primary and secondary education in pakistan - key issues and challenges

8/13/2019 Primary and Secondary Education in Pakistan - Key Issues and Challenges

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This technical note was written by ASP Consultant Dr Muhammad Ahsan Rana at the Lahore University ofManagement Sciences to serve as basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffectivehandling of an administrative situation. This material may not be quoted, photocopied or reproduced in anyform without the prior written consent of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. This research wasmade possible through support provided by the United States Agency for International Development. Theopinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Agencyfor International Development or the US Government.

2013 Lahore University of Management Sciences

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN: KEY ISSUES AND

CHALLENGES

Pakistan stands at a critical juncture in its social development. It can choose to continue with

its business-as-usual approach and look the other way, while 12.4 million children between

the ages of 5-14 years stay out of schools and the school-going children receive low-quality

education. Or, it can accept the challenge and set itself to putting out-of-school children in

(public or private) schools and improve their learning outcomes. The business-as-usual

approach will keep the country mired in a vicious cycle of low-quality human resource and

poverty. Accepting the challenge promises to lead the nation on a trajectory of progress and

development. The latter, however, is an enormous task requiring concerted efforts in several

areas. It will require, inter alia , allocating a larger proportion of national resources for the

provision of education. Dealing with complex and inter-linked issues of medium of

instruction, curriculum and assessment, and improving governance of the school education

sector in general and of government schools in particular, will also require attention.

This note is an effort to inform the national debate on this subject. It is divided into foursections. Section 2 defines the challenges, by presenting updated statistics on the status of

school education in Pakistan. Data is presented on current enrolment and learning outcomes

to show significant deficits on both accounts. Gender gaps in enrolment and educational

achievement are also highlighted. Low levels of investment in the sector are compared to

budgetary allocations in other countries, within the region. Section 3 briefly discusses four

issues that are central to improving school education in Pakistan. These are: 1) The choice

between the public and the private sector as the appropriate vehicle; 2) Medium of


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instruction; 3) Curriculum and assessment; and 4) Governance in government schools.

Appropriate policies in these areas will have a direct bearing on enrolment and the quality of

education. Section 4 concludes the paper.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Low Levels of Literacy and Enrolment

Pakistans overall litera cy1 rate, for persons aged 10 years and above is only 58.5% ( Table

1). These statistics are even worse for women and for the population in rural areas.

Compared with 70.2% men, only 46.3% women can read and write. Similarly, the literacy

rate drops from 73.7% in urban areas to 50.2% in rural areas. The difference amongst

provinces is also notable Balochistan generally fares worse than other provinces.

Table 1

Literacy Rates (10 years and above) 2010-11

1 Literacy is an evolving concept. Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2010-11 defines literacy as a persons abilityto read and write in any language with understanding.

Area %age of Total Population

Male Female Total

Pakistan 70.2 46.3 58.5

Rural 64.5 35.6 50.2

Urban 80.5 66.4 73.7

Punjab 69.0 50.7 59.8

Rural 64.3 42.3 53.3

Urban 77.9 67.5 72.8

Sindh 72.3 46.0 60.1

Rural 60.3 21.1 42.3

Urban 84.1 69.3 77.1


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The net primary enrolment rate, i.e. proportion of children (5-9 years) attending a primary

school is only 63% (Ministry of Finance, 2011). The total number of children of 5-14 years is

40.4 million, but only 26.3 million are enrolled in a primary, middle or high school and

another 1.7 million are enrolled in religious schools (i.e. madaris) 2. This means,

approximately 12.4 million children of 5-14 years are not enrolled in any school. Due to this

very high number, Pakistan ranks second in the global rankings on the number of out-of-

school children (PETF, 2010). It is estimated that 26% of the countries that are poorer than

Pakistan, send a larger proportion of their children to schools (ibid).

2 Figures for number of children and enrolment have been taken from the Pakistan Economic Survey (2011 and2013 respectively) and enrolment in Madaris has been taken from the National Education ManagementInformation System 2011. All figures are for the year 2010-11.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 72.0 35.1 53.2

Rural 70.2 31.6 50.4

Urban 79.8 52.1 66.2

Balochistan 69.0 26.2 49.8

Rural 64.3 20.0 44.6

Urban 83.5 44.4 65.7

Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2011. Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2010-11.

Islamabad: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan


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Table 2 below shows that, female enrolment at various levels is significantly less than male

enrolment. Their share in total enrolment is 44.1% in primary schools and drops to 42.9%

and 41.9% in middle and high schools respectively.

Table 2

Gender Gap in Enrolment (2010-11)

Institution TypeEnrolment (000)

Male Female (%) Total

Primary Stage (Grade I-V) 10,092 7,971 (44.1) 18,063

Middle Stage (Grade VI-VIII) 3,223 2,421 (42.9) 5,644

High Stage (Grade IX-X) 1,527 1,103 (41.9) 2,630

Total 14,842 11,495 (43.6) 26,337

Source: Ministry of Finance 2013. Pakistan Economic Survey 2012-13. Islamabad:

Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan .

