IU C N

Punjab Sustainable Development Strategy

The Myriad Issues of Access, Quality, Equity and

Governance in Education in Punjab: Setting Strategic
Priorities to Ensure Sustainable Development in Education
Sector

Dr. Allah Bakhsh Malik PhD 1

1
Dr. Allah Bakhsh Malik is an academician, writer, researcher, senior manager, development practitioner
and development economist. He is visiting professor to the premier academic and administrative institutions
in Pakistan and abroad. Dr. Malik graduated from the Punjab University Pakistan with distinction. He has
postgraduate degree in Development Economics from the Cambridge University England UK. He has a law
degree from Punjab University. He is PhD in Economics, Public Finance and Resource Mobilization. He
completed his Post-Doc as visiting scholar from National Centre for Study of Privatisation of Education
(NCSPE), Teachers College, Columbia University New York USA. Dr. Malik has the experience of working
at grassroots level with the communities and led the community driven development in inter-temporal, multi-
sectoral and multi-disciplinary teams. Dr. Malik has worked at very senior positions both in public and
private sector. He has been working with Aga Khan Development Networks (AKDN) and European
Commission (EC) Northern Pakistan Education Project. He has vast experience of implementing social
development projects focusing social and human development. Dr. Malik served as Managing Director and
CEO of PEF. PEF is promoting quality education in Public Private Partnership for the less affluent and
disenfranchised sections of society. At the moment he is working on Educational Management, Knowledge
Leadership, Institutional Development and Development Economics with premier national and international
centres of excellence.
The Myriad Issues of Access, Quality, Equity and Governance in Education
in Punjab: Setting Strategic Priorities to Ensure Sustainable Development in
Education Sector
1. Introduction
Education is an essential pre-requisite and basic building block for the social capital
formation. Education is one of the vital sectors, playing pivotal role in socio-economic
development of a country. Education plays a decisive role in building human capabilities to
accelerate economic growth through knowledge, creativity, innovation and skills. Education
is sine qua non to create awareness, tolerance, self esteem and confidence to empower people
to defend their rights. Education helps in creating knowledge based societies and knowledge
based learning organizations. Education is not just preparation for life but a life in itself.
There is a consensus among development practitioners that education is the most significant
variable in reducing poverty and inequality. It is a truism that education is the only factor to
trampoline all sectors of an economy simultaneously. There is unanimity of views that
education galvanizes and ensures equity, social cohesion, productive efficiency, freedom of
choice and good governance in a society. The benefits of education are not only confined to
the national economy but individuals also benefit from it. Developing countries, where
majority of the world’s population resides, need to redesign educational policies for
promoting productivity and efficiency in different sectors of the economy by high skilled
knowledge workers. It is the rapid concentration of the knowledge workers that can address
incessant developmental needs and accelerate rapid industrialization, culminating in
prosperity and creating a longeaval win-win situation for all members of the society. There
is a remarkable consensus throughout the world now that the quality of education of a nation
will be the chief determinant of its success during this century and beyond. Sir Winston
Churchill proclaimed in early forty’s, “The empires of the future are the empires of mind”.
This belief is based on the fact that a nation cannot progress morally, politically, socially,
technologically and economically without quality educational institutions at all levels (Malik,
2005) 2 .

Pakistan is the sixth most populous country with 160 million people, 33% mired in abject
poverty, living below the poverty line. The analysis of development issues trickles down to
the dearth of human social capital. In Pakistan, the overall literacy rate is 54% whereas it is

• 2
Malik, A. B (2006a). Econometric Analysis and Evaluative Scrutiny of the Quality Assurance Tests in
Foundation Assisted Schools in the Province of Punjab. The Hope, Quarterly Journal (Volume-I) of
Punjab Education Foundation, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Malik, A. B (2006b). Education Voucher Scheme. The Hope, Quarterly Journal (Volume-II) of Punjab
Education Foundation, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Malik, A. B (2006c). The Human Development Nexus-Professional Development and Capacity Building
in Public Private Partnership, Maqbool Academy, Lahore. Pakistan.

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36% for females. Pakistan has 6.5 million children out of school and 80% of them have never
been enrolled in schools. There are serious issues of truancy, absenteeism and drop-outs.
77% of the enrolled children drop out while climbing the ladder and reaching X grade. The
country unfortunately has unenviable profiles of human development. Pakistan is at serious
risk of not attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education For All
(EFA) targets by 2015.

