. Over the last decade, both departments witnessed

frequent transfer and postings at the position of Director for their respective institutions. On

the post of Director PITE, around 9 officials were appointed and transferred in the last ten

years, whereas, there were 10 postings at the position of Director BOC. On average a senior

official on these posts spent a little more or less than one year. The frequent transfer and posting

at the senior most management level results in loss of institutional memory and has

implications for the planning, services and pace of reforms in both departments.

2.2.3 Ad-hoc Appointments and Capacity Challenge

Instead of appointing officials for a specific

tenure, vacant positions are filled by ad hoc

appointments or delegating/assigning

additional charge to the existing officials.

For example, the BOC currently has 9

Research Officers (ROs), who have been

transferred from other departments on ad-

hoc basis and these officials do not possess

requisite skills and competencies for

research. BOC officials expressed their concern that after the transfers or posting of these ad-

hoc officials back to their respective departments, the seats of ROs will remain vacant and the

experience/capacity these staff will have acquired over their tenure in the BOC will be lost.

2.2.4 Lack of Need-based and Demand-driven Budgeting

The budget making process in the province is not demand driven but supply driven. Although

the department receive SNEs from the field but there is no mechanism whereby request from

the field are automatically processed further. Although the development and recurrent budgets

are developed by the Secondary Education Department, but the department exercises limited

autonomy when it comes to inclusion of these schemes in the final provincial budget. For

example, in financial year (FY) 2018-19, around 395 development schemes have been

sanctioned in the budget. According to the department, out of all the schemes only 16 are

proposed by the department based upon the needs identified, whereas 380 schemes are not

needs-based but still are part of annual development program.

2.2.5. Political Economy of Education Service Delivery

Political decisions influence every aspect of education management and service delivery

ranging from legislation to budgetary allocations to provision of required administrative and

9 officials have been appointed as

Director PITE in the last ten years.

Similarly, there have been 10

different officials who have served

as Director BOC during the same

period.

33


teaching staff in the department and schools. An important case in this regard has been

mentioned in the preceding sub-section where a number of development schemes were added

in the PSDP without the knowledge or initiative by the department. It is important to note that

development schemes including infrastructure related projects are considered particularly

lucrative as they allow the political capital to pursue various interests including gaining

political mileage, award of contracts, appointments against various posts, etc. Education

managers at the district level are susceptible to political influence, especially because of their

promotions and postings. Therefore, public interest is at times undermined by their personal

incentives. They usually do not resist the changes proposed by political representatives in the

financial priorities and investments in district education. The political economy surrounding

various initiatives significantly curtail data-based and evidence-driven policy and planning

affecting the service delivery at district and sub-district levels.

2.2.6. Missing Data on Private Schools

BEMIS only collects data of public schools in the province. It does not have data relating to

madrassah schools or private schools in the province. BEF is mandated to register private

schools in the province and thus it has some data regarding private schools. However, there is

no integration between BEF data and BEMIS. In the absence of updated data on private

schools, the provincial and district education management does not have sufficient information

to inform decision-making and planning to achieve education for all (EFA) and sustainable

development goals (SDGs) in the province.

2.2.7. Communication and Coordination Challenges

There is no formal provincial forum in Balochistan where various allied institutions of

provincial education department could come together to discuss the overall performance of the

education sector and plan a joint and coordinated response for improved access to and quality

of education. Furthermore, there is lack of coordination and communication among provincial

tier institutions, and between province and districts, which has serious implications for the

provision of quality education service delivery at the school level. The study indicates that:

a. There is little coordination between PITE, other departments and district management with

regard to human resource capacity development. The trainings are largely designed in-

house by the subject experts of PITE and in this regard not much input is sought from the

districts and schools. In the current scenario, the districts are expected to comply only with

the provincial demand for nominating teachers for training and they are not involved in

design of training agenda, follow-up, monitoring, or holding the trainers

accountable. Limited engagement with the districts and schools in professional

development needs assessment, planning and delivery is likely to arrest the gains from

PITE services.

b. There is no active coordination between BAEC and other provincial departments to ensure

that the findings of student learning assessments are fed into the processes of BTBB, BOC

and PITE etc. The results of student assessments can play a significant role in designing

needs-based trainings, improving curricula and textbooks. Results from standardized exam

are also expected to inform educational policy, school improvement, or instructional

practices. However, the coordination and communication between BAEC and other

provincial entities is sub-optimal. BAEC publishes a report and holds a dissemination

34


seminar inviting all the government departments and stakeholders to share the results of

assessments conducted by it. But this is usually just one-time event and not a rigorous

communication and dissemination drive.

2.2.8. Capacity and Financial Resource Constraints

The following are few capacity and financial constraints which have a bearing on effective

working of the education department and attached institutions at provincial and district tiers:

a. The evidence from the field indicates

that generally the key provincial

education institutions do not carry-out

data-based planning and financing. For

instance, the PITE trainings are less

informed by student assessments.

Moreover, the BEMIS has been

functional for more than twenty years, but its data is seldom used in policy and planning.

The budgeting in most of the allied provincial institutions is carried-out on incremental

basis. Partially, the non-usage of data is owing to capacity constraints among the relevant

staff of key provincial institutions. Most recently, the BESP has been developed using

the available education data. The sector plan also makes recommendations for improving

the awareness and capacities of officials from various allied education entities in the use

of available education data for planning, financing and monitoring.

b. During the course of assessment, it was highlighted that PITE faces financial constraints

that effect delivery of its mandated functions and services. For instance, during the last

many years, PITE could not design and provide needs-based trainings to the teachers

owing to financial constraints. However, most recently PITE commenced trainings for

the teachers through finances made available from the government and through donor

support. Similarly, BAEC also faces financial constraints that is one of the contributing

factors for not conducting the diagnostic assessments.

c. DOS is also facing capacity and resource constraints. Financial resource constraint is

attributed as one of the major reasons for missing facilities in the public schools of the

province.

2.3 Vertical Coordination and Service Delivery Challenges: The District and

Sub-District Tiers

The discussion in this section narrows the focus on the district and sub-district levels to identify

key challenges and constraints district service delivery capacity:

2.3.1. Inconsistent Transfer Pattern and Frequent Transfers and Postings

The frequent transfers of district officials on key posts is a common feature in some districts.

In some cases, senior district officials served at their respective positions for 3-7 years and in

other cases, the officers were posted and transferred within 1-1.5 years. There are also instances

In 2017-18, a budget of Rs.

98.3 million was allocated for

PITE; out of which 31% budget

was earmarked for training

purposes

35


when few officials got transferred within few months of their appointment. Frequent transfers,

no matter how few, are likely to hinder the education service delivery process and should be

avoided to the extent possible.

2.3.2. Diluting Powers of Education Managers:

The establishment of DEAs in 2014 was aimed at devolving powers to DEO office and

strengthening it. However, within two years of DEA working the DEO was replaced by the

Deputy Commissioner as the Chairman of the DEA27. Thus, effectively transferring the key

decisions such as posting transfer from BPS1-16 to the office of Deputy Commissioner.

Similarly, the Regional Directors can transfer education officials up-to BPS-18, however with

the concurrence of the secretary28. Thus, instead of empowering the education managers the

recent reforms have diluted and curtailed their powers. Such a situation has a significant

bearing on their effectiveness to ensure quality of education service delivery at the district and

sub-district levels.

2.3.3. Management Capacity and Skills Gap

A significant majority of district officials

started their careers as school teachers, at

the primary or secondary levels, and at

various stages of their careers were posted

as education managers. After being

inducted these officials were never provided

any specialised training which could enable

them for the required job. They lack

education management and planning skills, hence affecting their ability to perform efficiently.

2.3.3 Less Involvement of District Tier in Planning

A review of district education plans (DEPs) and the assessment at district level indicates that

there is insufficient coordination and communication between province and districts when it

comes to the five-year strategic planning for the district. Current, DEPs have been mainly

developed by SED and the role of district management in planning and targeting setting was

passive. This led to weak ownership, poor operational coordination and no significant

improvement in services that is contrary to the targets and priorities set in the DEPs.

The priorities and strategies in the DEPs were based on the broad priorities identified in BESP

and not based on the unique requirements of districts. This presents an example of top-bottom

planning which is mostly supply-driven and not needs-based. Effective needs-based education

planning requires bottom-up planning where the priorities and targets of each district are set

based upon the unique needs of that district and then all district plans are aggregated at

provincial level to contribute to the provincial sector plan.

2.3.4. Lack of Institutional Capacity for Data-based Planning and Feedback

27 UO No. PS/CS/Misc: 98-Vol-XII/9819-29. May 5, 2016 28 NO. SO(Admn) 15-63/2014/2036-2218. February 3, 2014

Education managers at the

district level, who came from the

teaching cadre have no training

on education management and

planning skills.

36


The district administration assists SED in collection of schools’ data under BEMIS but they

lack capacity to use this data for planning and monitoring purposes. Districts also lack the

culture of data-based monitoring and feedback to schools. Districts also do not collect any data

other than BEMIS. Additional data on quality indicators could help the district management in

monitoring quality of education services in the schools and provide technical assistance to

school principals and teachers accordingly.

2.3.5. Average Time Spent by District Management on Different Tasks

The activities that take up most of officials’ time in Balochistan revolve around administrative

matters i.e. 2.4 hours (30% of time) - which include staff service-related matters, file-work,

record-maintenance, and official correspondence – and school visits 2.3 hours (28.75% of

time). The time spent on school visits is greater in Balochistan than in other provinces due to

the distance between schools and district education offices. In addition to these activities, on

average 1.1 hours each day (13.75% of time) is spent on coordination and follow-up meetings

with the staff at district and sub-district tiers on various challenges and the way forward. The

data also indicates that district managers in Balochistan spend on average around 0.7 hours

(8.75%) of their workday planning various activities they perform during the day. The officials

also spend on average 7.5% of time in data collection to report to the education department.

The data also points out that district managers spend around 0.9 hours (11.25%) of their time

each day attending on non-productive activities e.g. calls and visits by politically influential

people, public representatives and general public. This time alongside that spent on

administrative activities such as service-related matters of staff, file-work etc leaves only

around the same time for matters related to strategic planning and execution of activities to

improve education service delivery.

2.3.6. Job Descriptions of Sub-District Officials

The study identifies that around one fourth of the sub-district officials are unaware of the

specific role to be performed and required job descriptions. This highlights the need for

provision as well as orientation of officials on their job descriptions and assigned official

responsibilities. All of the officials that claimed to have known their JDs confirmed that key

roles and responsibilities they are performing currently are in line with the described JDs. The

officials who do not have their JDs learnt about their assigned responsibilities through training

(20 percent), on job support (40 percent) or instructions from higher authority (40 percent). It

is important to note that the training needs highlighted by the education managers include

general trainings which they have received over the course of their careers, and not specifically

related to training on management, planning and administrative skills.

2.3.7. Initiatives to Improve School Participation and Quality

To increase enrolment district officials, organize various activities in coordination with school

heads and community members. These activities include awareness walks, display of posters

and banners, and using mosques to announce the importance of education. For retention the

officials work with teachers and heads teachers to create a child friendly school environment

that encourages students to continue to attend school regularly. The Learning Coordinators

(LCs) also play an important role by working with the schools to keep a check on the

performance on key access and quality indicators. Teacher attendance is ensured through close

37


monitoring by district officials especially LCs and actions as per rules are taken against the

teachers that remain absent for a long period.

2.3.8. Time Spent by Sub-district Officials on Different Tasks during School Visits

Analysis of this study’s data reveals that sub-district level officials on average spend around 3

hours (178 minutes) in one school visit. During the visit two major tasks performed by the

officials include student achievement assessment (23 percent of total time spent) and

community mobilization (22 percent of total time spent). Observation of classroom practices,

and support for administration and fund utilization receives least time (6 percent of total time

spent) of an official during a school visit.

2.3.9. Limited Coordination and Communication between Province, District and Sub-

District Tiers

During the course of assessment, it was found that none of the district officials were involved

in any coordination with the provincial authorities relating to planning and budgeting, teacher

training curriculum and textbook development and etc. Many officials feel left out of the

province-district coordination process and are somewhat resentful. This indicates that planning

and decision-making about the districts is taking place at the provincial level without ensuring

involvement of officials like DEOs and DDEOs. This leads to issues of ownership and lack of

accountability. Moreover, this is also an important contributing factor to non-responsive and

supply-driven education planning and financing that does not cater to the needs identified at

district and sub-district levels. It is important to note that issues at the grassroots level, that

should form the basis for all policy and planning, are best known to people working on the

ground, therefore these officials should be taken on board during the sector planning and

budgeting process.