Not all children enrolled in a school complete their education due to high dropout rates (see

Table 3 for a global comparison 3). Only 63% students enrolled in Grade 1 make it to Grade

3 Global comparison of dropout rates not available for later years

Box 1

Right to Education Article 25A

Article 25A inserted through the 18 th Constitutional Amendment made education afundamental right. Previously, federal and provincial governments had provided education tothe poor and the marginalised, but it was not an enforceable right per se . Article 25A renderedit the states responsibility to provide free and compulsory education to all children betweenthe ages of five to sixteen years. Implementation of this fundamental right required thecreation of necessary legislative and institutional framework. The Sindh Assembly recently

passed the, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2013. Similar draftlegislation was being prepared by the Punjab Government. With the current rate of progress,the Pakistan Education Task Force (2010) estimated that it would take several decades beforePakistan is able to provide every child with the constitutional right to education.


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V, 40% make it to Grade VIII and only 27% make it to Grade X (NEMIS, 2011). The rest

drop out at various stages. The overall dropout rate for all grades as a proportion of the

primary school cohort is 30.3%, which compares favourably with India and Bangladesh but

dis-favourably with the average for South Asia.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

%

Table 3

Dropout Rate (% of Primary School Cohort) 2005-08

Pakistan 30.3%India 34.2%Bangladesh 45.2%Sri Lanka 2.0%

Bhutan 9.9%South Asia Average 24.1%Turkey 5.8%Malaysia 7.8%

Figure 1

High Dropout Rate in Pakistani Schools

Source: UNDP 2010, Human Development Report 2010. New York: United NationsDevelopment Program.

Source: NEMIS 2011, An Analysis of Education Indicators of Pakistan. Islamabad: National EducationManagement Information System, Ministry of Education and Training, Government of Pakistan.


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Inadequate Educational Facilities and Poor Learning Outcomes

The total number of public and private schools in Pakistan is 222,000 and the number of

teachers is approximately 1.2 million ( Table 4 ). Although the number of primary schools is

much higher than middle/high schools, a greater proportion of teachers work in the latter because middle/high schools are larger and often also have primary classes. The overall

student-teacher ratio is 39.7, which compares favourably with Bangladesh (45.8) but dis-

favourably with Bhutan (27.7) and Nepal (31.9) (UNDP 2011) 4.

Even though the school network is large in Pakistan, the infrastructure lacks in several

respects and needs improvement/maintenance. As per the official records (NEMIS, 2011),

about 15,000 schools (9.2% of the total) do not have a building, which means children sit in

the open. Another 17,000 are housed in dangerous or dilapidated buildings. 78,000 schools(49%) do not have electricity connections. Children sit in poorly ventilated rooms in hot and

humid conditions. 42,000 schools (26%) do not have drinking water facility. 44,000 schools

(28%) do not have a toilet. For the ones that do, on average 74 children use one toilet. Often,

there is no arrangement for regular cleaning. 40% schools do not have desks or chairs for

students. Only high schools have a library; these are usually poorly stocked and mostly

comprise of books for general reading for teachers.

Table 4Level-Wise Institutions and Teachers in Pakistan (2010-11)

Institutions (000) Teachers (000)

Institution Type Male Female (%) Total MaleFemale

(%)Total

Primary School 97.3 58.2 (37.4) 155.5 230.4 210.1 (47.7) 440.5

Middle School 21.2 20.4 (49.0) 41.6 114.7 220.3 (65.8) 335.0

High School 15.7 9.5 (37.7) 25.2 217.5 235.3 (52.0) 452.8

Total 134.2 88.1 (39.6) 222.3 562.6 665.7 (54.2) 1,228.3

4 Student-teacher ratio not available for India and Sri Lanka for 2010-11

Source: Ministry of Finance 2013. Pakistan Economic Survey 2012- 13. Islamabad:Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.


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More worrisome than the inadequacy of infrastructure and facilities, however, is the poor

quality of education in public and private schools across Pakistan. This has been noted in

various large-scale surveys. The Annual Status of Education Report (SAFED 2012), for

example, documents region-wise how poorly children are learning in our schools. The report

notes that the majority of children are unable to respond appropriately when asked toconstruct simple sentences in Urdu and English and to solve simple mathematical problems,

such as subtraction and multiplication. Only 68% children in grade I are able to read or write

simple words, 49% children in grade II can read simple sentences and 58% children in grade

III can read simple stories in Urdu (ibid). As expected, the situation is worse with English

words and sentences, which only 53% and 46% children can read in grades II and III

respectively (ibid). Only 41% children in grade II can do simple subtraction and only 43% in

grade III can do simple division (ibid).

Similar findings are recorded in the Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab

Schools (LEAPS) report (Andrabi et al. 2009), which notes that only one out of every three

children in grade III can construct a sentence using the word school in Urdu . Less than 30%

can answer the most basic questions after reading a short paragraph and only 12% can

correctly convert simple words from singular to plural. The survey concludes that in Urdu,

most students in grade III are performing at the standard meant for grade I. Students

performance in English is worse (ibid). About 14% students in grade III cannot write the

letter D when they hear it spo ken and 80% students can not correctly spell the word girl.Only 11% can construct a grammatically correct sentence using the word school. The same

is the case for mathematics. 11% and 35% students in grade III cannot do single digit

addition and subtraction respectively. Slightly more difficult questions involving double digit

subtraction are answered correctly by only 32% of the tested children. This is far below the

curriculum standard, which expects students in grades I and II to be able to add and subtract

up to 3-digit numbers (ibid).