2. Background
Elimination of educational apartheid and promotion of affordable and equitable quality
education is the constitutional responsibility of the state. Government of Pakistan at policy
level committed to make serious and strenuous efforts to improve access, quality, equity and
governance in education sector by enhancing education facilities within the minimum
possible time. Appropriate policies have been formulated and strategies devised to achieve
the cherished national goal of quality education for all. The budgetary allocations by
successive regimes and education as prioritized agenda demonstrated the political will of the
Governments, generally mismatched with the stated policies. The Government has
progressively increased the education budget but still it is one of the lowest in South-East
Asia what to talk of the developed world. In addition to low budgetary allocation malaise,
education sector is facing the myriad challenges of utilization of allocated meagre resources,
financial management; capacity building, professional development and integrity of
performance, required to translate the policies and strategies of the governments in power
into reality in a suave manner.
In collaboration with Govt. of Pakistan, Govt. of Punjab is fully committed to bring
improvements in the education sector. This is evident from the tripling of the allocation of
budget for education from Rs. 9,200 million in FY 2006 to Rs. 21,480 million in FY 2008 as
a step forward to meet the MDGS and EFA Goals. There are major myriad issues of access,
quality, equity and governance plaguing our education system in Pakistan. Punjab is better
placed than other provinces in terms of achievement of targets relating to universal primary
education primarily because of the success of PESRP 3 and because of the rapid growth of

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Punjab Education Sector Reforms Program (PESRP). PESRP endeavoured to set up Program Monitoring &
Implementation Unit (PMIU). PMIU successfully designed many academic and program interventions and
liaised with the World Bank and other international organizations in a very suave and poised manner to
introduce PESRP Framework, enhance access, equity and quality of education, improve education sector
good governance and quality of education, ensure appropriate budgetary allocations, ensure better fiduciary
environment, institutional endeavour to enhance allocations for education and improve sub-sector allocation
on need basis and prioritize as and when need arises.

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private schooling. While partially addressing access issues, major issues pertaining to quality,
governance and institutional failures remain outstanding. There is a dire need to emphasize
on consolidation of public school infrastructure, targeting drop out rates, absenteeism,
truancy, professional development of teachers and education managers, accelerate
institutional reforms and improve equity and quality.

3 Issues of Access in Education Sector

The coverage of public sector education infrastructure at primary level is no longer a major
issue in Punjab but there are serious concerns of missing facilities. 40% of the public schools
at primary, elementary and secondary level, lack basic facilities like drinking water, Adam’s
ale etc. There are 245,682 public schools in the country but 17% had no roofs, 39% are
without drinking water, 62% without electricity, 50% without toilet facilities and 46% did not
have boundary wall (NEC, 2006) 4 . The ‘district profile’ prepared under the auspices of
PESRP indicated the number of missing facilities in each district. The missing facilities
mapped in the survey were divided into eight different categories:
1. Buildings’ Repair
2. New Building
3. Electricity
4. Drinking Water
5. Toilet
6. Boundary Wall
7. Furniture
8. Others e.g., additional classrooms etc.
After the completion of the initial survey, a total of 118,276 schemes were identified at an
estimated cost of Rs.15 billion. It was observed that there was an enormous gap in the
number of facilities in schools through out the Province. It was thus felt that targeted
interventions were needed for filling the infrastructure gaps mentioned above. This was
essential to make sure that the existing schools became more functional. On the basis of the
cost estimates in the district profiles, it was decided to allocate Rs. 15 billion over a period of
three years for bridging the gap in missing facilities in schools. For the first year of the
PESRP, Rs. 5 billion was allocated for all the districts. This amount was equally divided
among all the districts. In the subsequent years, the amount allocated was distributed to the
districts on need plus performance basis. Therefore, a formula was devised to assess the need
and performance of each district. This formula has approval of the Provincial Finance
Commission (PFC).