Just like the weak coordination between province and district, the coordination between district

and sub-district tiers is not very strong. Very few school visits are conducted by the DEOs or

other officials. Also, there exists no forum that allows regular meetings between district and

sub-district level education officials. In case of any issues, the principals have to report these

issues to individual officials and no organized forum deals with the complaints or problems

reported by schools. The lax monitoring, non-existence of a coordination forum, and absence

of formal communication protocols all have a significant bearing on the declining quality of

education service delivery.

2.3.10. District Official Capacity Needs

30

41

24

33

40

10

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Teachers and Students Attendance

Students' Achievement and Assessment

Mentoring and Support

Monitoring of Learning Environment

Community Mobilization

Administration and Funds Utilization

AverageTime Spent on Tasks in School Visit (in Minutes)

38


In order to improve the quality of education service delivery the capacity of district officials

needs to be built in order to enable them to perform their assigned responsibilities more

efficiently. Around 92 percent of the survey respondents agreed that they need training to equip

them for better performing of their responsibilities. The following key areas have been

identified by the district officials:

a. Data-based planning and target setting

b. Needs-based budgeting and financial management

c. School monitoring and classroom observations

d. Planning and monitoring textbooks distribution

e. Student assessments

f. Use of information technology for data compilation and analysis

g. Report writing

Alongside district officials, school heads and teachers expressed the need to be trained on

leadership skills, and subject specific content and methodology. The following are some key

areas identified by the school heads for capacity development:

a. School management and leadership

b. School budgeting and financial management

c. Mentoring support to teachers

d. Curriculum orientation

e. Community mobilization

39


PUNJAB

40


PUNJAB:

Education Governance and District Service Delivery Capacities

3.1 Education in Punjab at a Glance

Punjab has the largest public education system in Pakistan, comprising 11.7 million students,

352,458 school thousand teachers and 52,411 thousand primary, middle and higher secondary

schools29. Punjab has the highest participation rates and lowest gender disparity in access to

education compared to other provinces and regions of Pakistan. Over the years the province

has been able to achieve improved access and reduced gender disparity in the education sector.

Adjusted Net Enrolment Rate (ANER) at primary level in Punjab is 86 percent, which is higher

than that of other provinces and regions of the country except for the federal capital

Islamabad30. As per the Pakistan Economic Survey 2017-18, the adult (10 years and above)

literacy rate in Punjab is 62 percent, which shows 16 percent increase over the past two decades

(as compared to 46 percent literacy rate in 1998)31.

3.1.1 An Overview of Education Policy Landscape

With National Education Policy 2009 providing the overarching framework, the ‘Chief

Minister’s Roadmap’32 for education reform provided an overall operational policy framework

guiding the education sector priorities and planning of the Punjab School Education

Department (SED) since 2011. From 2003 till 2011 Punjab Education Sector Reform

Programme (PESRP) was the umbrella initiative that led reforms agenda in the province. From

2011 onwards, the reforms roadmap provided renewed reforms agenda in Punjab.

SED developed Punjab School Education Sector Plan (PSESP) in 2013. This was followed by

enactment of the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, in 201433. The act describes the

modalities for provision of free and compulsory education to all school age children in the

province. The PSESP was reviewed in 2016 to ensure its alignment with new developments

outlined in the Chief Minister’s Reforms Roadmap, the Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs), and Punjab Growth Strategy. As a result of the review, a revised mid-term plan, titled

Punjab Mid-term School Education Sector Plan (PMSESP 2016-18) was developed. PMSESP

2016-18 envisages ensuring that school-age children in Punjab are not only enrolled in schools

but also stay longer in schools (retention) and learn well.

As the implementation timeframe for PMSESP ends in 2018, Government of Punjab (GoPb)

is in the process of developing the new education sector plan for 2019/20 to 2023/24. The next

five-year plan focuses not only on school education but also on special education, and literacy

non-formal and basic education (LNFBE) sectors. Hence, the up-coming five-year strategic

plan for education in Punjab will require stronger than ever institutional linkages and

29 NEMIS. (2018). Op cit. 30 NEMIS. (2018). Op cit. pp. 21. 31 Government of Pakistan. (2018). Op. cit. pp. 156. 32 The key milestones of the Reform Road Map include; improvement in quality of education, enhanced

enrollments, effective monitoring at the district tier, and transparent human resource management. Government

of Punjab. 2014. Punjab School Education Sector Plan 2013-17. pp.15. 33 The Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014. Act XXVI of 2014. (Originally introduced as an

Ordinance on May 13, 2014, enacted on November 10, 2014.)

41


operational coordination not only within the existing provincial and district administrative

structure of SED but also across the sectors engaging LNFBE and special education.


Schools

The education management and service delivery structure in Punjab consists of provincial,

district and school tiers. The key actors in education service delivery and their operational

relations at province, district and school levels are explained below:


The School Education Department (SED) is the main administrative unit responsible for school

education legislation, policy, planning, administration, regulation and service delivery in the

province34. At provincial level, SED is assisted by the attached departments and autonomous

bodies to perform its mandated functions for education management and service delivery.

As seen below in Figure 8, these include35;

a. Attached Departments:

i. Directorate of Public Administration (DPI) – Schools

1.Directorate of Public Administration (DPI) – Elementary Education (DPI-

EE)

2.Directorate of Public Administration (DPI) – Secondary Education (DPI-

SE)

ii. Quaid-e-Azam Academy for Educational Development (QAED);

iii. Children Library Complex (CLC)

iv. National Education Equipment Center (NEEC)

v. National Museum of Science & Technology

b. Autonomous Bodies/Institutions/ Board

viii. Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB)

ix. Punjab Examination Commission (PEC)

x. Punjab Education Foundation (PEF)

xi. Punjab Teachers Foundation (PTF)

xii. Punjab Daanish Schools and Centers of Excellence Authority

xiii. Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF)

xiv. Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA)36

34 Second Schedule, Rule 2 & 3, The Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011. Services and General

Administration Department (Cabinet Wing). Government of the Punjab. 2018. pp. 68-69. 35 Entry 35, First Schedule, Rule 2 & 3, The Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011. Services and General

Administration Department (Cabinet Wing). Government of the Punjab 36 PEIMA was established in 2018 under the Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA) Act

2018. The stipulated objective of PEIMA is to devise, implement and manage reformatory and dynamic

initiatives in education sector in partnership with the private sector. At the moment PEIMA is managing Public

School Support Program (PSSP), originally initiated by PEF. The program is aimed to improve quality of

education in low performing public schools in partnership with private sector.

42


Figure 8: Mapping Education Administration- Punjab

Additionally, Program Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) established by SED in

2003 under the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP) works as a key entity for

monitoring and evaluation of various programs. EMIS has also been housed at PMIU. The

mandated roles and responsibilities of key attached institutions and autonomous bodies of SED

are provided in Table 3 below:

Table 3: Matrix on Key Provincial Departments and their Assigned Responsibilities


School Education Department, Punjab 1. Directorate of Public

Instructions –

Elementary Education

(DPI-EE)

• Implementation of Government policies, Directives and Orders

of competent authorities.

• Monitoring & Supervision of Elementary Education.

• Coordination for in-service Training of Teaching and Non-

teaching Staff with training institutions.

• Coordination with Foreign funded Projects and its appraisal

missions regarding Elementary Education.

Secretary Schools

DPI (SE) DPI (EE)

Divisional

Director (SE)

Divisional

Director (EE)

36-District Education

Authority

36 DEO

(Secondary)

36 DEO (EE-

Female)

36 DEO

(EE-Male)

Dy. DEOs

(EE-Male) High/Higher Secondary

Schools (Boys/Girls)

Dy. DEOs

(EE-Female)

Girls

Elementary

Schools

AEOs

Female

Girls

Primary

Schools

Boys Elementary

Schools

AEOs

Male

Boys

Primary

Schools

43


• Inter District Transfers of teaching and non-teaching staff from

BS-1 to 15.

• Dealing with all kind of leave cases of teaching and non-teaching

staff from BS-1 to BS-15.

• Data collection from lower formation and submission to the

Govt. after its compilation.

2. Directorate of Public

Instructions – Secondary

Education (DPI-SE)

• Coordination and cooperation with PMIU in collection of data.

• To decide the leave cases of all employees in BS-18 except study

leave.

• To perform duties/ assignments as are assigned by the Education

Department.

• Coordination for in-service training of teachers.

• Coordination with Punjab examination Commission in conduct

of 5th & 8th class Examinations.

• Preparation of scheme of Internal Merit Scholarship and its

transmission to the lower formation.

• Preparation of budget of receipts and reconciliation of receipt

figures with Accounts General, Punjab.

• To prepare replies to the Assembly Questions and consolidate the

replies coming from field formation and onward submission to

Government.

3. Punjab Curriculum and

Textbook Board (PCTB)

• Curriculum Development

• Implementation of educational policies of the Government in

respect of the production of textbooks, supplementary reading

material and teaching aids

• Publication of textbooks for the primary education, secondary

education, intermediate education and teacher’s training courses

• Production of supplementary material relating to the textbooks

• Production of reference and research material relating to the

problems of curricula and preparation of textbooks

• Control of the policy, relating to distribution of textbooks and

other material. Appointment of agencies for this purpose in

Punjab so as to make the textbooks and material available to the

students well in time

• Holding of training courses for the writers of textbooks

• Preparation and publication of reading material on new

developments in educational concepts and teaching methods and

techniques

• Workshops, seminars and courses for effective use of textbooks

and reading materials

• Conduct research in curricula, textbooks, other reading materials

and teaching aids

• Exhibitions of textbooks and teaching materials

• Maintenance of Library and Resource Centre

4. Quaid-e-Azam

Academy of Academic

Development (QAED)

• QAED serves as an apex institution for in-service and pre-service

training of public schools’ teachers, and one stop shop for capacity

building needs of school teachers in Punjab and furthering the

National Education Policy by focusing on the professional

development of public sector’s teacher and equipping them with

44


modern and innovative teaching techniques and methodologies by

providing leadership and strategic planning to the sector.

• QAED is striving to develop a pool of capable teachers in public

schools of the province. Capitalizing on a strong institutional base,

including 29 Elementary Colleges for Pre-Service teacher

education and an elaborate network district and cluster training

and support centers for in-service training.

5. Punjab Examination

Commission (PEC)

• Design, develop, implement, maintain, monitor and evaluate a

system of examination for elementary education.

• Formulate policies and programs for conducting examinations.

• Collect data from research in order to improve curricula and

teaching methodology.

• Recommend strategies for capacity building of the teachers and

educationists that in turn would improve the assessment system

of students.

• Identify the areas where improvement in training of the teachers

or educationists is required.

• Promote public discussions on issues pertaining to elementary

education.

• Advise the Government on all policy matters relating to the

objectives of the Commission.

• Approve annual research program and annual budget of the

Commission.

• Perform functions that may be ancillary to its functions, or as

may be prescribed or as may be assigned by the Government

6. Punjab Education

Foundation (PEF)

• Provide financial assistance for the establishment, expansion,

improvement, and management of educational institutions and

allied projects.

• Provide incentives to students, teachers, and Educational

Institutions.

• Promote public-private partnerships relating to education.

• Provide technical assistance to Educational Institutions for

testing policy interventions and innovative programmes for

replication.

• Rank private educational institutions based on educational

standards.

• Raise funds through donations, grants, contributions,

subscriptions etc.

• Assist Educational Institutions in capacity building, including

training of teachers.

• Undertake any other function as may be assigned to it by the

Board with the approval of the Government.

7. Punjab Danish Schools

and Centers of

Excellence Authority

• To demonstrate that all children can excel, if given an equal

opportunity

• To rekindle hope amongst the under-privileged

• To develop ethical, value-driven future leaders

• To fight social inequality and alleviate poverty

• To contain extremism by inculcating tolerance, human dignity

and harmony.

45


8. Program Monitoring and

Implementation Unit

(PMIU)

• Works in conjunction with the School Education Department,

acting as the monitoring and implementation wing of the

Department.

• PMIU’s key task with regard to monitoring is to regulate an

effective data collection system at the district level.