The Growing Role of the Private Sector

There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of private schools during the past

decade. Private institutions now exist across the length and breadth of Pakistan. They account

for around 1/3 rd of total enrolment in primary, middle and high schools ( Table 5 ). A larger

proportion of private schools offer education up to middle or higher level. About 42% of all

teachers are employed in private schools (NEMIS, 2011).


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Table 5

Share of Private Sector 2010-11

Private sector share in total (%)

Institutions Enrolment Teachers

Primary School 12 31 21

Middle School 62 39 62

High School 58 29 52

Source: NEMIS 2011, An Analysis of Education Indicators of Pakistan. Islamabad.

National Education Management Information System, Ministry of Education and

Training, Government of Pakistan

Both ASER and LEAPS have noted that learning outcomes are better in private schools than

in government schools. Andrabi et al. (2009), for example, note that children in private

schools have a knowledge score between 76 (Urdu) to 149 (English) units higher than those

in government schools, even when they are from the same village 5. They estimate that

children in government schools will be among the worst performing, 20% and 30%, in

private schools in Urdu and English respectively. They conclude that children in public

schools will take 1.5 - 2.5 years to catch up to children from private schools in Grade III.

Andrabi et al. (2009) also note that such poor learning outcomes are despite the fact that on

average, government school teachers are better paid, have higher qualifications, are more

experienced and are more likely to have attended pre-service and in-service training.

Contrary to common perceptions, most of these private schools are low-fee schools that

charge fees between Rs 250 1,000 per month depending upon the grade and their location

and quality 6. Enrolment in elite private schools (e.g. Beaconhouse, Grammar Schools and

City Schools) is only a small proportion of total enrolment. According to one recent estimate,total enrolment in elite private schools is approximately 540,000, which is about 5.7% of

enrolment in private schools and about 1.9% of total school enrolment (Rana, 2012).

5 A knowledge score difference of 150 points in LEAPS survey translates into an increase in the ranking of thechild from 50 th to 85 th out of 100 children (Andrabi et al. 2008).6 i.e. approximately US$ 2.4 9.6 per month (@ 1US$ = Rs 104.7 in September 2013)


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An important, but small, component of the very large private educational sector in Pakistan is

that of religious institutions, i.e. madaris. There are 12,910 madaris in Pakistan, of which

97% are in the private sector (NEMIS, 2011). 1.7 million students are estimated to be

enrolled therein, of which, approximately 38% are girls (ibid). About 57,000 teachers are

employed in these madaris (77% are men) (ibid). Most madaris offer a 13 year teaching program. Generally, the first five years are devoted to Hifz-e-Quran during which time,

primary level courses are also offered in various subjects. This is followed by eight years of

Dars-e-Nizami, which is split as follows: two years for Nahv, Basic Arabic, Hadith and Basic

Persian; four years for Fiqah, Hadith, Mantiq, Greek Philosophy, Assol-e-Fiqah, Assol-e-

Hadith and Arabic Sarf-o-Nahv; and two years for learning Hadith in Arabic. Textbooks are

mostly in Arabic, though teaching is mostly in Urdu or local languages. Madaris are affiliated

with their respective Boards/Wafaqs, which also award degrees, such as Shadat-ul-Aalia

(BA), Sanvia Khasa (FA) and Sanvia Aama (Matric). The highest degree, Shahadat-ul-Aalamia, is recognised by the Government as being equivalent to an MA degree.

Low Levels of Investment

An important though not the only reason for, inadequate infrastructure and facilities, low

levels of enrolment and poor learning outcomes, is the chronic under-investment in

education. Pakistans total allocation for education is estimated at 2.1% of the Gross

Domestic Product (GDP), which is significantly less than what other countries in the regionspend on educating their children ( Figure 2 ). Interestingly, allocation for education as a

proportion of GDP has gone down in recent years ( Table 6 ). The Pakistan Education Task

Force (PETF 2010) estimates that, Pakistan must spend at least 4% of its GDP on education

to achieve the targets set under the Millennium Development Goals. This increased

allocation can be used to enlarge the government schools network, improve their physical

infrastructure, recruit more teachers and better train them, develop better textbooks and to

support the low-fee private sector.


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Source: Ministry of Finance 2010. Pakistan Economic Survey 2009 -10. Islamabad:

Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.

Source: Ministry of Finance 2010. Pakistan Economic Survey 2009 -10. Islamabad:

Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.

2.22.5 2.5

2.1 2.1

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

Country % of GDP

Bangladesh 2.6

India 3.3

Indonesia 3.5

Iran 5.2

Malaysia 4.7

Nepal 3.2

Thailand 4.5

Vietnam 5.3

Pakistan 2.1

Figure 2

Public Expenditure as a Proportion of GDP

Table 6

Allocation for Education as a Proportion of GDP


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KEY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Choosing the Appropriate Vehicle of Change

It is the governments responsibility to provide educational opportunities to the 12.4 millionchildren currently out of school and to improve the quality of education in public and private

schools. There are several approaches to meet this challenge. It can be done either through

enlarging the public sector network of schools and by improving governance therein or

through supporting the private sector. Both are valid strategies and have their pros and cons.