4
National Education Census, 2005
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Table 3.1 Cost Estimate in District Profiles
Schemes District Profile
Number of Schemes Cost Rs. (million)
Building Repair All 10,796 3270.53
Building New 37,901 2435.22
Electricity 24,223 1399.732
Drinking Water 12,858 617.256
Latrine 17,663 1456.156
Boundary Wall 16,168 2418.565
Furniture 28,827 2768.117
Others- Add. Classrooms 3,950 607.635
Source: PESRP/PMIU 2008

Ensuring perfect access for all in the age cohort of 5 to 9 is still an issue. Distance to schools
for girls even at primary level is still a challenge. The retention of the enrolled children and
their continuation beyond primary is a major obstacle due to inadequate institutional
arrangement. .
Table 3.2 Number of Schools and Enrolment in Punjab
Type Numbers of Schools Enrolment (000)

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

Mosque Schools 5,681 73 5,754 339 4 343
Primary Schools 21,877 22,810 44,687 2,844 2,400 5,244
Elementary Schools 3,048 4,352 7,400 1,010 1220 2,230
High Schools 2,932 1,609 4,541 1,842 1,221 3,063
Higher Secondary 211 186 397 18 31 49
Schools
(Source: Bureau of Statistics 2008)

The table (3.2) above indicates that the number of primary schools in Punjab is 44687
corresponding with 7400 elementary schools and 4541 high schools. The net continuation
rate, stage wise was halved from primary to middle, about 60 percent of those completing the
middle school level and again half of those completing class X. There is no institutional
arrangement for all the boys and girls to continue beyond primary level due to drastic
reduction in number of schools. Had there been no drop-outs from public schools and the
presence of private educational institutions at elementary, secondary and higher secondary
level, the existing physical infrastructure and manpower was grossly insufficient to
accommodate all the students graduating at primary level. The situation further deteriorates
once it comes to the number of high schools and higher secondary schools. The wide deep
chasm in supply-side and demand-side has given sudden rise to private educational
institutions in Punjab. After the publication of data by NEC-2006, the ever increasing share
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of Non-State Provision (NSP) in education sector has been highlighted for the first time. The
public sector education system in Pakistan used to be the major service provider until early
80,s. The private sector schools slowly and gradually started occupying the turf about two
decades ago but galvanised their pace at a startling speed since the turn of the century. The
chief determinant for the sporadic growth has been due to severe shortage of schools,
especially in rural areas, where 60% of the country’s population resides and state failure to
provide socially acceptable quality education. The table (3.2) below indicate the total number
of educational institutions in public and private sector in Pakistan.
Table 3.3 Number of Educational Institutions in Public and Private Sector

Area Total Public Private

Pakistan 245,682 164,579 (67.0) 81,103 (33.0)

Punjab 115,311 66,770 (57.9) 48,541 (42.1)

Sindh 59,312 46,738 (78.8) 12,574 (21.2)

NWFP 40,706 29,430 (72.3) 11,276 (27.7)

Baluchistan 11,492 9,742 (84.8) 1,750 (15.2)

ICT 1,348 598 (44.4) 750 (55.6)

FATA 5,344 4,704 (88.0) 640 (12.0)

FANA 4,366 1,505 (34.5) 2,861 (65.5)

AJK 7,803 5,092 (65.3) 2,711 (34.7)

(Figures in the parenthesis are percentages)

Source: (I) National Education Census 2005, Government of Pakistan (GOP), Ministry of Education,
Statistics Division Federal Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad. (II) Derived from Data contained in PIHS
2001-02 and PSLM 2005-6.

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Table: 3.4 Enrolment Statistics in Public Schools and Colleges

Level of School Male Female Total

Pre Primary 1253062 1098437 2351499

Primary 3099024 2671724 5770748

Middle 1181329 878106 2059435

Secondary 563759 393386 957145

Higher Secondary 19239 28354 47593

Total: 6116413 5070007 11186420

There is still a major drop out during the transition from primary to secondary school as
shown in table (3.4) above, partly because of serious access issues between the primary and
middle levels and the dropouts taking place between these two levels were not voluntary in
many cases. Surveys indicate that average distance for going from primary to middle schools
was 12 km while it could be about 20 km for high schools. 63,664 primary schools have been
designed to cater to the needs of 11,141,200 students. The relevant-age cohort of population
in 2003 was estimated to be 11,864,000. In other words the public schools are designed to
serve over 90 percent of the cohort population. The total enrolment in public schools is about
6.7 million (56.2 percent of the age cohort) as per Punjab Development Statistics. This
clearly establishes the crowding in the schools and ever increasing number of private
educational institutions. Keeping in view the inadequacies in government educational
institutions, even less affluent households are voting with their feet and opting for private
schools, despite their often minimal facilities, have come to be identified with a measure of
quality education. A 1996 survey in five districts in Punjab showed that nearly 50%
households with monthly earnings of less than US$ 70 were sending their children to private
schools, 87% of which were charging a school fee of less than US$ 2 per month The private
sector is taking on a more prominent role, not only in the main urban centres but also in rural
areas of the relatively affluent districts (Kardar, 2006) 5 . Out of 245,682 educational
institutions covered by the educational institutions survey covered in 2006, by the Federal
Bureau of Statistics, 33% were to be found in the private sector. In other words, the
government is rapidly moving towards its goal of shifting the load of education to private