District Education Authorities (DEAs) have been established at the district level to ensure

effective education service delivery in all districts of Punjab. DEAs are mandated to oversee

formal education, non-formal education and special education at the district level. These are

also mandated to take a range of initiatives in order to improve access, quality and equity in

education service delivery at the district level37. As per the Punjab District Education

Authorities (conduct of business) Rules, 2017, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of each DEA

is the Principal Accounting Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the district. In practise,

DEA powers are vested largely with the CEO of the DEAs, who are answerable to the

provincial government (SED) rather than local leaders. The Authority in each district is

mandated to implement the policy and standards devised by SED and attached departments for

core functions such as curricula and textbooks, assessments, training and quality of teaching,

reforms programmes and school management38.

DEAs enjoy executive authority over decisions related to school upgradation, teacher

rationalisation, and general responsiveness to school-specific issues. DEAs ensure the

provision of education service delivery through district and sub-district education managers

including District Education Officers (DEOs), Deputy District Education Officers (DDEOs)

and Assistant Education Officers (AEOs). DEAs are assisted by the school leadership and

School Councils (SCs) for the implementation of policies and standards of education approved

by the government. Under the administrative control of PMIU, the office of District Monitoring

Officers (DMOs) was established in 2005 for monitoring teacher attendance, student

attendance, distribution of free textbooks, etc. In order to assist the DMOs 950 Monitoring and

Evaluation Assistants (MEAs) were also recruited and deployed in all the 36 districts.


Linkages

The provincial, district and school level administrative tiers in Punjab are structured to plan,

manage and deliver quality education services to all school-age children in the province. An

overview of policies and SOPs for key education functions in the province highlight that strong

horizontal linkages and vertical operational relations are prerequisite for smooth and efficient

service delivery. For provincial entities horizontal coordination and linkages are essential as

outputs of one attached department or autonomous body must serve as the input for another

provincial entity. For instance, the curriculum standards developed by PCTB must provide

guidance to PEC and QAED for designing textbooks, student assessment tests and training

packages for teachers’ professional development, respectively. Similarly, in the absence of

vertical operational linkages the policies and standards devised at provincial level cannot be

37 Please see Section 93, of Punjab Local Government Act 2013 for details. 38 Government of Punjab. (2017). Notification No. SOR(LG) 38-10/2017 The Punjab District Education

Authorities (conduct of business Rules, 2017. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department. Lahore.

46


brought into effect. Following process flow on core education functions elaborates the

horizontal and vertical linkages required for efficient education service delivery in Punjab.



2017-1839. The policy presented a merit-based system for the recruitment of teachers. Key

features of the new merit-based system comprise screening test to be conducted by the National

Testing Service (NTS), formulation and engagement of District Recruitment Committees

(DRCs), and formation of a Complaints Redressal Cell (CRC). The flow chart in Figure 9

below presents the process for recruitment of teachers in Punjab as per the Recruitment Policy,

2017-18:

Figure 9: Curriculum Development Process

The introduction of NTS based induction, establishment of CRC are steps in the right direction

which are contributing towards enhancing the transparency of the recruitment process.

Nonetheless as observed in case of Balochistan, the process has limitations in terms of

adequately assessing subject specific skills, knowledge and competence of the candidates.

Similarly, the process does not assign due weightage to the degree-awarding institutes of

candidates. In order to ensure the continuity of the reform and making it more robust and

responsive to district level needs, a more effective coordination and communication both at

provincial and district levels is necessary.

39 Government of the Punjab. (2017). Recruitment Policy 2017-18 for Educators and AEOs. Lahore: School

Education Department, Government of the Punjab.

47


3.1.3.2 Curriculum Development

Under the chairmanship of Secretary, the School Education Department with the assistance of

a Steering Committee comprising heads of all provincial education institutions is responsible

for making decisions regarding development and revision of curriculum, its approval,

monitoring and implementation. Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PTCB) is the key

provincial entity responsible for development or revision of curriculum. PCTB is also

mandated for the final review and approval of textbooks. It is headed by the Managing Director

and supported by Deputy and Assistant Directors. Figure 10 below presents the key steps in

curriculum development.

PCTB is the lead institution for curriculum development and during this process requires strong

coordination with SED, BISE, PEC and QAED at provincial level. However, it was observed

that mostly the coordination and information sharing is on a limited scale thus impacting the

quality and relevance of the process. Whereas, curriculum implementation requires

coordination, communication and capacities both at provincial and district levels.

Figure 10: Curriculum Development Process

3.1.3.3.Textbook Development and Distribution

Like curriculum development, textbooks development is also one of the key mandates of PCTB.

Out of the two academic wings of PCTB, the manuscript wing is primarily responsible for

development of textbooks and learning materials based upon approved curricula and student

learning outcomes. The process for textbooks development is elaborated below in Figure 11.

The textbooks development process in Punjab is guided by the scheme for the development of

textbooks and supplementary reading material related to textbooks. According to the scheme,

in order to develop the textbooks in all subjects PCTB engages the author/group of authors,

editor/group of editors, person(s) and agency/agencies through an open competitive process.

Out of the manuscripts developed by selected authors, editors, person(s) and agency/agencies

top three manuscripts per subject per class are selected by PCTB. The Board pays the cost for

these manuscripts and copyrights of selected manuscripts of each subject at each grade remain

with the PCTB. The author(s)/editor(s)/agencies whose manuscripts are finally selected for use

as the textbook are paid royalty by PCTB for each selected textbook and for the number of

48


years that textbook is printed by the Board. The responsible author(s)/editor(s)/agencies are

required to make annual improvements in textbooks and if the author(s)/editor(s) refuse to

respond to improvements suggested in the textbooks then the Board has the authority to

withhold their annual royalty payment.

Figure 11: Textbook Development Process

Following sub-sections capture the education service delivery challenges and capacity needs

at provincial, district and sub-district levels in Punjab.


Tier

The following sub-sections identify gaps between the assigned responsibilities and actual

functions performed by key provincial institutions and officials; institutional and

administrative bottle necks; coordination and communication challenges; and capacity and

financial needs and constraints in Punjab.


There are observable issues in terms of mandated roles of various institutions working under

SED, which include mandate overlaps, duplication of roles and responsibilities, and

implementation of limited mandates. Following are some of the key challenges in terms of

mandated roles and performance thereof:

49


i. Over the years the role and mandates of key

provincial institutions have been redefined

and at times expanded through various

notifications. For instance, the role and

mandate of PMIU gradually expanded over

past few years through different notifications.

PMIU initiated its function as an

implementation and monitoring unit under

Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP), however, in 2003 it was mandated

to manage and oversee the Education Management and Information System (EMIS) of

SED40. So, after being introduced as a dedicated counterpart to the SED, PMIU has now

evolved into a de-facto monitoring and implementation wing of the Department. The unit

is now mandated to manage the annual school census (ASC) and monthly monitoring

system of the department. These mandates of PMIU have been added through official

notifications and there is no comprehensive administrative document or rules that elaborate

new mandates and management processes of SED, its attached departments and

autonomous bodies. The absence of a consolidated document on the mandates,

responsibilities and management processes at provincial level results in blurring lines of

responsibilities and at times overlaps between provincial entities. These blurred lines of

responsibilities at times lead to unrealistic expectations in allied departments, for instance

PMIU now assumes that SED should seek technical advice of the Unit for every new plan

and reform design.

ii. The Directorate of Public Instruction (Schools) used to be the focal implementation agency

for SED till 2001. DPI used to take lead in not only planning and budgeting process but

also ensured implementation of development initiatives of the department. The divisional

and district tier managers reported to the DPI. Additionally, it also performed the essential

monitoring and evaluation of district and sub-district tier managers. It also used to generate

monthly progress reports on development projects across the province. Thus, assisting

secretariat in all the key functions related to education service delivery. After the

introduction of devolution of powers in 2001, the reporting line of the districts was changed

from DPI to the Secretary, thus instead of devolving the powers the process centralized it

further. Considering the longstanding role of DPI in managing the planning, development,

and implementation functions for education service delivery, it would have been more

efficient to have the PMIU placed within the mandate of DPI, instead of making it a semi-

autonomous entity. The fragmented reform initiatives and interventions over the years

instead of strengthening it have made a functioning institution redundant.

iii. Overlap in mandates is also visible between PMIU and PEC as various student assessments

are being designed and conducted in the province. For instance, PEC is mandated to design,

implement and report on standardized assessments for all students of Grade 5 (primary

school) and Grade 8 (middle school) in all public schools in Punjab. At the same time,

PMIU manages six monthly assessments at Grade 3. Assessments are primarily a mandate

of PEC, but the additional assessments conducted by PMIU are not coordinated through

PEC. There is need to improve alignment and synergies in these assessment routines to

improve design, conduct, reporting and use of student learning achievement data.

40 PMIU – Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit. (2014). PESRP Reforms. School Education

Department. Government of Punjab. Lahore. pp. 5

There is no laid down and

elaborate written procedure for

coordination and

communication between SED

and the attached institutions.

50


iv. A number of provincial education institutions are also performing limited mandated

functions. For instance, Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) is mandated to raise funds

through grants and donations41 and marketing its services. However, it has not yet been

able to successfully raise funds except for government financing and support from

development partners. Likewise, Budget & Planning (B&P) Wing of the SED is mandated

to undertake budget estimation, its preparation, approvals from competent authority,

execution and internal auditing. Out of the mandated responsibilities, the auditing function

of the B&P Wing is rarely performed and there is a long backlog of such cases.

3.2.2. High Turnover of Senior Officials

The study highlights the emerging challenge

related to high turnover at senior positions in

provincial education institutions. Senior

officials at SED and PMIU have recently

started to face transfers and postings. The

results indicate that there are frequent transfers and postings in key education departments

which have an impact on effective functioning of the department. For instance, in the course

of only last six months (since June 2018)42, the SED has had its 4th administrative secretary.

Also, before the appointment of current PD of PMIU in November 2017, there was no regular

PD of the Unit for about two years. It is also important to highlight that there was an added

interest by officials to join attached institutions like PMIU and QAED as they received

financial incentive for working in attached departments. This incentive has now been taken

back with effect from 1st July 2018 through a government notification.43

3.2.3. Capacity and Human Resource Deficits

QAED, formerly known as the Directorate of Staff Development (DSD), is mandated to

undertake training and capacity development of teachers and education managers in the

province. In order to perform this, QAED is running a number of training programs including

Punjab Education and English Language Initiative (PEELI), School Leadership Development

Program (SLDP), as well as promotion-linked and induction trainings. The study at hand

highlights that out of QAED’s mandated responsibilities, the department could not perform the

feedback and analysis function mainly due to dearth of requisite trained human resource44.

41 Section 10 (1) of Punjab Education Foundation Act, 2004 states: There shall be established a Fund which shall

vest in the Foundation and to which shall be credited–

(i) grants made by the Federal, Provincial Governments and the local bodies;

(ii) income from investments made by the Foundation;

(iii) donations, endowments and subscriptions from organizations and individuals;

(iv) revolving funds placed by the Government at the disposal of the Foundation;

(v) donations, endowments and grants from international organizations, subject to approval of the

Government; and

(vi) all other sums received by the Foundation from any other source. 42 Please see information available on official website: https://schools.punjab.gov.pk/oursecretaries 43 Finance Department. (July 2018). Notification No. FD.SR-I9-20/2006 Project Allowance for Projects,

Programme, Policy and Policy Cells. Government of the Punjab. Lahore 44 This challenge was also pointed out in previous evaluations of the department, which include Third Party

Validation (TPV) study conducted by UNESCO and World Bank in 2007, besides, the World Bank review of

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and DSD in 2010-2011. Both studies identified the challenge of

insufficient human resource at DSD that is required to carry out important functions like analysis, reporting and

feedback on trainings.

During only last six months, the

SED has had its 4th

administrative secretary.

51


Another case of lack of qualified officials is the case of B&P wing of the SED. In the B&P

wing of SED, the staffing gap is very severe as against 60 sanctioned positions in the unit only

45 are currently filled-in. It was also noticed that at times the computer operators from schools

are engaged to work with B&P wing so that backlog could be reduced.

3.2.4. Political Will and Support

Punjab has been successful in achieving number of goals and targets set in education reforms

roadmap and previous five-year sector plan. One of the main contributing factors to this

achievement has been the political will and ownership at the highest government level in the

province. Owing to political leadership’s ownership of the reform agenda and continuous

performance management through well-known ‘stocktake’ routines, Punjab has demonstrated

sustainable improvement in education governance and outreach. The study indicates that

discontinuity of the established routine of stocktaking of the education reform process has

serious consequences for the quality of service delivery at the district and sub-district tiers.