In the first approach, provincial and local governments will have to increase the capacity of

the existing schools and set up more schools to improve peoples access to government

schools. Existence of a school in the vicinity will increase enrolment and reduce the dropout

rate, as distance from school is an important factor for both concerns (Andrabi et al. 2009).Establishment/expansion of these schools will require provision of, teaching and non-

teaching staff as well as textbooks and other material for use in classrooms. The advantage of

using the public sector as the main delivery vehicle is that, the establishment of schools can

be centrally planned to cater for the specific needs of the marginalised and poor

communities. At the same time, however, this presents a governance challenge for

governments that are already struggling to manage their existing network.

The other option is to support the private sector as a partner in providing education. Already,1/3 rd children are enrolled in private schools and the proportion is likely to increase in

coming years. The government can encourage this trend for households that can afford

private schooling. In this process of shifting as many households as can afford to pay (in

various categories) to private education providers, the government will reposition itself as a

regulator and an arbitrator, rather than a provider. It will facilitate the private sector through

performing a range of support and regulatory functions, such as training, registration,

accreditation, etc. For the segments of the population that are less able to afford private

education, the government can support and subsidise entrepreneurs and non-government

organisations to provide education at subsidised rates. These subsidies can be provided in a

variety of ways. On the supply side, this may include investing in teachers education,

providing soft loans or developing textbooks. On the demand side, such support may include

provision of education vouchers to poor families or direct assistance to education providers

against their current enrolment. An example of such demand-side support is the Punjab


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Education Foundation (PEF), which channels around Rs 3 billion in annual subsidies to

private providers ( see Box 2 ).

The advantage of relying exclusively or mainly on market provision of education is that it

enables an efficient allocation of national resources and provides for direct accountability of providers by their clients, i.e. parents. The disadvantage of a market-led solution is that

private providers tend to cluster in relatively better-off areas. There is plenty of evidence to

suggest that despite subsidies, private providers often fail to reach the most marginalised

communities.

Perhaps the advantages of both approaches can be combined in a hybrid model in which

public and private sectors work as partners to provide education to all segments of society. In

this model, the governments role is to facilitate and encourage the privat e sector to play akey and increasingly larger role. Hence, service provision is mainly by the (for profit or non-

profit) private sector, though the government continues to provide education in areas and for

population segments that are underserved or neglected. It must be clarified that, this is not a

suggestion for withdrawing the public sector from education provision; rather it is a

suggestion for revisiting its role from a direct provider to an enabler and a facilitator. This is

a call for, what Pritchett and Pande (2006) have termed, a shift from education production

to education provision.


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Box 2

PEF A Case of Publicly-Funded but Privately-Provided Education

PEF is an autonomous organisation of the Government of Punjab that supports low-fee private sectorin providing education to the poor and the marginalised. It provides around Rs 3 billion as annualsubsidies to private providers in various areas of the province. Following are the major programinterventions.

New School Program supports educational entrepreneurs in developing physical infrastructure indistant and under-served areas. PEF partners with entrepreneurs of good repute who are willing toconstruct a school in a locality which does not have a public/private school within a radius of 2km. In addition to an initial grant for school establishment, New Schools are paid Rs 400 per

student enrolled. So far 453 schools have been set up under this Program and the currentenrolment stands at 48,000. New Schools also serve as feeder schools for other PEF Programs.

Foundation Assisted Schools is PEFs flagship program . Selected schools in under-servedsettlements are given Rs 400 per child for elementary classes and Rs 450 and Rs 500 respectivelyfor secondary classes in arts and sciences. Rs 700 is paid for students in higher secondary schools.Schools are not allowed to charge any additional fees. The financial assistance is contingent upongood performance of schools in Quality Assurance Tests. Since its launch in 2005, this programhas grown to cover more than 1.2 million students in 11,807 schools.

Launched in 2006, the Educational Voucher Scheme aims to support enrolment of out-of-schoolchildren in the 5-7 years age group. It directly benefits children from low-income families. It is atargeted subsidy for the most deserving students (either drop out or never enrolled, orphans andchildren of single parents), each of which receives a monthly education voucher of Rs 400 whichis presentable at any designated private school of the area. Schools cash these vouchers from theFoundation. Thus, students get to choose whichever school they prefer to enrol in and the schoolgets its payment directly from the Foundation. So far 140,000 vouchers have been distributed tostudents who are studying in 562 schools.

Continuous Professional Development Program builds the capacity of education providers invarious areas. Since 2011, the Program has focused exclusively on PEF partner schools. PEFengages professional firms of repute to conduct these training workshops.

Source: www.pef.edu.pk


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Medium of Instruction

Another important issue is the choice of medium of instruction. Choosing the right medium

for children, especially in their early years, is extremely important for their personality

growth and effective learning. Unfortunately, this has been a contentious and divisive issuein Pakistan. Various provinces follow different systems, which are discussed below.