5
Kardar. Shahid (2006). Reflections on Pakistan’s Economy. Heritage Publications Lahore, Pakistan.
7
sector (Kardar, 2006) 6 . One reason for the decline in public sector school enrolments may be
attributable to the arguably better quality of education provided by the private sector, as a
consequence of which there may be a transfer of students away from the public sector
schools.
PESRP, in line with its policy to increase access to education decided to provide free
textbooks to all students in public sector schools. In the financial year 2005-06, the span of
these books enhanced upto Matric level. Number of students from Katchi to class X provided
these textbooks during the program are as under:
Table: 3.5 Students Provided Free Textbooks

Academic Year Classes Beneficiary Number of Cost (Rs.in

Covered Textbook million)
Jackets
2004-05 Katchi-V 7.2 million 12 m 402
2005-06 Katchi-VIII 9.8 million 21 m 729
2006-07 Katchi-X 11 million 25 m 848
2007-08 Katchi-X 11 million 30 m 911
(Source: PMIU, PESRP)

The major objectives of PESRP are:

™ Enhance access, equity and quality of education

™ Improve education sector good governance and quality of education
™ Ensure appropriate budgetary allocations
™ Ensure better fiduciary environment
™ Institutional endeavour to enhance allocations for education
™ Improve sub-sector allocation on need basis and prioritize as and when need arises
™ Elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education is cardinal and
cherished goal of PESRP and facilitation and access of girls to schools in rural areas is
one of the top priorities of the organization.

The PESRP has three key pillars:

• Public finance reforms to realign expenditures at the provincial and district level towards
education.
• Devolution and public sector management reforms.

6
Kardar. Shahid (2006). Reflections on Pakistan’s Economy. Heritage Publications Lahore, Pakistan.
8
• Education sector reforms to improve quality, access and governance of the education
system.
The reasons for the low participation and high dropout rates can be attributed to both demand
side and supply side factors. The demand side factors include low levels of household
income, high opportunity costs of sending children to school, the distance of the school from
home and low priority accorded to education by many households. The supply side factors
are linked to the poor quality of education delivered through public schools. While planning
for the growth of education services and facilities, there is a need for a holistic vision for both
public and private sector. The public sector educational services suffer from the absence of
professionally qualified education service managers and planners culminating in low quality
outcomes.
Table 3.6 Reasons for Never Going to School

Reasons for never attending Boys Girls

school (2001-02)
Urban Rural Overall Urban Rural Overall

Too expensive 53 36 40 33 25 26

Parents did not allow 1 3 3 36 36 36

Child not willing 22 30 29 11 6 7

School too far away 2 10 8 3 15 14

Source: Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, 2001/02

4. Quality Concerns in Education Sector

Every education system of eminence and erudition around the globe has one common thread
running through all along: all of them have qualified, satisfied, honest, motivated and
professionals, teachers and educational managers. The workable, viable and replicable
education systems everywhere have educational managers with impeccable professional
integrity with ensured transparency in terms of assessment and evaluation procedures
dovetailed with objectively verifiable indicators in terms of outcomes and outputs. To ensure
quality education, there has to be a nice mix of institutional and governance arrangements.
The quality of education is impacted by a host of factors. To manage the inevitable change in
the field of education and learning, the responsibility squarely falls on the shoulders of the
teachers and the corpse of the educators in the respective institutions of education along with
other stakeholders. The central figure of the stage however remains the teacher and the
teacher alone, around whom the whole set of activities, should naturally and rightly revolve.
The student-teacher interaction is the axle on which the quality revolves. The teachers and
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educators will therefore, have to prepare well to face the challenge of the change with the
right enthusiasm and imbibed spirit. They will have to learn, unlearn and relearn to embrace
the new technologies and knowledge management. There is a dire felt need of enhancing the
didactic resource base of the teachers in pedagogy, andragogy and ensure the secure and
superior understanding of the core content knowledge. The professional development is
assumed to register a positive and definite impact on the learning outcomes of the students
being the ultimate beneficiaries of the intervention and attain the goals of quality education.
There is irrefutable evidence of chronic neglect and under investment in the field of
professional development and capacity building of teachers. The following factors are crucial
for attaining quality education:

• The physical teaching-learning environment with positive externalities for maximizing

the learning process, usefulness and relevance.