Policy, planning and management processes in Punjab is also a function of political economic

considerations. In this regard, the development schemes for the education department in 2011-

12 provide valuable insights. School education department identified 1664 development

schemes for provision of missing facilities and infrastructure across schools in Punjab as

highlighted by the data. These schemes reflected the needs of schools at the local level and the

SED made sure that schools were identified in accordance with set criteria. At the same time,

public representatives were also given discretion to identify development schemes relating to

improvement in schools. It is important to note that in an overwhelming 1315 cases, the

schemes highlighted by the public representatives were at odds with the schemes identified by

SED on the basis of data and evidence. This chasm between the needs-based schemes

highlighted by data and the ones identified using the discretion of public officials provides

valuable insights into the political economy of education service delivery in the province.

3.2.6. Operational Coordination and Communication Challenges

There is no laid down and elaborate written procedure for coordination and communication

between SED and the attached institutions. Currently, such interactions are done on needs

basis. During the previous regime, quarterly meetings called the Stocktakes were held under

the Chief Minister. It provided an opportunity to bring together all the key education

stakeholders in the province, review the progress on key indicators and reform initiatives and

improve accountability across departments and districts.

Presently, there is no platform that could bring together all the stakeholders, except on a need-

basis where select attached departments of the SED may meet. The absence of a regular

meeting forum or platform leads to lack of ownership, accountability and involvement of all

stakeholders, and it also contributes to slippages and poor performances. Most importantly it

leads to a lack of shared vision and poor coordination among key provincial entities and

partners.

52


In the absence of an effective communication forum, the coordination and operational linkages

between attached departments (PEC, PCTB, QAED and PMIU) have become weak. For

instance, PEC, alongside conducting Grade 5 and 8 annual examinations, is mandated to

provide feedback to QAED for designing its teacher training programs in light of the weak

areas identified through the examination. Also, PEC may undertake research to inform and

improve curricula. However, apart from the annual report published by PEC, there is no sharing

of information that might benefit QAED and PCTB. Furthermore, PEC and PCTB boards have

representation from other bodies including SED, QAED etc., and while board meetings are the

only platform available to raise coordination issues, the assessment finds out that this forum

has not been utilized to discuss and improve inter-departmental coordination.

There are also no forums as such where the representatives of various departments could meet

to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to education budgets and resolve them. In

particular, there is need to discuss the challenges related to transfer and release of funds as well

as fund utilization and reallocation. Besides operational and budget coordination gaps there is

also challenge of disconnect in storage and use of data available with different provincial

entities such as PMIU, DPI, PEC and PEF.

3.2.7. Delays in Transfer and Release of Funds

There are significant delays in transfer of funds from FD to the SED and districts. For example,

in case of PEF, the 1st Quarter of every financial year is challenging for PEF as payments are

released late by the FD. Because PEF has to make payments to schools on monthly basis, it has

to address the financing shortfalls by making stop-gap arrangements; for example, through its

endowment fund. A recent third-party validation (TPV) of PEF informed that for financial year

2016-17, the first quarter’s payment was made by the Finance Department on 2nd September

2016. For 2017-18, the first tranche was released on 18th August 201745.

3.3 District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges

This study highlights following challenges and constraints at the district and sub-district levels:

3.3.1. Frequent Transfers and No Performance Framework

Like the provincial tier, frequent transfers and postings are a big challenge among other things

at district level. Frequent postings and transfers act as a barrier in the way of effective education

planning and service delivery. This study finds that there are frequent transfers of district

managers, with the appointment timeframe ranging from 3-4 months to 1-1.5 years. Frequent

transfers impede continuity, ownership and accountability of reforms. A recent example on this

count is the transfer of seventeen (17) CEOs by the Chief Minister in one day. Such large-scale

transfers tend to erode the commitment and willingness of the education managers for effective

education service delivery. Short term appointments of key officials also create challenges for

international organizations and development partners implementing projects and programs in

the district as they need to start afresh with every new official who needs time to get on board.

Alongside frequent transfers, there are also no performance management frameworks available

45 I-SAPS. (2018). Third Party Validation of Punjab Education Foundation Programme. Department for

International Development.

53


for the district and sub-district education officials. This weak accountability at devolved

education management level leads to poor service delivery.

3.3.2. Average Time Spent on Different Tasks

The study finds out that out of an average 8 working hours of the district managers in Punjab,

around 17.5% of the time (1.4 hours) is spent on activities which are not directly related to

education service delivery. These include time spent attending to calls and visits by public

representatives, attending to RTI requests by NGOs and civil society organization, public-

dealing etc. 14% time (1.1 hours) is spent on school visits, 32.5% time (2.6 hours) on

administrative matters including correspondence, file-work, record-maintenance, staff service

related issues etc, 3.75% of time (0.3 hours) in dealing with the accounts office and accounts

related matters, 8.75% time (0.7 hours) in data collection from sub-district tiers and reporting

to respective education departments and attached bodies, 17.5% of time (1.8 hours) in

meeting/coordinating and following up with the staff at sub-district tiers on challenges related

to service delivery as well as the way forward, and 6.25% of time in planning of activities for

the day (0.5 hours).

It is important to note that the time spent on non-productive activities as well as that spent on

administrative activities take up much of time of district mangers. In case of Punjab, it stands

around 50% time of officials and leaves only around the same time for matters related to

strategic planning and execution of activities to improve education service delivery.

3.3.3. Job Descriptions and Awareness of Mandated Roles

Most of the district and sub-district officials are found to be aware of their respective job

descriptions (JDs) that clearly explains their assigned role and responsibilities for education

service delivery. 13 percent of the officials informed that they are not aware of their JDs and

exact responsibilities. Lack of orientation among these officials regarding their mandated roles

has bearing on the quality of service delivery at the school level.

The study also indicates that 92 percent of the officials who know about their JDs, claim that

their key roles and responsibilities that they are performing currently are in line with the given

JDs. The officials who do not have their JDs learnt about their assigned responsibilities through

training (17 percent), on job support (41.5 percent) or instructions from higher authority (41.5

percent).


In order to improve enrolment, the officials place emphasis on contact with the community.

The officials engage the head-teachers and teachers in door-to-door campaign in school’s

catchment area. Advertisements and banners are also placed at prominent points in the area

and the local prayer leaders are also requested to encourage people to enrol their children

through public announcements. The officials largely rely on the head-teachers and teachers to

improve students’ attendance through meeting with parents and community leaders who could

influence the parents in sending their children regularly to schools. Many officials reported that

they have introduced non-financial rewards to encourage the head-teachers and teachers to

ensure minimum attendance of students. District officials mostly use surprise visits to schools

to keep a check on teachers’ attendance. They also use other tools including phone-calls and

54


Watsapp to check on whether teachers are on-time and present in the schools. To improve

quality of teaching and learning in the schools, the district education officials ensure that AEOs

visit each school at least twice in a given month. The Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants

(MEAs) not only records the school visits by the AEOs, but also takes test from sampled

students enrolled in grade-III. This test, called the LND-test (Literacy and Numeracy Drive),

however, is not conducted for students in other grades.

3.3.5. Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits

This study indicates that during school visits, an official spends around 3½ hours (215 minutes)

in one school on average. During the visit three major tasks performed by the officials include

community mobilization (20 percent of total time spent), student achievement assessment (16

percent of total time spent) and mentoring support (16 percent of total time spent). Observation

and monitoring of learning environment on average receives least time of an official during the

school visit.


Tiers

Districts are not involved in the process of planning or policy development, and the frequently

changing policies cause an ever-present challenge for the districts. New policies require time

to be implemented, but the urgency on the part of province to implement and not taking districts

into confidence, while planning, leads to ineffective implementation of reforms. Also, target

setting is generally done at the provincial level without much consultation with the districts.

The centralized nature of top-bottom reform design creates lack of clarity among district and

sub-district management about the focus, intent and desired outcome of the reform initiatives

and planning targets. An important example of disconnect between province and districts is

witnessed at the design stage of teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD)

initiatives. The districts are engaged by the province only for nominating the teachers for pre-

designed trainings and their role in needs’ identification and CPD design is kept minimum.

Likewise, districts, school heads and teachers are not much engaged in the processes of

curriculum and textbook development.

33

24

34

34

23

42

25

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Others





Community Mobilization


AverageTime Spent on Tasks during School Visit (in Minutes)

55


At the district level, the Deputy Commissioners also lead and coordinate a forum called the

District Review Committee (DRC). This intra-district coordination led by the deputy

commissioners is an effective mechanism for progress review and addressing any challenges

in effective service delivery at the district level.

Notwithstanding the effectiveness of DRCs, the study finds that that there is little coordination

between top tier of district officials and officials at sub-district levels. Similarly, there is no

institutionalised mechanisms that could allow for increased coordination and oversight of

district coordination and engagement at schools and community levels.

School head teachers coordinate with the sub-district officials only through monthly meetings.

Meetings are held at the cluster level where issues and challenges are discussed along with

progress against key indicators on access and quality of education. However, there is no

communication and strategic coordination on the role of School Councils as key actors in

education reform success and service delivery improvement.

3.3.7. Delays in Budget Release and Low Absorptive Capacity

Delays in transfer and release of non-salary

budgets to the districts and schools have also

been observed. For the ongoing financial year,

the 1st tranche of non-salary budgets was

released to the districts on 30th August 2018.

Because of delay in transfer of non-salary

budgets and various other issues, schools are

unable to fully utilize the allocated budgets.

For example, the TPV of NSB done by I-SAPS

indicates that around 23 percent of schools reported half or even less utilization of funds during

2015-16.

Because of the intra-department and inter-departmental lack of coordination, there are also

challenges of low budgetary releases and the absorptive capacity of the education department

is also affected. For example, in 2016-17, out of the total allocated budget for education, only

77 percent could be spent.

3.3.8. Lack of Institutional Capacity for Evidence-Based Planning and Budgeting

The DEAs lack capacity and skills to carry-out needs-based planning and target setting in line

with the strategic priorities set at the provincial level. Owing to centralized top-bottom planning

process, the plans and targets set at provincial level generally do not conform to the local

realities as it is mostly done using provincial level aggregate data (in some cases, district data).

As a result, the local level challenges remain largely under addressed.

In the absence of evidence-based planning, the budget allocation and utilization in districts is

also not effective. Evidence indicates that an inverse relationship exists between the proportion

of out of school children of 5-16 years’ age and per student spending at district level. For

example, district Rahim Yar Khan is the most disadvantaged in this regard as 47 percent of its

In 2016-17, 23 percent of the

allocated education budget

remained unspent. A major

reason for this ties to the lack of

coordination within SED and

between SED and other

departments like Finance.

56


school-going age children are out of school, yet it receives one of the lowest per student budgets

in the province.46

3.3.9. District and School Capacity Needs

The study indicates that district education officials require capacity development support to

perform their mandated functions more efficiently. Around 23 percent of the study’s

respondents agreed that they need training to equip them better for their responsibilities.

The following areas have been identified through this study for capacity building of district

managers to help improve education delivery. These areas include:

a. School level monitoring and mentoring

b. Data-driven and needs-based strategic planning and target setting

c. Whole school improvement planning

d. Budget preparation and execution

e. IT based approaches for education management

The study also identifies areas for developing capacities of head teachers in the areas of

student assessments and community mobilization. The areas identified for capacity

development of head teachers include:

a. School leadership

b. School budgets and financial records

c. Departmental rules and regulations to better manage schools and teachers.

46 I-SAPS. 2017. Allocate it Right: Decreasing Equity Challenges in Punjab. Islamabad. pp. 9.

57


SINDH

58


SINDH:


4.1 Education in Sindh at a Glance

Sindh has 55,244 educational institutions from pre-primary schools till degree colleges

including all public, private and other public institutions. Out of these institutions only 11,193

institutions are specifically designated for girls, whereas, there are 10,526 institutions that offer

co-education. 47 There has been slight increase in the enrolment of children in public and private

schools (pre-primary till higher secondary) of the province in past two years, where enrolment

increased from 7,768,415 in 2016 to 8,019,842 in 2017.48 While there has been some

improvement in the enrolment rate in recent years, Sindh continues to face the access challenge

as around 35 percent of primary school-age children in Sindh are currently not in schools.