In Punjab, nominally all government schools are English Medium since 2009-10. Effectively,

all but a few are Urdu medium mainly due to, shortage of teachers who can teach in English

and the non-availability of textbooks. Complex concepts are often explained in local

languages as much due to childrens greater receptivity as due to the teachers limited

capacity to effectively use Urdu (or English) for this purpose. Only elite public schools, such

as the Divisional Public Schools, use English as the medium. Most private schools thatfollow the syllabus prescribed by the Punjab Textbook Board are also Urdu medium.

Box 3Medium of Instruction - Diverse Global Practice

India Elementary: Regional (mother tongue) or English Secondary: Regional (mother tongue) or English Higher education: English

Sri Lanka Elementary: Sinhala or Tamil Secondary: Sinhala or Tamil Higher education: Sinhala or Tamil or English

Malaysia Elementary: Bahasa Melayu for Malays, Mandarin for Chinese, Tamil for Indians Secondary: Bahasa Melayu (Science & Mathematics in English to continue till 2016, afterwards

revert to Bahasa Melayu). Higher education: Bahasa Melayu and English

Singapore Pre-School: Chinese/Melayu/Tamil or English.

Elementary: English and Special Assistance Plan for Chinese community where Mandarin is themedium of instruction in the schools.

Secondary: English Higher education: English

The Philippines Grade 1-3: Regional (mother tongue) Grade 4-6: Filipino and English Secondary: Filipino and English Higher education: Filipino and English

Source: Authors compilation from various sources


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They use Urdu textbooks, though pedagogy is mostly in Urdu and local languages.

Assessment is also in Urdu. Only elite private schools use English as the medium of

instruction. English is taught as a subject from Grade I in all schools.

In Sindh, both Sindhi and Urdu are used as medium(s) of instruction in government schoolsin rural districts. Textbooks are also available in both languages. High schools and colleges

use Urdu and English. Elite public and private schools use English as the medium of

instruction.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), all subjects are taught in Urdu in primary schools. From

Class VI, English language is added as a subject but other subjects continue to be taught in

Urdu. In High Schools, there is a choice between English and Urdu but very few opt for

English. Most private schools also use Urdu as the medium of instruction, although elite public and private schools (like elsewhere) teach in English. A very similar situation prevails

in Balochistan, where Urdu is the medium of instruction in government and low-fee private

schools, whereas elite schools use English to teach various subjects to their students.

Religious schools in all provinces use Arabic and Urdu texts for pedagogical instruction, but

teach mostly in Urdu and/or local languages.

Two observations emerge from the above discussion. First, Urdu and English are the two

major mediums of instruction in Pakistan. Of these, English is a foreign language and Urdu,despite being Pakistans national language, is spoken by only 6.8% of the population

(Coleman 2009). Thus, Punjabi, Siraiki, Pashto and Balochi the other major languages in

Pakistan together spoken by about 60% of the population (ibid) are not used as a medium

of instruction anywhere in Pakistan, despite overwhelming evidence that children learn best

in languages spoken at home (ibid). Instruction in the mother tongue not only increases

childrens comprehension of fundamental concepts, but it also helps them relate education

with their everyday lives. There is also clear evidence that, use of local languages increases

school attendance (e.g. Smits et al. 2008).

Second, being an elite or an ordinary school is more relevant than its sectoral affiliation to a

school being English medium. Thus an educational apartheid starts to emerge at these early

stages. At one end of the spectrum are low-fee private schools and most government schools

that use Urdu textbooks (except in Sindh) and use Urdu as the formal medium of instruction.

At the other end are elite public and private schools, which use (mostly developed abroad)


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English textbooks and employ English-fluent teachers in ample numbers to teach from these

textbooks.

There is hardly a quick fix for this apartheid. English is the global language and is a definite

source of advantage in global negotiations and business. At the same time, it becomes a barrier in pursuing education for an overwhelming majority of students across the length and

breadth of the country. Perhaps one option is to use local languages in early years of

schooling (say up to Class V) and then gradually introduce English until it becomes the

medium of instruction for all post-secondary education. This will enable a large number of

students to pursue education in their local languages and, therefore, with greater ease and

better learning and at the same time prepare a cadre of English-proficient students for

higher education and white collar jobs.

Curriculum and Assessment

A similarly contentious issue is the setting of curriculum. Since the passage of the 18 th

Constitutional Amendment in 2010, setting of curriculum is a provincial responsibility 7.

Previously, the Concurrent Legislative List included curriculum, syllabus, planning, policy,

centres of excellence and standards of education. Accordingly, the Federal Government had

established a Curriculum Wing as part of the then Ministry of Education. This was

established under the Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Maintenance ofStandards of Education Act of 1976. The wing was responsible for setting up of national

Curriculum and Syllabus. To support the federal Curriculum Wing, each province had also

established Curriculum Bureaus. The 18 th Constitutional Amendment abolished the

Concurrent List and (except a few subjects that were shifted to the Federal List) all subjects

including curriculum automatically became provincial subjects. The Curriculum Wing was

abolished and the responsibility of setting up Curriculum fell entirely upon the provinces. For

the time being, none of the provinces have deviated from the Curriculum that was last revised

in 2007-08. However, it is only a matter of time that provincial Curriculum Bureaus will start

modifying the same to suit their educational needs.