• Improving the quality of teachers through pre-service training at GCETs, DSD and
UOE and ensure the participation of the recruited teachers in Continuous Professional
Development Programs (CPDP). The teachers must attend CPDP with pre and post
training tests to ensure the improvement in their didactic resource base.

• Ensuring teacher attendance in schools, improving enrolment and discouraging

dropouts, improving gender parity, and improving examination and assessment
mechanism.

• Address the locational disadvantages due to faulty location of schools and the physical
infrastructure provided.

• The multi-grade teaching and multi-tasking is undertaken, mostly in rural areas, the
teachers do not have the skill or training for conducting these classes.

• Comprehension and application of knowledge should be the purpose of teaching-

learning. Pedagogy takes the form of rote learning and memorization rather than
student-centred learning methods being adopted.

• The curriculum is developed by the Curriculum Wing of Ministry of Education but the
textbooks are published by respective Textbook Boards. The curriculum needs
continuous revision and up-gradation to encompass and incorporate the latest
developments. The quality of text books needs to be improved in consultation with
teachers. Moreover these should be accompanied by teachers’ guides. There has to be a
national strategy on the continuous syllabus and curriculum, keeping in view the ever
expanding frontiers of knowledge due to technological and sociological developments
around the globe.

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 • The availability of qualified, satisfied, competent, honest and motivated teaching
professionals accountable to the school management is the hallmark of quality
education. The incentive-base salary structure linked with the performance is panacea
for many ailments in education system. The coeducation environment at primary level
which inculcates a feeling of equality, better behaviour, better citizenship, plurality,
diversity and higher level of tolerance for the other gender.

5. Governance in Education Sector

Governance is about government’s changing role in society and its changing capacity to
pursue collective interests under severe external and internal constraints. Governance is the
process and institutions, both formal and informal, that guide and restrain the collective
activities of a group. Government is portion of the activity that acts with authority and creates
formal obligations. Governance describes the process and institutions through which social
action occurs, which might or might not be governmental. There is a famous adage that,
‘Whatever is measured is done’. Good governance entails defined roles and responsibilities
of the functionaries in education sector and performance with impeccable integrity and
honesty of purpose. This also includes the Pareto-optimal utilization of the available
resources.

Good governance focuses at performance indicators with objectively verifiable indicators.

Continuous monitoring, evaluation and integration of experiences into the system ensure
good governance. All the activities put under spotlight ensure transparency and
accountability in performance. Transparency means that decisions taken and their
enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. Accountability is a key
requirement of good governance. Not only governmental institutions but also the private
sector and civil society organizations must be accountable to the public and to their
institutional stakeholders. It also means that information is freely available and directly
accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. The role of
District Monitoring Committees and District Monitoring Officers is crucial for ensuring
observance of the processes. The role of School Management Councils is pivotal to ensure
good governance at school level.

The concept of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in education sector needs to be understood
in the right perspective. Monitoring does not mean policing or commandeering in any sense
of the word. Monitoring rather ensures facilitation and to an extent regulation during M&E
process. The monitoring involves the monitoring staff in the processes. Monitoring includes
design monitoring of programs, process monitoring, outcome monitoring, formative
monitoring and summative monitoring. In education sector effective monitoring evaluation
means the observations of the monitors and their evaluation integrated into the programs and
the continuous enrichment and up-gradation of programs as a consequence.

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Good governance has eight essential characteristics. Good governance is participatory,
consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable
and inclusive and follows the rule of law. Good governance assures that corruption is
minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most
vulnerable, less affluent and disenfranchised sections of society are heard in decision-
making. Good governance is responsive to the present and future needs of society.
Participation by both men and women is a key cornerstone of good governance. Participation
through Good governance needs to be informed and organized. This means freedom of
association and expression on the one hand and an organized civil society on the other. Good
governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. Good governance
requires mediation of the different interests in society to reach a broad consensus in society.