Evidence also highlights gender disparities at primary school-age, as more girls (44 percent)

compared to boys (28 percent) are out of schools in Sindh.49 There is also considerable

difference in male (67 percent) and female (44 percent) literacy rates in the province. The net

enrolment rate (NER) at primary level in the province is 48 percent, which again highlights

gender gap i.e. 52 percent for boys and 44 percent for girls.50

4.1.1. An Overview of Education Policy Landscape

National Education Policy 2009 has been adopted as the overarching policy framework for

education in the province. In the light of constitutional obligation under Article 25-A51,

Government of Sindh enacted The Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education

Act, 2013. Sindh is also the only province in Pakistan that has developed the rules of business

under the Act, 2013. Moreover, the province has Sindh Education Standards and Curriculum

Act 2014 which aims to clearly define the role of various attached departments and autonomous

bodies in curriculum and textbooks revision and development, and teachers’ pre-service and

in-service training. In addition to the Act and the rules of business, the legal and policy

framework for access to quality education in the province also includes Sindh Education Sector

Plan (SESP) 2014-18 developed by School Education and Literacy Department (SELD).

SESP is the key strategic document that provides a comprehensive and all-encompassing plan

for addressing education access, quality and governance related challenges. SESP has seven

thematic components that provide a clear picture of government priorities and strategies to be

implemented over five years starting from 2014. The sector plan is being managed and

implemented by the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) and its allied

provincial entities.

47 NEMIS. (2018). Pakistan Education Statistics, 2016-17. Academy of Education Planning and Management,

Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan. 48 Ibid. and NEMIS. (2017). Pakistan Education Statistics, 2015-16. Academy of Education Planning and

Management, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan. 49 NEMIS. (2017). Pakistan Education Statistics, 2015-16. Academy of Education Planning and Management,

Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan. Pg. 22. 50 Government of Pakistan. (2018). Chapter 10. Education. Economic survey of Pakistan 2017-18. 51 The Gazette of Pakistan. (2010). Ex.Pt.1, Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act 2010, Act No X of 2010.

P267.

59


4.1.2. Education Management and Service Delivery Structure: Province, Districts and

Schools

The key actors in education service delivery in Sindh and operational relations at province,

district and school levels are explained below:


SESP is the key strategic document that steers government’s priorities and agenda for

education reforms in the province. SELD is the main department responsible to manage and

oversee legislation, planning, management, financing and service delivery in the education

sector. SELD is assisted by its allied provincial entities and district education management for

implementation of the sector plan and for performance of key education functions (see Figure

12).

Figure 12: Education Administration in Sindh - Regional Directorate

The key allied provincial entities supporting SELD include Reform Support Unit (RSU),

Provincial Institute of Teacher Education (PITE), Directorate of Curriculum, Assessment and

Research (DCAR), Sindh Teachers Education Development Authority (STEDA), Sindh

Textbook Board (STB), Sindh Education Foundation (SEF), Standardized Achievement Test

(SAT), Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions Sindh (DIRPIS) and

Directorate of Literacy & Non-Formal Education (DLNFE).

Major roles and responsibilities of these attached institutions are provided in the Table 4 below:



60


School Education and Literacy Department, Sindh 1. Directorate of

School Education (DSE)

(Primary/Elementary),

Secondary and Higher

Secondary)

• Each regional directorate is responsible to provide strong

leadership in all matters relating to education in respective

region.

• Ensures implementation of government policies, rules and

regulations.

• Acts as main point of contact in relation to education in regions.

• Provides oversight of the operations and delivery of education

services in schools.

Develops and maintains effective and positive relations with

staff at regional, district and Taluka levels. 2. Provincial Institute of

Teachers Education

(PITE)

• Responsible for pre-service teacher education and continuous

professional development programmes based on school education

standards and curriculum for developing professionally competent

teachers

3. Directorate of

Curriculum,

Assessments and

Research (DCAR)

• Curriculum Development /Review of all subjects for classes (I to

XII)

• Capacity Building of Teachers, Head Teachers, Supervisory

personnel, Educational Managers and School Management

Committees.

• Development & Execution of Educational Programs, Projects

and Schemes under Public & Private sector both.

• Dissemination of Educational Policies Plans and Programs.

• Conducting Research in Education.

• Assessment of Achievement of Teachers and Students in Sindh.

4. Sindh Textbook Board

(STBB)

• Development of Textbooks.

• Printing and Publication of Textbooks from Class I to XII in All

Three Languages (URDU, SINDHI, ENGLISH)

• Marketing of the textbooks to private education provider.

• Monitoring of textbook delivery to public schools.

5. Sindh Teachers

Education and

Development Authority

(STEDA)

Certify and accredit teacher education programmes and ensure

quality of both pre-service and in-service teacher education

programmes to prepare professionally competent teachers to

teach curriculum effectively. 6. Reform Support Unit

(RSU)

• To create a capacity that would strengthen the Education

Department's ability to adopt and implement the education policy

and strategy.

• Install a well-integrated and functional monitoring system

through an Institutional Tracking System for tracking the

outreach of incentives.

• The Unit's areas of expertise are data collection, data analysis

and its institutionalized impact on policy and strategy.

• Coordination of Policy and its implementation.

• To ensure education of equitable quality for all to fully harness

the nation's human potential

61


7. Sindh Education

Foundation (SEF)

• Conceptualize and spearhead projects for the establishment

of educational institutions especially in less developed or

less privileged areas

• Evolve programs for raising the standard of education

(quality) and improvement in literacy rate (access)

• Conduct research or surveys or hold workshops,

conferences and symposia to study the educational system

to identify its shortcomings and make suggestions for its

improvement

• Provide financial help or grants to various NGOs and other

educational agencies


The Education Management Reform (EMR) Policy of 2009 highlighted that the management

of education could not keep pace with the devolution process since 2001 in which many of the

education management responsibilities were devolved to the district government. There was

no clear division as far as management responsibilities were concerned which caused more

problems instead of solving them52. As a follow up to the EMR Policy 2009, Government of

Sindh introduced a major reform in the education governance by establishment of Education

Management Cadre (EMC) in 2014.

The education management has been branched in three distinct services. The newly introduced

services include, School Executive Service (SES), School Management Service (SMS) and

School Finance Service (SFS)53. The province is divided into six regions, i.e. Karachi,

Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Mirpur Khaas, Shaheed Benazirabad. Under the new

organizational structure, Director School Education (Primary) and Director School Education

(Elementary, Secondary and Higher Secondary) hold the responsibility at the regional level

(see Figure 13).

52 Sindh Education Sector Plan, 2014-18. 53 Education and Literacy Department Notification No SO (B&F) E&L/RE-DESIG-POSTS/2014-15 (DISTRICT)

/ 2014, was issued in pursuance of Sub-rule (2) of rule 3 of Sindh Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and

Transfer) Rules 1974. The APT Rules 2014 provides the new structure of education management in Sindh.

http://www.sindheducation.gov.pk/Contents/Menu/Final%20SESP.pdf

62


Figure 13: Sindh School Education Department (Field Formation)

At the district level, the education offices are headed by District Education Officer (DEO)

Primary and District Education Officer (DEO) Elementary / Secondary & Higher Secondary.

At the district level the DEOs are assisted by Deputy District Education Officers for Primary

and Elementary / Secondary/ Higher Secondary. At the Taluka (Sub-District) level, Taluka

Education Officers (TEOs) and Assistant Education Officers (AEOs) hold the responsibility.

At the School tier the head-teachers are divided in three categories; Senior Principal heads

Comprehensive / Higher Secondary Schools and Principal heads Comprehensive / Secondary

Schools. Similarly, Senior Head Master / Mistresses are posted as heads of Elementary /

Secondary Schools and Head Masters / Mistresses for managing Campus / Cluster Hub

Schools. The financial matters are assigned to Director Finance under the newly created School

Finance Service. Director Finance is assisted by Deputy Directors Finance and Assistant

Directors Finance at the district tiers54.

Introduction of the new Education Management Cadre is aimed at addressing the limitations

of governance and management in the school education sector which have constrained the

department in achieving the target of performing schools and improved learning outcomes. As

a continuation of reforms, School Consolidation Policy assigns additional responsibilities with

delegation of administrative authority at the respective tiers. DEOs have been assigned the

responsibilities to, chalk out annual work plan, resource planning and management, financial

management, procurement management, human resource management, oversight of the

distribution process of text books, early childhood education, reporting and record management

and monitoring55. Similarly, under the School Consolidation Policy 2011 TEOs are mandated

54 Notification [No SO (B&F) E&L/RE-DESIG-POSTS/2014-15 (DISTRICT) / 2014] 55 School Consolidation Policy 2011: Responsibilities of District Education Officer

63


to identify and recommend for consolidating/merging Schools, delegation of administrative

powers, annual working plan, resource planning and management, financial management,

annual work planning for school development, procurement management, financial

management, human resource management and development, Early Childhood Education

(ECE), management of SMCs and Record Management56.

The assigning of new roles and expanded scope for the education managers at the District and

Taluka tiers under the School Consolidation Policy 2012 brought forth new challenges. The

SED while working closely with the education managers have tried to address these with the

introduction of the School Clustering Policy 2016. The education managers, especially the

DEOs have been assigned additional roles including; cluster formation, activity planning for

policy implementation, staffing of CHS Head, guiding teachers and coordinating with various

line agencies of the SED57. Similarly, the TEO has also been assigned new responsibilities of

Cluster Identification, Verification and Support to the Academic and Administrative Cluster

Management58.

4.1.3 Management Process in Core Education Functions: Horizontal and Vertical

Linkages

This sub-section explains the management processes designed for performing core education

functions in Sindh. The process flow elaborated in the flow charts also indicates the horizontal

and vertical operational linkages required for education policy implementation and effective

service delivery.



2017.59 The policy presented a merit-based system for the recruitment of teachers. Key features

of the new merit-based system comprise screening test to be conducted by the National Testing

Service (NTS), formulation and engagement of District Placement Committees (DPCs) and

providing a Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM). The flow chart in Figure 14 presents

process flow for recruitment of teachers in Sindh as per the Recruitment Policy, 2017:


56 School Consolidation Policy 2011: Responsibilities of Taluka Education Officer 57 School Clustering Policy 2016: Responsibilities of DEOs 58 School Clustering Policy 2016: Responsibilities of TEOs 59 Government of the Sindh. (2017). Recruitment Policy 2017 for Teachers and Non-Teaching. Karachi: School

Education Department, Government of the Sindh.

64


The above process flow indicates that the system of merit-based recruitment of teachers in

Sindh has been introduced, however it has yet to be made part of the established governance

routines. Additionally, the absence of effective accountability mechanisms to ensure the

robustness of the system seriously impacts the effectiveness of the process. The recruitment

process is ensuring merit, however the process has inadequacies on the count of evaluating

subject specific knowledge, competencies and skills of the candidates. Additionally the

feedback loop to inform the recruitment process with the teachers’ relevant agencies such as

STEDA, PITE etc. is not in place. In order to align the process for having a direct impact on

improved quality of education service delivery, it remains of significant importance to ensure

effective coordination and communication both at provincial and district levels.

4.1.3.2. Curriculum Development

Under the chair of Provincial Minister for Education, the SELD with the assistance of a

Curriculum Council comprising heads of all provincial education institutions is responsible for

making decisions regarding development and revision of curriculum, its approval, monitoring

and implementation. Besides the Curriculum Wing at the SELD secretariat Directorate of

Curriculum, Assessments and Research (DCAR) is the key operational entity responsible for

development or revision of curriculum. It is headed by a Director and supported by Additional,

Deputy and Assistant Directors. Curriculum Wing at SELD Secretariat plays the key role of

coordination for the curriculum development process. Additionally, the Curriculum Wing also

acts as the secretariat for the curriculum council. Figure 15 presents the process flow of

curriculum development:


65


DCAR takes lead in the curriculum development and during this process requires strong

coordination of SELD, DCAR, BISE and PITE at provincial level. Whereas, curriculum

implementation requires coordination, communication and capacities both at provincial and

district levels.

4.1.3.3.Textbook Development and Distribution

In Sindh the process of textbooks development, printing and distribution is guided by the Policy

on Sindh Textbook and Learning Material (production, certification and distribution), 2014.

As per the Policy, 2014 the STBB is responsible to manage authorship, production, copyrights,

printing and distribution of textbooks and learning material in the province. At provincial level

STBB is required to work with other provincial departments to ensure transparent and effective

delivery of services. STBB is required to conduct all procurements in line with Sindh Public

Procurement Rules. DCAR is the competent authority to review textbooks and learning

materials for alignment with the school education standards and curriculum goals. After

approval and printing of the textbooks, STBB is required to develop an effective distribution

strategy using EMIS supported technological innovations in delivery and tracking of textbooks

down to schools and classrooms.