7 Setting of curriculum was a provincial legislative subject in the Government of India Act of 1935, Constitutionof 1956 and Constitution of 1962. It was put in the Concurrent List in the Constitution of 1973 and reverted to

be a provincial subject after the 18 th Amendment (NMC 2012).


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Historically, curriculum setting in Pakistan has been used as an opportunity to pursue

national cohesion and ideology, regardless of what it meant to the people at the helm. For

example, there was massive Islamisation of the educational content under the Zia regime in

1970s and 80s. The 1979 education policy read as follows:

The highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula, with a

view to reorganising the entire content around Islamic thought and giving

education an ideological orientation so that, Islamic ideology permeates the

thinking of the younger generation and helps them with the necessary

conviction and ability to refashion society according to Islamic tenets .

This mind-set of using curriculum for pursuing ideology can be seen in subsequent education

policies as well, though the phrasing is different. There is a need to liberalise and decentralisethe development of curriculum, so that the curriculum represents a wider consensus, rather

than representing the ideological biases of a particular group.

Table 7

Comparison of Class III Curricula

Pakistan Cambridge Living Things

Animals as living things Animals and their environment Characteristics of birds, insects and

mammals Part of a plant Plant as a living thing Classification of crops

Matter and Energy

Definition of matter and three states ofmatter

Water in all three states Importance of water and air for survival

of human beings Force and motion Law of gravity

Biology (Plants) Know that plants have roots, leaves,

stems and flowers Explain observations that plants need

water and light to grow Know that water is taken in through the

roots and transported through the stem Know that plants need healthy roots,

leaves and stems to grow

Know that plant growth is effected bytemperature

Biology (humans and animals) Know life processes common to humans

and animals include nutrition (water and

food), movement, growth and

reproduction


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Uses of heat and light Earth and Universe

Soil and its formation Classification of rocks according to

different colours, shapes and hardness Surface of the moon The solar system with special reference

to the positions of the sun and the moon

Describe the difference between living

and non-living things using knowledge

of life processes Explore and research on exercise and the

adequate, varied diet needed to keephealthy

Know that some foods can be damaging

to health, e.g. very sweet and fatty foods Explore human senses and the ways we

use them to learn about our world Sort living things into groups, using

simple features and describe the rationale

behind groupings

Source: Authors compilation from National Curriculum 2007-08 and Cambridge

curriculum (www.cie.org.uk)

Another problem with the current curriculum is that it promotes accumulation of information,

rather than understanding of things and issues. Table 7 compares the Class III curriculum of

Pakistan with that used in the Cambridge school system. The Pakistani curriculum requires

students to acquire information about various things, such as parts of plants, classification of

crops, etc. Thus, it encourages accumulation of knowledge without critical thinking and evenrote learning. In comparison, the Cambridge system requires students to know, explain and

explore these very things, which enables a critical understanding of the environment.

The choice of curriculum is dictated by how a particular school wants its students to be

assessed. Currently, there are several assessment systems in Pakistan. The most common is

the public sector assessment system whereby students are examined at various stages by

institutions established by provincial (and federal) governments. Another system is followed

by madaris, which have their own curriculum, syllabus and examinations. Yet another system

is followed by elite public and private schools, in which students appear in O and A Level

exams after 11 and 13 years of schooling, respectively. As per current estimates,

approximately 100,000 students sit the O Levels exams, whereas around 1.6 million students

appear in Matriculation exam every year (Rana 2012). Thus for every six students appearing

in O Levels, 94 students on average appear in matriculation examination.


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There are advantages and disadvantages of having multiple systems to test educational

achievement of students. On the positive side, this encourages diversity and provides students

a menu of choices. On the negative side, this contributes to the educational apartheid

mentioned earlier. Clearly, there is a need to critically rethink the existing systems in these

areas.

Improving Governance in Government Schools

Since around 2/3 rd students are enrolled in government schools, it is important to improve

governance therein to enhance the quality of education and to make government schools into

more effective instruments of education provision. A critical examination of the current

governance regime follows.

Weak Monitoring and Evaluation Framework at the District Level

Since the local government reforms of 2001, school education is a subject that has been

devolved to the district level 8. Executive authority is exercised by district officials; provincial

education departments only perform a policy and supervisory role. In this devolved structure,

elected District Councils pass the budget and are ipso facto responsible for financial

allocation to education from the district budget. Approval of the district education policy and

overseeing its implementation is also their responsibility. District level education managersare responsible to these elected Councils.

The chief education manager in the district is the Executive District Officer (EDO),

Education. The EDO is supported by District Officers Education (DOEs), Deputy District

Officers Education (DDOEs) and Assistant Education Officers (AEOs) in the discharge of

his functions. Each district has three DOEs, as there are separate DOEs for secondary schools

and for male/female elementary schools. DOEs perform wide-ranging duties and are required

to personally visit each school within the district, at least once every year. The next official in

the hierarchy is the DDOE, who comprises the functional tier at the district level. He is

8 Currently, provincial governments are in the process of reforming their local government systems. Punjab,Sindh and Balochistan have recently legislated new local government laws and KPK is in the process ofdeveloping its legislation. These reforms leave unaffected the devolved nature of school education in all

provinces. The official hierarchy also remains the same, albeit different nomenclature has been adopted indifferent provinces.