6: Possible Ways of Rapprochement and Looking Forward and Outward

Countries lagging behind in technological and scientific fields have consequently, lagged
behind in the development process. The Government of Punjab has declared education as its
first priority. It is endeavoring for the improvement of education sector through policies and
programs but the following suggestions may help to look forward and outward instead of
looking inward and backward:

• The quality of education, instead of going up, has deteriorated over the years
especially in the last two decades. Main reason of such a scenario is lack of proper
teaching / learning environment in government schools. Taking quality in education
as independent variable, has many dependent variables including, adequate
infrastructural facilities, qualified, satisfied, competent, honest and motivated
teachers, quality of curriculum and textbooks, Cisco-secure assessment and
evaluation systems, knowledge-based school leadership, knowledge-based
management and governance structures, community participation etc.
• Percentage of provincial budget and GDP, have been persistently lower than the
target given in the Education Policy (1998-2010). The Government must enhance
the sectoral allocation of education upto 4% of GDP.
• Efforts made in the recent past have positively impacted on access to education.
There is incessant need to bring all school going age children to school and ensure
their retention by minimizing the truancy.
• The Government must put in place scientifically designed, planned, program,
orchestrated, chiseled and honed monitoring and evaluation system in place to
ensure transparency and accountability. M&E staff should be qualified to monitor
all aspects of educational activities in an educational institution ranging from
classroom observations to the inspection of physical infrastructure.
• The academia should be so attractive in terms of emoluments, eminence and
erudition that it is the first choice of the capable and outstanding young men and

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 women. In the ultimate analysis, it is the quality men and women and the bricks and
mortar, to ensure quality education.

6. Sustainable Development in Education Sector

Following issues need to be addressed for sustainable development in education sector:

6.1 Commitment, Continuity and Strong Political Will

A common set of problems plague the planning of education sector, including weak planning,
low budget provisions, delays in allocations, poor maintenance, low utilization, lack of trained
staff; poor governance, weak monitoring and evaluation and absence of client involvement in
the design of service provision. For successful implementation of organic incipient initiatives
in education, strong political will, stoic determination and resilient management are required.
Supply-driven programs and institutions planned to be established during one political
regime are abandoned after change of political scenario. Consequently, the incomplete
schemes become additional liability seeking solution from the planners. Policy is a
government function, which affects the planning objectives for education. The fact that
education has failed to find its place in the matrix of policy priorities and targets have
remained unrealized is the result of certain binding constraints, rooted in a number of factors
at the societal and state levels. There have certainly been consistent efforts on the part of
governments to expand education. These efforts, however, appear to be stymied by structural
and policy functions such as macroeconomic and fiscal stabilization policies, poverty, weak
implementation of education policies, and socio-political environment.

6.2 Complex Management Structures and Incoherent Planning

The management structure for education in Pakistan is multi-layered and complex. It
involves inputs at Federal, provincial and district levels. In 2001, the devolution of powers
induced a new tier of political decision making as District Governments. Under the
Devolution Plan, powers and functions of educational planning, management and M&E have
been decentralized and devolved to districts. Each district is empowered to devise the
education plans in the light of National and Provincial Plans and implement them through
district education department. Districts prepare detailed work plan in each area of education
clearly identifying the strategies, activities, actions, implementation mechanisms specifying
executing agencies and schedule of the activities, options, alternatives, resources both human
and financial, and monitoring and evaluation system. In reality, however, whilst devolution
has been fully adopted, the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) requires a degree of
interpretation for its implementation. Moreover, districts lack much of the capacity required
to fully undertake all of the above tasks. After devolution, the overlapping of functions
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among different tiers of government i.e. Federal, Provincial & District Governments have
created problems for coherent and holistic planning. The duplication of efforts may be seen
by heavy funding for implementation of Programs for provision of missing facilities in
schools and establishment of new schools by the provincial government especially under
Chief Minister’s Accelerated Program for Social Development. Adding to it a superfluous
initiative for provision of missing facilities in schools has been planned by the Federal
Government, under President’s Education Sector Reforms Program, despite having very
remote knowledge of on-ground realities. Similarly the universities established / chartered
under the Act of Provincial Assembly receive their grants from Higher Education
Commission (HEC); a statuary body of the Federal Government. This dichotomy of
functions of Federal and Provincial Government regarding University Education makes
coherent planning difficult. Education is the responsibility of a number of departments at
provincial level. However, they are functioning with very little rather non existent
institutional consultation among them required for making sector wide holistic plans and
policies.