Tier

The following sub-sections identify gaps between the assigned responsibilities and actual

functions performed by key provincial institutions and officials; institutional and

administrative bottle necks; coordination and communication challenges; and capacity and

financial needs and constraints.


The assessment at provincial level pointed out following challenges in performance of

mandated functions of key provincial education institutions:

66


a. In-service teacher training rests with PITE. However, recently, the results of SAT for

grade 5 and 8 spurred RSU to outsource training of select teachers in Mathematics,

Languages and Science to private service provider. Although this decision was taken

in a joint meeting of different departments but since the decision had support at the

highest policy level, therefore it met very little objection from PITE and DCAR. The

outsourcing in this case is reflective of the limitations of the dedicated institutions for

teacher training in Sindh.

b. Different allied provincial institutions in Sindh have been assigned almost similar

functions related to capacity development and trainings. In the official documents, all

of these provincial entities have been assigned slightly different functions; however, in

reality, this has resulted in a plethora of directorates and entities. These institutions

include Curriculum Wing, PITE, STEDA, Directorate of Human Resource and

Training, and Directorate of Teacher Training Institutions.

c. It is important to highlight that a relatively new Directorate of Human Resource and

Training (DHRT) that has been assigned the function of conducting needs assessment

for the teachers in the province. The role of directorate has been slightly differentiated

from PITE by mandating it to conduct need-based assessments across the province and

give input to PITE on where the trainings must be carried-out. However, establishing a

separate entity of needs-assessment is going to increase the financial burden and

administrative complexity of provincial education management. A more cost-effective

and less complex way of mapping needs could be to conduct training needs assessments

(TNAs) by PITE in coordination with regional directorates of schools (secondary and

primary). The second overlapping function of DHRT is to centralize the recruitments

of the teachers in SELD. But this function could also be performed by existing setup of

SELD and allied institutions.

d. Directorate of Curriculum, Assessment and Research (DCAR) previously carried out

research around curriculum and textbooks but it has not done any research in last

several years. One of the main reasons for this is the capacity deficit at DCAR staff.

SELD has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iqra University where

the staff of SELD would get the opportunity to do MPhil, PhD and other research

related courses.

4.2.2. Frequent Transfers of Senior Officials

There have been instances of frequent transfer and postings at the Directorate of School

Education (Secondary and Elementary), Karachi Region. Between 2001 and 2018, there have

been 18 transfers and postings at the post of Director. It is important to share that only in 2012,

there have been 5 transfer/postings at this post. Later, over a period of 3 years (2015-2018), 6

officials were transferred from the said post. The frequent transfer and posting at the senior

most management level has implications for the planning, services and pace of education

reforms.


67


There are a number of stakeholders that exercise influence on the policy, planning and

management processes at the provincial as well as district levels in the province. Teacher

unions and teachers are a major group that exercise influence often to the detriment of

education service delivery at school level. The teachers and teachers’ unions potential to

influence and disrupt the reform process is based on multiple factors including their presence

across the province, mobilization capacity, ability to endure long strikes, political patronage

and ability to influence the electoral process. Teachers often exercise this influence owing to

their organization and their ability to articulate their demands. However, group incentives and

interests of teacher unions largely revolve around package of benefits and promotions, and

often at the cost of student needs. The study indicates that due to their vested interests, teacher

unions in the province have so far been able to resist significant changes aimed at improving

service delivery. These include accountability procedures, teacher rationalization etc. among

others. As a result, the quality of service delivery continues to be problematic on major fronts

including supply of teachers and quality of teaching and learning experience across government

schools.

4.2.4. Staffing Gap and Ad hoc Appointments

Another important issue at the SELD and allied institutions is of staffing gap and appointments

based on ad hoc basis. Following table presents the staffing gap at DCAR:

Table 5: DCAR Staffing Status

Position Sanctioned Posts Filled-in Posts

Additional

Director

3 0

Subject Specialist 21 17

BPS – 18 Officers 5 2

BPS-17 Officers 5 5

It is important to note that in order to bridge this staffing gap appointments are were made to

DCAR but 9 out of 17 officials appointed as Subject Specialists have still not joined the

Directorate and continue to work on their previous positions. Similarly, research positions in

PITE are largely filled through internal transfers and postings on ad hoc basis. As a result, the

newly posted incumbents lack requisite skills to carry-out research and other mandated

responsibilities. It is evident from the fact that both DCAR and PITE have been unable to

produce required research around curriculum, textbooks, learning materials etc.

4.2.5 Lack of Need-based and Demand-driven Budgeting

Like other provinces, Sindh also faces challenges in budgeting. Though total budgetary

allocations at provincial level have increased over the years, some departments still face

challenge in getting the budgets required to perform their mandated functions. For instance,

DCAR presented the scheme for conducting diagnostic assessments in the province, but this

scheme was not included in the allocated budget for the current year. DCAR also faces

challenge with reference to release of funds. Owing to the funding deficit regular diagnostic

assessments are not conducted by DCAR. The review indicates that only 4 diagnostic

assessments have been conducted in the province since 2009.

4.2.6. Coordination and Communication Challenge

68


The challenge related to effective coordination and communication was more pronounced for

the Directorate of Schools (Secondary and Elementary Education). The DSE faces challenge

of weak coordination with PITE and DCAR. It is important to highlight that PITE has almost

never coordinated with the DSE regarding the subject-specific needs of the teachers or about

any particular geographical area where such trainings need to be imparted. Moreover, there is

no formal provincial forum in Sindh where various allied institutions of provincial education

department could come together to discuss the overall performance of key entities and plan a

joint and coordinated response for improving education services. In this regard, RSU is in the

process of developing a strategy document to improve the coordination between various

departments and reduce overlaps and redundancy issues.

4.3 District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges


4.3.1. Frequent Transfers and Postings

Frequency of transfers for district officials varies from district to district, with most frequent

transfers of staff completing tenure as low only 2 months. Frequent transfer and posting of key

district officials impact the overall performance of the district unfavorably.


The study finds that a vast majority of district managers joined the education department as

school teachers (primary, elementary, secondary). As they were posted on managerial positions

over the course of their career, the officials did not receive any corresponding specialized

training or capacity building program to prepare them for their new roles as managers. The

absence of any capacity building opportunities coupled with the fact that officials have been

repeatedly identifying areas in which they need training is indicative that most officials are

facing challenges in smooth delivery of education services at the district and sub-district levels.

4.3.3. District Top Tier’s Average Time Spent on Key Tasks

On average, around 21% of the workday of district managers is spent on activities not directly

related to the service delivery of education. Similar to other provinces, administrative matters

take up most of the time (around 23%) of these officials. The activities related to data collection

from the district and sub-district education officers, coordination and follow-up meetings with

education officials, and monitoring of school processes take on average 11.25%, 23.75% and

21.25% of education managers’ average time. The study found that education managers spend

on average little to no time on planning their daily, weekly or monthly activities.

4.3.4. Lack of Orientation on Job Descriptions

Sindh has developed and notified job descriptions and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of

officials from Directors to the Head Teachers in 2017. The data collected for this study

indicates that two-third of sub-district officials shared that their job descriptions (JDs) explain

their role and responsibilities for education management and service delivery. Almost all of the

officials confirmed that their job descriptions contain the actual responsibilities they are

performing currently. At the same time, the study also found that a significant number of

69


officials, around 29%, were not aware of the job description for their positions. The lack of

awareness and orientation of job descriptions and the mandated roles hinder the ability of the

education officials to play an effective role in education service delivery. The officials who are

not aware of their JDs learnt about their assigned responsibilities through training (33 percent),

on job support (50 percent) or instructions from higher authority (17 percent).


To increase enrolment, district officials along with head-teachers and teachers, carry out mass

community engagement campaign before the start of academic year and after the summer

vacations. In their drive for enrollment, they involve community influential and religious

leaders to convince parents to enroll their children, particularly girls, in schools. The officials

also organize door-to-door visits to establish contact with community and identify children of

school enrollment age. The study found that the installation of biometric machines at school

levels to record teacher attendance has resulted in significant improvement in teachers’

presence in school. In order to improve students’ achievement, officials reported that the

students performing better at school are given awards and prizes for encouragement and

motivation. However, the study did not find any strategies that officials use to monitor and

improve teaching learning practices inside classroom.

4.3.6. Sub-district Official’s Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits

During a school visit, an official on average spends around 2½ hours (145 minutes) in one

school. During the visit, two major tasks are performed by the officials, including teachers and

student attendance (27 percent of total time spent) and mentoring support (25 percent of total

time spent). Observation and support on administration and fund utilization receive least time

of an official during the school visit.


Tiers

District-level coordination meetings are being conducted on monthly basis in all districts.

Survey data and interviews with district officials inform that district level coordination and

communication is also satisfactory as all survey participants reported either moderate or a lot

of coordination across different levels of education administration.

39

27

36

27

16

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45






AverageTime Spent (in Minutes)

70


However, the data related to budget allocation and expenditure reveals that the coordination

between provincial and district tiers is not up-to mark in terms of utilizing the allocated

resources. For example, in 2016-17, out of the total allocated budget for education, only 83

percent could be spent.

In majority of the cases, the school head teachers also have good coordination with district

officials through regular visits and meetings. However, in case of few districts, the district

managers hardly conduct any visits to the schools and meetings with officials are not regular.

4.3.8. Lack of Competent Teaching Resource in Sufficient Numbers

There is presently acute shortage of head-teachers at school level, and the department deals

with such cases by giving temporary charge to existing teachers. There is also a deficiency of

subject specialists at the secondary level. Those who are assigned to teach science subjects are

not from the subject-specialist cadre but are the ones who have studied those subjects while

completing their course-work for their degree programs.


The study identifies the need for capacity building of district managers to enable them to

perform their assigned responsibilities more efficiently. The following key areas for capacity

building are identified in this regard:

a. Research and report writing

b. Use of information technology (IT) for data compilation and analysis

c. School monitoring and classroom observations

d. Communication and coordination

e. Planning and monitoring textbooks distribution

f. Financial planning and record management

The schools are also in need of more and better trained teachers. The study also points towards

the need for training of head-teachers in areas like school monitoring, communication, general

administration, reporting, community mobilization and lesson planning.

71


KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

72


KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA


5.1 Education in KP at a Glance

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province faces challenges of inequitable educational access and

quality as around 2.38 million children of 5-16 years of age are out of school in the province.60

As per recent data KP province has 27,524 thousand primary, middle and higher secondary

public sector schools with 4.49 million students and 131,610 thousand school teachers.61 The

Net Enrolment Rate (NER) at primary level for boys in KP is 58 percent compared with 47

percent for girls. There is a huge decline in NERs at the middle and matric levels in KP as only

21 percent and 10 percent of the age-appropriate population is enrolled at middle and matric

levels, respectively.62 The Gender Parity Index (GPI) in enrolment stands at 0.74 in KP, the

GPI at primary level is 0.84 while at secondary level it significantly drops to 0.60. The overall

literacy rate (10 years and above) of the province is 53 percent in 2015-16, which is below the

national average (58 percent). There is a marked difference in male (72 percent) and female

(36 percent) literacy rates in the province. 63

5.1.1 An Overview of Education Policy Landscape

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department (E&SED) has

adopted National Education Policy 2009 as the guiding framework for education sector in the

province. In order to be compliant with the constitutional obligation under Article 25-A Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Free Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act was enacted in 2017.

The law provides for free and compulsory education for all children in the province.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Education Sector Plan (ESP) 2015-20 provides comprehensive and all-

encompassing policy guidance to deal with the challenges related to access, quality and

governance of education. ESP vision and targets indicate that the Elementary and Secondary

Education Department (E&SED) is strategically planning and carefully prioritizing actions for

sustainable transformation of the sector ultimately leading to provision of quality education to

all children in KP. Besides providing policy guidance, ESP also points towards the need to

address management, planning and implementation capacity gaps at all governance tiers for

successful implementation of the plan and its targets.64 An important feature of ESP in KP is

that it aggregates needs identified in all districts at provincial level, besides it also contains

costed targets for key institutions and education functions at the provincial level.


Schools

The education management and service delivery structure in KP consists of provincial, district

and school tiers. The key actors in education service delivery and their operational relations at

province, district and school levels are explained below:

60 NEMIS (2018). Op. cit. p. 41 61 NEMIS. (2018). Op cit. 62 PSLM, 2016 63 Government of Pakistan. (2018). Op. cit. Chapter 10.. 64 Elementary and Secondary Education Department. 2015. School Sector Plan 2015-2020, Government of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). pg. 18.