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required to inspect all middle schools at least thrice every year and at least 25% primary

schools once every year. DDOEs are assisted by AEOs, who are the field officials in the

district education hierarchy. AEOs are required to carry out at least two summary inspections

and at least one detailed inspection of all elementary schools in their respective area of

jurisdiction (usually a set of union councils). They do not have any executive powers per se , but can report delinquency to their respective DOEs, who have vast administrative powers

at least on paper over teaching and non-teaching staff in the district.

Figure 3

District Education Hierarchy

EDOs, DOEs, DDOEs and AEOs are drawn from the education cadre and are mostly senior

teachers and head teachers from government schools. Although, their salary is determined by

their Basic Pay Scale (BPS), still, postings as education managers are coveted mainly

because of the administrative powers, the perks attached to such postings and the capacity to

DistrictCouncil

DistrictCorrdination

Officer

Other EDOs EDO(Education)

District Officer(Male

Secondary)

Deputy DistrictOfficer

AssistantEducation

Officer


AssistantEducation

Officer

District Officer(Male

Primary)


AssistantEducation

Officer


AssistantEducation

Officer

District Officer(Female)


AssistantEducation

Officer


AssistantEducation

Officer

Source: Author s Notes


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offer favours, which are reciprocated with favours in their own turn. There is also the

possibility to seek rents. Consequently, it is not uncommon for teachers to use their personal

and professional networks to seek posting as an education manager. This strengthens their

position on the one hand and places them under specific obligation on the other hand, to

protect duly and unduly other members of the network. It compromises their capacity toobjectively evaluate the performance of their erstwhile colleagues. It also adversely affects

their ability to exercise administrative authority.

Similarly, promotion has ceased to be an instrument of incentivising performance. Formally,

the performance of each official is annually appraised by his supervisor and recorded in a

confidential Performance Evaluation Report (PER). In practice, however, PERs do not carry

much significance mainly because the supervisors rarely record their true assessment of

officials in these reports. In any case, in the absence of regularly and reliably collected dataon mutually agreed upon indicators, it is difficult to objectively perform a task as difficult as

performance assessment. Therefore, promotion has become largely a function of seniority.

After regular intervals, officials are promoted from one BPS to another. After a couple of

such unearned promotions, there is hardly an incentive for an official to work hard and

improve performance in any meaningful manner. Given that postings are also ensured

through effective deployment of personal and professional networks, it is hardly surprising

that most officials spend considerably more time building and strengthening networks than

on their professional duties or even on professional growth.

The School Councils (SCs)

Provincial and district governments have made various efforts to strengthen this system of

monitoring and evaluation at the district level. One of these is the establishment of School

Councils (SCs) to enlist the support of local communities more specifically parents in

managing schools. It is expected that involvement of local communities will reduce teacher

absenteeism, increase teaching effort and enable a more efficient use of school resources.

These Councils comprise the head teacher (who acts as the Chairperson), one or two teachers

from the school and a few local notables, some of which are parents. However, it is generally

seen that SCs have been unsuccessful in delivering on their mandate (GTZ 2010). This has

been ascribed to a lack of interest from parents and their lack of capacity.


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While it appears to be a valid observation that SCs have by and large been unsuccessful in

improving education provision, it is hard to agree that this is principally due to the lack of

knowledge, commitment and/or capacity of local communities. Several commentators (e.g.

Safdar 2007) have noted that households, especially mothers, have a good idea of how their

children are faring in the school. Similarly, it is hard to believe that a more complex skill setis required to manage a small school than is required to run a small business or a farm

activities that households undertake on a daily basis. It is also noteworthy that these very

local communities provide the entrepreneurs that have successfully set up private schools

across the length and breadth of the country. Therefore, it is fair to conclude that local

communities have the willingness as well as the capacity to play an important role in school

management. How can we then explain, the consistent failure of SCs in delivering on their

mandate?

A deconstruction of the power relations between the teacher and the local community can

help unravel this mystery. The teacher is the service provider in this case and the local

community the client, as their children, study in government schools. In the current

dispensation, the service provider is more powerful than the client a fact both parties fully

appreciate. This relative power imbalance is recreated in everyday interaction where the

latter defers to the former in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The teacher is more educated and

has an income more stable than that of an average parent. He is part of the government

hierarchy and ipso facto has privileged access to state protection and resources. He is alsofrequently called upon to carry out various surveys and draw up lists (such as prospective

beneficiaries of financial assistance) by the government, which places him at the giving end

of the relationship. He is more mobile and often frequents district and sub-district

headquarters for official duties. Most importantly, a teacher is part of several professional

networks, which he can draw upon on a need basis. As Latour (1987; 2005) has shown, the

capacity of individual actors to form multiple networks and deploy these networks effectively

to pursue their individual gains allows them to influence policy and implementation

outcomes in their favour. Teaching and non-teaching staff in Pakistan has consistently

demonstrated this capacity over the years.

In comparison, households are scattered, disorganised and internally divided on the basis of

caste, creed and social placement. They have precarious means of subsistence, often

susceptible to the vagaries of weather or to market vicissitudes. Their access to government

departments is inhibited by their low literacy level and their relatively limited understanding


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of bureaucratic procedures. Often their access to government services is mediated through

local notables, with whom teachers may already have a preferred relationship.