6.3 Resource Constraints

The level of public spending is a key indicator of government's dedication and commitment to
the cause of education. The education sector in Pakistan has suffered from persistent and
acute under-investment by the government. Pakistan ranks amongst the bottom five countries
of the world, so far as public expenditure on education, as a percentage of total public
spending is concerned. The National Education Policy (1998-2010), for the first time,
established the target of increasing expenditures on education from 2 to 4 percent of the GDP
by 2010. However, actual expenditure on education has not increased at the desired rate.
Although, education enjoys the highest priority of the Punjab Government, yet allocations for
education sector do not depict consistent government choice for education sector, rather in
relative terms it has been falling for last several years. The allocations become even more
ineffective when relevant departments and agencies fail to utilize them. Following devolution,
some districts suffered problems in receiving sufficient funds from the provincial level to
operate devolved functions, including education. This has included delays in and transfer of
sufficient funds for development. After devolution, districts have become operational tier of
school education. The budgets at the district level reveal an unjust allocation of resources. The
allocation by the district government for education is available for non-development
expenditure like salaries and allowances of the employees and very little is left for development
expenditure.

6.4 Human Resource Constraints and Shortage of Trained Manpower

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For brining sustainable development in education sector, there is a need of permanent and
well-regarded organization (Planning Cells in the Education Departments at Provincial and
District level). The job requires a wide variety of experts, and cannot be done by a hastily
assembled group, tasked to do planning like other routine functions. Continuous attention
to performance is necessary and only specialists can do an effective job like planning. The
planning cells/units are functioning in various departments dealing education sector at
provincial level. However, these are usually headed by generalists, posted to command
demoralized planners, devoid of any incentive for working in a specialized field. There is an
acute shortage of experienced planners and lack reliable information of statistical nature at
district level. At the district level, performance of education departments is low because of
a weak information base, poor and disconnected planning, weak understanding of basic
issues, lack of basic facilities and a virtually nonexistent monitoring and support system.
The expansion of duties and responsibilities at the district level with devolution, underlines
the importance of having a good district management information system. Although EMIS
units have been established in districts, the district offices still lack sufficiently trained and
experienced staff to make them effective. Unfortunately, many development plans set forth
by the government are to be implemented by the people working in districts, those do not
have the necessary experience for planning.

6.5 Economic Divide in Education Sector

Parents’ inability to afford educational expenses of their children appears to be an important

factor behind the low participation in schools and falling standard of education. In the survey
conducted by System (private) Limited, in 2002, under the auspices of Multi Donor Support
Unit, 38% of the children cited pressure by parents to supplement family income. In Punjab,
demand for education is increasing with a fast pace. However, supply of education is not
evenly distributed among all sections and segments of society. This is especially true in case
of provision of quality education and availability of quality education institutions. As a
matter of fact, public sector schools having less attractive out look, with staff shortage and
unmotivated teachers mainly cater to poor segment of the society, whereas the better off class
chose private institutions available with varied fee structure and diversified curricula,
matching their socio-economic status. The existing apartheid education system is reinforcing
class division in the society by preparing the working class for its role through technical
subjects while the subjects of general and professional education are preferred by upper
strata of the society. Poverty is the main obstacle to acquire quality education and also result
of poor quality education which in turn enhances economic deprivation. Thus by weakening
social and cultural harmony not only lead to widened linguistic, social and economic
divisions between the privileged and under privileged, but also creates vicious cycle of
poverty disturbing the repose of society.