73



E&SED is the key provincial department in KP that is responsible for education policy,

planning, service delivery and monitoring. Directorate of Elementary and Secondary Education

(DESE) is the key provincial entity that manages the planning, budgeting, human resource

management and monitoring functions under the policy guidance of E&SED. DESE directly

manages the district education management and it also acts as a bridge between Secretariat of

E&SE and district management. The allied institutions of E&SED at provincial level, which

can be seen below in Figure 16, include Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education

(DCTE), Provincial Institute for Teacher Education (PITE), Regional Institutes for Teacher

Education (RITEs), Planning Cell, Provincial Education Assessment Centre (PEACE),

Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF), Education Sector Reforms Unit

(ESRU), Education Management Information System (EMIS) and Independent Monitoring

Unit (IMU).

Figure 16: Mapping Education Administration- KP

The following table presents the roles and responsibilities of attached institutions of the

E&SED.



1. Directorate of

Elementary and

Secondary

Education (DESE)

• Financial Management functions including budgets (both

provincial & district), accounts, internal and external audit of

accounts.

74


• Human resource development functions comprising recruitment

(provincial cadre posts), personnel database, posting, transfer,

promotion & grant of leave.

• In-service training.

• Performance evaluation.

• Preparation of seniority List (provincial cadre posts)

• Preparation of Provincial Development plan (5/10 years).

• Consolidation of district development plans.

• Preparation of concept paper/feasibility reports for projects.

• Preparation, monitoring and coordination of foreign aided projects.

• Preparation & processing of PC-1 for approval of

DDWP/ ECNEC

• Literacy & Non-formal Education.

• Physical Education (scouts- Girls guide- Tournaments) • Managing functions at District Education Office level

2. Provincial Institute

of Teachers

Education (PITE)

• Conduct and test innovative Pre-Service & In-Service teacher training

programs

• Training of Master Trainers.

• Monitor and assess teachers training programs.

• Design and conduct research in teacher education, evaluation and

assessment.

• Develop training materials, etc.

• Serve as a Provincial Resource Center in education trainings.

• Coordinate educational training programs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• Organize and Conduct educational workshops/seminars as and when

required by the Department.

• Supervise & facilitate bridging Courses for teachers to equate Diploma in

Education/ADE.

• Design and maintain Teacher Education Management Information

System (TEMIS).

3. Directorate of

Curriculum and

Teachers

Education (DCTE)

• Achieving excellence in elementary and secondary teacher education by

producing professionally sound and value-oriented teachers for quality

education in the province.

• Undertake all academic, teacher education, curriculum development and

research assignments with the aim to meet the highest national and

international standards.

4. Education

Management

Information

System (EMIS)

• Providing information to all users to enable these users to conduct their

different tasks more efficiently

• Enabling decision-makers to take better decisions and justifying them,

based on concrete information

• Enabling planning and policy development to address objectively

identified issues, set quantified targets, and realistically estimate the

resources required for implementing plans and policies

• Contributing to improving the efficiency of day-to-day operations of the

education system by providing relevant and reliable information

• Support efficient monitoring of attainment of the stated education goals,

by providing complete, reliable and timely data.

• Support planning, decision making, supervision and management to:

o Facilitate the efficient direction of resources to the needy areas and

eliminate/minimize wastage.

o Accurate and reliable information

o Diagnosis of weaknesses and strengths

75


o Identification and Selection of priorities areas

o Resource allocation

5. Education Sector

Reforms Unit

(ESRU)

• Reforms in Policy Development, Planning Coordination, Monitoring and

Evaluation of various programs under implementation in the Elementary

& Secondary Education Department.

• Monitor implementation of Education Sector Reforms in Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa.

• Effective monitoring of distribution of free textbooks, the stipend

program for girls, teacher’s attendance and reforms under

implementation.

• Monitoring of Training and re-organization of PTCs. Ensure monitoring

of PTCs funds.

• To ensure that the development funds placed at the disposal of the PTCs

for provision of missing facilities and construction of classroom are

being effectively utilized.

• Collection and Analysis of Data from Education Management

Information System (EMIS) for Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation

purpose.

• Reforms in Boards.

• Reforms in Training Institutions.

6. Independent

Monitoring Unit

(IMU)

• Responsible for ensuring that data for all key performance indicators are

collected regularly on monthly basis and uploaded using Smartphone.

• Provide Elementary & Secondary Education Department and its

development partners with a viable means of ensuring that education

sector reforms are efficiently developed and effectively implemented.

• Support the establishment of performance monitoring mechanisms.

• Increase public awareness of the status of school facilities and

infrastructure and the level of education service delivery in the province,

district and the school level.

• Provide access to information on key indicators to increase social

accountability.

• Increase social accountability to improve governance, service delivery

outcomes, planning and resource allocations to the sector

7. Elementary

Education

Foundation

(EEF)65

• To take all such measures as it deems necessary for the promotion,

improvement and financing of education development of human

resources in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through strengthening of

elementary education in the private sectors in line with the education

policy of Government.

• To improve literacy, with particular focus on women, through opening of

new community and non-formal schools and employment of teachers.

• To improve quality of education through effective and systematic

teachers training programme.

• To promote community participation and ownership of elementary

education programmes at the grass root level.

• To give loans to an individual or non-governmental organization for

establishment of elementary education schools.

• To introduce innovative educational programmes relating to literacy and

skill-oriented disciplines for the exceptionally disabled, related and

disadvantaged children

65 Also called the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF).

76


8. Private Schools

Regulatory

Authority (PSRA)

• Register and regulate private schools.

• Supervision of their curricula, scheme of studies and academic schedule.

• Formulate policy, guiding principles and criteria for the establishment

and registration of private schools in the province.

• Categorization of schools based on criteria to maintain minimum

standards of education.


The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has devolved the subject of education to

the district governments66. The KP Local Government Act, 2013, authorizes the District

Government for operation, management and control of devolved offices67, education being one

of them. District governments are responsible for the provision of education services but the

linkages between elected local governments and district education management are not

effective. The KP Local Government Act, 2013, requires allocation of development grant for

local governments by the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) which is to be not less than

thirty percent (30%) of the total development budget of the province. The grant shall be in

addition to the establishment charges budgeted for the devolved functions and transfers in Lieu

of Octroi and Zilla taxes68. District education management in KP owing to its weak linkages

and administrative relations with local governments is not effectively benefitting from the

finances available with devolved elected government. These additional development financing

can help improve education service delivery in each district.

The district education management works under the administrative control of DESE and it

comprises District Education Officer (DEO) male, DEO female, Deputy DEOs, Sub DEOs and

Assistant SDEOs.

Besides provincial ESP, KP has also developed district education plans (DEP) for each district

in the province. KP DEPs have been developed using district specific data and are responsive

to unique needs of each district. Unlike Balochistan, KP employed bottom-up planning

approach to make sure that each DEP responds to the needs of entire school age population in

that district. The unique features of KP DEPs are that they are not only costed but also aligned

to the policy priorities and goals set in provincial ESP. Implementation of DEPs and delivery

of key education services require that district education management establishes effective

operational relations with the province, local governments and schools. At school level the

district education management is assisted by the school leadership and Parent Teacher Councils

(PTCs) for effective education service delivery.


Linkages

Following process flow on core education functions elaborates the horizontal and vertical

linkages required for efficient education service delivery in KP.

5.1.3.1. Teacher Recruitment

66 First Schedule, Part A, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 67 Section 13, KP Local Government Act 2013 68 Section 53-1(a) & 4, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013

77


The process for recruitment of teaching staff in schools is elaborated in the Teachers’ Induction

Policy, 2017. The policy presented a merit-based system for the recruitment of teachers. The

flow chart in Figure 17 presents that process flow for recruitment of teachers in KP as per the

Teachers’ Induction Policy, 2017:


The above process indicates that the system of merit-based recruitment of teachers in KP

requires effective coordination and communication both at provincial and district levels.

5.1.3.2. Curriculum Development

Under the chairmanship of Secretary, the E&SED with the assistance of a Steering Committee

comprising heads of all provincial education institutions is responsible for making decisions

regarding development and revision of curriculum, its approval, monitoring and

implementation. Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education (DCTE) is the key

provincial entity responsible for development or revision of curriculum. DCTE is also

mandated for the final review and approval of textbooks. It is headed by the Director and

supported by Deputy and Assistant Directors. Figure 18 presents the process flow of curriculum

development:


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DCTE takes lead in the curriculum development and during this process requires strong

coordination of DCTE with E&SED, BISE & PITE at provincial level. Whereas, curriculum

implementation requires coordination, communication and capacities both at provincial and

district levels.


Tier

The following sub-sections present the opportunities and challenges identified after review of

administrative structures, management practices, operational linkages and core capacities at

the provincial level in KP. It also points out specific areas for improvement in education

planning, management and service delivery capacities.

5.2.1. Overlapping Mandates and Institutional Gaps

The assessment identifies a number of challenges in terms of mandated roles of various

institutions working under E&SED. These challenges include mandate overlaps, blurred lines

of responsibilities and implementation of limited mandates. Following are some of the key

challenges in in relation to mandated roles of key provincial institutions:

a. In KP, most significant overlap in the mandates is between the EMIS and IMU. Both

the institutions are performing similar functions with minor variation. Both the entities

are collecting data on education indicators, but their data are not aligned or integrated.

Currently the two systems are functioning independently and do not share information

with each other. Data and information collected by both the entities can be integrated

to provide more robust data for education planning, management and monitoring in the

province. In this regard, the mandated functions and scope of both provincial entities

should be redefined and made more dynamic to ensure that education managers and

planners receive most recent and comprehensive data.

b. EMIS is performing its mandated roles but to a very limited extent. This is because of

the capacity issues at hand, and involvement of their staff in other non-EMIS related

tasks, for example, as focal person for IT projects.

5.2.2. High Turn-over of Senior Officials

The study results indicate that frequent transfers is a major challenge for the senior most

positions of the E&SED. Most recently, there have been frequent transfers at the post of

secretary of the department and there were instances when the secretary was transferred after

duration of a few months. It is important to note that only in the course of one year, the

education department in KP has had its 6th administrative secretary. Excessive transfers of

senior management of E&SED is a serious issue that adversely affects quality of education

service delivery at all tiers.

5.2.3. Communication and Coordination Challenges

For the purpose of regular coordination and communication, the E&SED convenes frequent

meetings to discuss departmental plans and progress on various targets. Moreover, the

department also conducts quarterly progress review meetings; budget utilization meetings and

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stocktakes meeting to ensure the progress against different initiatives. However, institutions

like ESEF and PITE face certain coordination challenges. For example, ESEF faces

coordination and communication challenges as it is required to communicate only through

E&SED. Hence, the long communication route consumes a lot of time and at times results in

delays when ESEF desires to get input from the allied provincial departments. Similar

challenge also exists in the case of PITE.

5.2.4. Low Share of School Education in Budget Allocations

During 2014-15 to 2016-17 the share of primary and secondary education in the education

budget of KP has decreased compared to higher education budget. The share of higher

education budget has increased from 12 percent of the total provincial education budget in

2014-15 to 19 percent of the budget in 2016-17.69 This increase in higher education budget

does not accompany a significant increase in the number of higher education students in the

province during these years. Not undermining the importance of higher education, it is

important that school education receives sufficient budget to improve education services and

to address the challenges of out of school children, student drop-out, low transition from

primary to secondary education and educational quality issues.

5.2.5. Political Economy of Education: Disparities in District Wise Public Spending

An overarching challenge in context of improving district level education service delivery is

that public spending decisions are not always based on need. The allocations are driven by

political expediencies, thus giving rise to disparity in number of schools, facilities in public

schools, and supply of teachers. This is evident from inter-district disparity in case of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

For instance, in KP for the fiscal year 2015-16, out of the total provincial budget of Rs. 488

billion, Rs. 120 billion were earmarked for education. Despite the fact that this is a huge budget,

the money reaching the districts presents vast inequalities. An analysis of the recurrent

education budget data indicates that number of districts like Peshawar, Mardan, Mansehra,

Swat, Abbottabad, Lower Dir and Dera Ismail Khan expensed more than Rs. 4 billion in 2014-

15. These seven districts combined absorbed more than 32 percent of the provincial budget of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On the other hand, districts like Hangu and Tor Ghar had education

expenditure below Rs. 1 billion. These disparities exist not only in terms of absolute district-

wise expenditure on education, but also at the level of per child education expenditure across

districts. For instance, districts including Tor Ghar and Hangu spent much less than the

provincial average for per child expenditure on the education

5.3. District and Sub-District Service Delivery Challenges


5.3.1. Frequent Transfers in District Management

This study identifies frequent transfers of district officials in KP. The district officials at senior

administrative positions have been serving anywhere from 3 months to a little over two years.