Effectively, this translates into a lopsided power relation within the SC. Rather than the client

superintending the service provider, it is the latter who identifies the former to sit on the

Council. Since district education managers have little direct interaction with local

communities, they often end up requesting teachers to recommend a few suitable local

persons for the Council. It is only natural for teachers to nominate community members who

are the least likely to interfere in school affairs in any meaningful manner. Practically, it is

the Head Teacher and other official members of the SC who call the shots the presence of

community members on the Council is ceremonial. No wonder these Councils have by and

large failed in providing accountability in government schools.

The District Education Authorities (DEAs)

In the recently enacted, Punjab Local Government Act of 2013, the Punjab Government has

provided for the establishment of District Education Authorities (DEAs) one for each

district. These DEAs will oversee the provision of school education within their respective

areas of jurisdiction and will be functionally responsible for managing human, physical and

fiscal resources of the district education department. Since the Act provides only a short

statement on the subject, details of how DEAs will be constituted and how they will performtheir functions are yet to emerge.

In order for these DEAs to improve governance in government schools, it will be important

for them to effectively involve local communities in school management, for the simple

reason that, the best form of accountability is the one performed by clients (Pritchett and

Pande 2006). Since parents of children enrolled in government schools are the ones most

affected by a delinquency at the school level (such as misuse of resources, teacher

absenteeism or poor teaching effort), their active engagement in managing school resources

is more likely to improve the condition and functioning of government schools, than the use

of authority by officials far removed from the ground realities and scarcely affected by it

(Rana 2013). Existing SCs provide a convenient platform to engage parents in managing

their schools. But for SCs to become effective levers of control on school affairs, the power

relations between the service provider and the client must be turned on its head.


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This will not only require active engagement of parents at the DEA level, but also a highly

decentralised structure in which most school level decisions are made by SCs comprising

parents. The power relations within the DEA and the SC the supervisory and the functional

tiers of education governance respectively will change only when parents are able to

allocate resources, as they deem appropriate, and are able to hold teaching and non-teachingstaff accountable for their actions. It is important that their involvement is direct, rather than

being mediated by a layered, elected or non-elected bureaucracy.

CONCLUSION

Pakistan faces a formidable challenge in providing quality education to its children. The

challenge comprises, bringing the currently out-of-school children to public or private

schools and improving learning outcomes. This will not only require allocation of substantialadditional resources but will also require addressing complex policy questions about,

medium of instruction, curriculum and assessment. There are no silver bullets, but a fresh

and critical look at these inter-linked issues will enable a gradual development of a policy

framework that reduces the current educational apartheid. Such a framework will produce

better outcomes for a larger number of students than is the case presently. The education

challenges also require adopting a decentralised framework in which most managerial

decisions are made as close to the school as possible. Implementing these reforms is not

going to be easy, but this long journey must be started now, if Pakistan wants a decent placein the comity of nations in the years to come.


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Andrabi, Tahir, Jishnu Das, Asim Ijaz Khawja, Tara Vishwanath and Tristan Zajonc 2009.

Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools (LEAPS).Lahore, 2009: p 197

Coleman, H. Teaching and Learning in Pakistan: The Role of Language in Education.

Islamabad: The British Council, 2009

GTZ, The State of School Councils in the Punjab: A Baseline Study of Community

Participation in School Management. Islamabad: GTZ, 2010

Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Scociety.

Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1987.

Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2005

Ministry of Finance 2010. Pakistan Economic Survey 2009-10. Islamabad: Ministry of

Finance, Government of Pakistan.

Pakistan Economic Survey 2010-11. Islamabad: Ministry of Finance, Government ofPakistan.

Pakistan Economic Survey 2012-13.Islamabad: Ministry of Finance, Government of

Pakistan.

An Analysis of Education Indicators of Pakistan. Islamabad. National Education

Management

Information System, Ministry of Education and Training, Government of Pakistan.NEMIS,

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NMC, Syndicate Report. Lahore. Senior Management Wing. National Management College

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Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2010-11. Islamabad: Pakistan

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PETF, Education Emergency: Pakistan 2011.Islamabad: Pakistan Education Task Force

(PETF), Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2010: p 69

Pritchett, Lant and Vared Pande, Making Primary Education Work for India's Rural Poor: A

Proposal for Effective Decentralisation in Social Development Papers: South Asia Series.

Washington DC: World Bank, 2006: p 115

Rana, M. A. (forthcoming). Education Reform in Punjab: A Decentralised Governance

Framework for Government Schools. Lahore Journal of Policy Studies, 2013

Seminar presentation: Investing in Pakistans Human Resource. Lahore. Lahore School of

Economics.

Safdar, Qamar. Parents as Partners in the Learning Community: Transforming Schools in

Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Smits, J., Huisman, J. and Kruijff, K. Home Language and Education in the Developing

World (Background paper for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009, OvercomingInequality: Why Governance Matters) UNESCO, 2008

SAFED, Annual Status of Education Report 2011, Islamabad: South Asia Forum for

Education Development (SAFED), 2012: p 400

UNDP, Human Development Report. New York: United Nations Development Program,

2010: p 236

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primary and secondary education in pakistan - key issues and challenges

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