69 I-SAPS. 2017. Allocate it Right: Decreasing Equity Challenges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Islamabad. pp. 6.

80


In few cases, the posts remained even vacant for a few years. Frequent transfers and delay in

appointments at senior management positions act as a hurdle in the way of effective delivery

and obstruct continuity, ownership and accountability on the government side. Implementing

agencies, national or international, face challenges due to frequent transfer of officials as they

have to re-build relationships with district management, and in many cases the programmes go

a few steps back with each new official who needs time to get up to speed.


The education managers started their careers as school teachers and were later promoted to

become education managers. These officials had not received any specific trainings on

education management or leadership. For effective delivery of services and efficient

functioning, it is important to build capacity of officials in skills that are relevant to their

positions and important for ensuring improved service delivery in education in the district. For

instance, courses in areas like data analysis and statistics, inspection and evaluation, HR

management etc. can be very useful.

5.3.3. Coordinating District Education Management with Local Government System

In KP, education is one of the mandates of elected local governments, but this study identifies

that linkages between education management and elected local governments are weak. Local

government with their financial envelop and mandate of accountability offer a good

opportunity to support improved education service delivery. According to KP Local

Government Act, 2013, the district governments receive 30 percent of the development budget

under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award and as per the Section 6.5.1 of the

Planning and Development (P&D) guidelines 2015, local governments have to spend 20

percent of this budget on school education. At the districts level, alignment and coordination

between working of education management structures and elected local government is

fragmented and all the efforts and available finances are not used efficiently.

5.3.4. District Management’s Average Time Spent on Different Tasks

Similar to other provinces, administrative

matters take up most of the time of district

education managers’ workday. Around 2.4

hours (30%) of district managers are spent on

issues related to staff service related matters,

attending to court cases, conflict management

among staff, transfer and posting of education

officials/teachers etc. After administrative

matters, school visits also take up much of the officials’ time (22.5%) due to the distance

between schools and district education offices. The study’s data also indicates that considerable

portion of education managers’ time, 15% goes to matters that are not directly related to

improving service delivery at the school level. The officials nevertheless feel compelled to

attend to the calls and visits by various public representatives and political influential people

for fear of repercussions. Officials also spend on average around 10% of their time on meeting

with officials at district and sub-district tier to discuss and resolve various challenges such as

enrolment, students’ achievement, missing facilities and etc.

On average, 15% of the time of

district managers in consumed

in matters not directly related to

improving service delivery at

the school level.

81



The study finds aggressive engagement by the officials and school staff with the community

during the enrollment campaigns including door-to-door visits, organizing walks at busy places

within their communities, and involving the religious leaders to encourage people to have their

children enrolled in schools. As compared to other provinces, the use of community walks and

involvement of religious institutions like mosques as a strategy to increase enrollment is

significantly higher in KP than in other provinces. Once the children are enrolled in schools,

many schools also rewards students to encourage regular attendance. The officials in KPK,

similar to those in Punjab, use surprise visits as a strategy to ensure teachers presence in

schools. In addition to the surprise visits of the education official, IMU staff also visits and

reports teacher attendance across all districts. Many officials also assess students on random

basis during their visits to assess students’ learning, however this practice is not common

among all officials.

5.3.6. Disconnect between Planning and Budgeting, and Local Level Challenges

KP has developed district education plans but mainly using the aggregate district level data

available with the province. The aggregate data is not sufficient to identify the intra-district

inequities and disparities that need to be addressed through targeted planning and service

provision. There is need to improve localized targeted planning by collecting and utilizing

local (union council and village level) data that depicts local level challenges, especially

highlighting inequities and vulnerabilities. The sub-district targeted operational plans can then

be aggregated at district level and like the most recent practice district plans could be

aggregated to add to provincial ESP. This way educational inequities can be identified, and

targeted remedial actions can be taken utilizing all available resources.

5.3.7. Time Spent on Different Tasks during School Visits

During an observation visit, a district official spends around 3½ hours (198 minutes) in one

school on average. During the visit, two major tasks performed by the officials including

student achievement assessment (23 percent of total time spent) and mentoring support (17

percent of total time spent).


Tiers

19

25

45

33

23

25

28

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Others





Reporting and Data Collection


AverageTime Spent on Tasks in School Visit (in Minutes)

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The role of the province is crucial in ensuring effective service delivery at the district level,

whether it relates to timely releases of budget, supply of textbooks on time, planning teacher

training for the teachers or other activities, and for all these activities close coordination with

the districts is crucial. On province-district coordination, delays have been observed in

textbook delivery at times, and sometimes the provincial authorities do not respond in a timely

manner to district queries or needs.

At the district level, monthly review meetings are conducted on regular basis. These meetings

focus upon issues and challenges and review progress against various key education indicators.

This study identifies that there is poor coordination between district officials and schools; with

officials hardly visiting the schools and the meetings are sporadic and much fewer in frequency.


This study finds the need of building the capacity of district officials in order to enable them

to perform their assigned responsibilities more efficiently. Around 83 percent of the district

officials agreed that they need training to equip them better for their responsibilities. The areas

identified in this regard are:

a. School monitoring

b. Budget preparation and financial management

c. Data collection, analysis and report writing

d. Record keeping

e. IT training

f. Community mobilization

g. PC-1 preparation

Regarding the school principals, the following training needs have been identified through this

study:

a. School and staff management

b. School budgeting and financial management

c. Communications and use of IT

d. Reporting

e. Community mobilization

f. Student assessments

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

84


Conclusion and Recommendations

The report concludes that effective education service delivery is compromised due to serious

overlapping, unclear, and at times missing official mandates; operational challenges;

administrative loopholes; and capacity deficits at the provincial and district education

departments. It is also exacerbated due to poor horizontal (within province and within districts)

and vertical coordination across the education tiers (province to district to schools). The study

highlights significant gaps, and in a number of cases overlaps, between practices and mandated

roles of the wings and attached institutions of education departments.

Existing job descriptions and rules of business and regulatory frameworks are not sufficiently

clear or detailed when it comes to coordination across entities and hierarchies, whether

horizontal or vertical. It is evident that bureaucratic and administrative routines and clear

protocols are not in place. Various offices of the education departments, particularly at the

district tier, respond to education challenges in an ad hoc manner instead of offering systematic

and sustainable solutions to the challenges of education service delivery. Best practices are not

systematically identified and then embedded in the system when it comes to routine operations.

Districts also do not play an active role in strategic planning despite the fact that they are best

placed to identify issues, set priorities and design localized, targeted responses.

In terms of mandates and policies, there are certain areas that need to be strengthened. In order

to ensure the necessary routines and create a culture that ensures effective service delivery,

there is a need to create SOPs, make sure they are well understood, and then hold officials

accountable for them. Furthermore, the study highlights skill deficits among officials at various

levels of district education administration for effective education service delivery which need

to be addressed to improve the chances for more effective inter-level education management

in support of school-level service delivery.

In view of the above discussion, following are some recommendations to improve education

service delivery:

1. Devise a Consolidated Framework Clearly Delineating Roles, Responsibilities and

Linkages of each Entity at Provincial and District Level

Over the years the role and mandates of key provincial institutions have been redefined and

at times expanded through various notifications. This results in overlaps in mandates. There

is need to bring all provincial entities together to deliberate upon their mandated roles and

responsibilities. Any overlaps, duplications and blurred lines of responsibility should be

eliminated with mutual consultation of all stakeholders under the guidance of education

department and political leadership. Each province should develop a consolidated

framework or rules that should clearly define and elaborate the mandate and responsibilities

of each provincial education entity as well as district and sub-district management. While

finalizing mandates and responsibilities of departments their operational linkages and

coordination linkages (both vertical and horizontal) should also be discussed, finalized and

documented.

2. Political Will and Support to Address Political Economy Challenges

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The culture of assigning overlapping mandates to existing departments or establishing

parallel structures to perform overlapping functions is not just a technical and

administrative issues, it is also a political challenge. Political decisions influence every

aspect of education management and service delivery ranging from legislation to budgetary

allocations to provision of required administrative and teaching staff in the department and

schools. Considering this, there is need to create and influence political will in every

province in favour of clearly defined mandates, improved management practices for

targeted planning, needs responsive budgeting and sustaining education reforms that

demonstrate significant results. To manage strong political interests and promote evidence-

based decision making there is need to a) generate evidence on the political economy that

causes the emergence of parallel structures and/or assigning of overlapping mandates to

existing attached institutions, and b) garner strong political will to discourage and even

reverse the practices of establishing parallel structures and assigning overlapping mandates

to provincial institutions.

3. Minimize or Avoid Frequent Transfers of Senior Officials and Education Managers

Appointment of senior education management officials for a considerable time period is a

pre-requisite for effective education service delivery. In this regard, the education

departments must ensure that senior provincial and district staff complete their mandated

tenure of 3 years before their transfer/posting in line with the service rules. Moreover,

transfer/postings should be based upon well-defined and merit-based criteria, which would

accord due weightage to seniority, staff performance, duration at existing post, etc. This

merit-based and criterion-driven approach to transfers and postings will help ensure

effective education planning, service delivery and accountability at provincial and district

levels

4. Improve Accuracy, Depth and Integration of Data Systems

The education department in each province should integrate all available data-sets and

information sources (e.g. EMIS, monitoring unit data, assessment data and teacher’s

information system) on one accessible portal. Besides integration at one platform, the depth

and diversity of data should also be improved especially by regularly collecting data on

quality indicators, social and economic inequities, disability profiles, etc.

5. Capacitate and Create Specialized Pool of Education Managers

Provincial governments should design programmes and career pathways for capacitating

not only existing managers that have teaching background but also for aspiring school

leaders and teachers. Through well-designed career pathways and professional

development courses, specialized pool of education managers should be developed that is

capable of managing effective education service delivery.

6. Improve Vertical and Horizontal Communication and Operational Linkages of

District Education Management

District education management is not adequately represented at the policy-making,

planning and budgeting processes both at provincial and district levels. There is need to

improve role of districts in provision of missing facilities, designing CPD programs for

teachers, allocation of non-salary and development budgets and designing direct

interventions to improve learning outcomes in the schools. Engagement of district

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management with provincial entities in policy-setting, planning and financing on key

education functions will help to improve ownership, understanding and management of

province-led initiatives at the district level. Within the district there is need to improve

coordination, communication and operational linkages of district education management

with the elected local governments, district administration and stakeholder forums like

DEGs in Balochistan. Improved vertical and horizontal coordination of district education

management will create the momentum for swift and successful implementation of plans

and strategies to improve quality and outreach of education services.

7. Enhance Institutional Capacities for Equity-responsive Targeted Planning and

Budgeting at District Level

Enhanced capacities at the institutional and individual levels are required to make the

education policy, planning and budgeting processes more responsive to equity challenges

and local needs of each district. Each province should develop comprehensive capacity

development programmes to enhance knowledge and skills of education managers at

provincial and district levels towards making pro-equity and gender responsive plans and

budgets. The capacity development efforts should also sensitize the education managers

about the approaches and planning techniques to reduce or manage political influences in

favour of needs-based planning and equity responsive budgeting.

8. Devolve Functions related to Administrative and Financial Matters to the District

Level

Provincial Governments must devolve some administrative functions and financial matters

to the district level. Based on the principal of subsidiarity, functions such as recruitment of

staff on contract basis, building of additional classrooms, purchase of furniture and other

equipment, teachers transfer and posting etc. must be devolved to the appropriate level of

district education administration for effective service delivery.

9. Developing Operational SOPs

There is need to identify, embed and institutionalize, and share best practices for effective

service delivery. In order to embed and institutionalize the best practices for effective

service delivery, there is a need to develop operational SOPs dealing with planning,

coordination and monitoring at provincial and district levels. The best practices need to be

identified systematically and should then disseminated widely to ensure effective adaption

and scale-up.

10. Improve Coordination and Linkages between Student Assessments, Teacher

Training and Textbooks Development

The study highlights that student assessments and examinations should be on the centre-

stage for teachers training and textbooks/materials development. The findings of

assessments and examinations must drive teachers training programs, teachers training

modules and the development of textbooks and learning materials to ensure alignment

between core education functions. This will help to improve design and delivery of quality

education services.


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