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7. Suggested Strategies

The following strategies are suggested for sustainable development in education sector:

7.1 Punjab Education Board (PEB).

In education various provincial department are functional in isolation and there is a water
tight compartmentalization among them despite the fact that all of them are focusing the
same target of quality education for all. In order to ensure synergy, synchronization and
harmony, there is a dire need of a well coordinated effort under a single umbrella with unity
of command but shared, connected, collaborated and concerted efforts. Various departments,
like Special Education, TEVTA, Literacy and Non-formal Basic Education, School
Education Department, Higher Education department should be functioning under PEB. At
the moment, here is no institutional link among them to formulate sector-wide policies and
plans. Universities, also fully autonomous in their domain, are producing graduates in an un-
planed manner. To address the issue of incoherent planning, PEB may be constituted having
membership from all provincial departments mentioned above, dealing education sector. PEB
should be headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Chief Secretary PEB and supported
by the respective Administrative Secretaries. The Board may be entrusted formulation of
sector-wide policies and Programs. The implementation of programs should be the exclusive
prerogative of the administrative departments

7.2 Education Data

In Punjab, Bureau of Statistics, PMIU of PESRP are two main agencies responsible for
educational data collection and analysis. Apart from these regular organizations, various
surveys like MICS, PIHS and PERI are also considered reliable source of educational data.
However, the data collected by various agencies has significant variation. This problem is a
major obstacle in effective planning for education sector. To provide valid and reliable data
for educational planning and avoid divergent results, domain and responsibilities of data
collecting agencies should be defined and entrusted to single agency, preferably PMIU of
PESRP.

7.3 Education and Management Planning Cadre

To make sustainable development a reality, role of planners can not be ignored. Educational
Planners are the people who transform and translate abstract ideas and policies into Programs
and projects. The planning of education sector requires people having acquaintance and
expertise both in the discipline of education and planning. For the purpose a special cadre for
Education Planning may be created. This cadre should be linked with various departments of
education horizontally and P&D Department vertically. Similarly management is also a
specialized job and there should be a separate cadre for managers. Planning and monitoring
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are also functions of the management there a separate cadre of Planning and Management
should be set up to shoulder the specialized assignments within education sector.

7.4 Consistency in Education Policies and Programs

Continuity and consistency in policies of the successive governments is essential for the
success of development programs in education. Unfortunately there had not been any
coherence or continuity in the policies of the successive regimes. In case of education sector,
there must be a national and provincial strategy for national development taking all the
stakeholders on board. Education is a matter of life for the whole nation there it should not be
left to the whims and wishes of the successive regimes. The proposed national strategy for
educational development should delineate a clear roadmap for improving access, quality and
governance of education on long-term basis. Educational development is a slow, long and
patient process and it takes time to complete full circle. The proposed national strategy
should devise the action plan keeping in view the need assessment at district, provincial and
federal level. The strategy must delineate the future requirements of at least twenty years inn
terms of infrastructure, professional development, assessment processes and M&E.

7.5 Monitoring and Evaluation

M&E of education programs is the major function of managers, planners, field administrators
and other practitioners in education and continuing education programs. It is a mechanism
that provides information on program progress at various levels and stages of
implementation. The manager needs field-based information for making appropriate
decisions about program directions and operations strategies. The planner needs data on the
strengths and weaknesses of the program plan in order to identify possible gaps between the
planned and the actual activities implemented at the field level. The program administrator’s
interest in monitoring lies in the area of determining whether he or she is reaching clients and
intended beneficiaries. A well-designed and carefully-scheduled program monitoring follows
a systematic framework for collecting and analyzing information on implementation
activities with the end view of improving the management and operations at the various
stages of the program. It can provide information to policy makers and program management
so that timely and appropriate decisions can be made, thus helping ensure the success of the
program. A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system has been envisaged from
grass-roots to the highest level. The District Education Authority will be established in each
district to ensure public participation in monitoring and implementation. The education
Ministers at the Federal and Provincial levels will oversee monitoring committees,
responsible for implementation at their levels.
Monitoring: Basic Questions

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1. Are project activities being implemented according to plan?
2. Who is benefiting from the project?
3. Are the expected outcomes/outputs being developed upon the target clientele?
4. Is the amount of benefits being delivered the right amount the program?
5. What changes, if any, should be made to the program?
Evaluation: Basic Questions
I. To what degree has the objective implemented according to plan?
2. Is the project cost effective?
3. What impact has the project upon the target clientele?
4. What decision should be taken on the program?
We Monitor to Perfect implementation and We Evaluate to Judge the performance of the
program
Some sample education program monitoring objectives are as follows:’

• Identify the actual status of the long-term sustainability of the program in order to
determine if scheduled activities and expected outputs are being implemented and
achieved as planned.
• Discover gaps and deficiencies in program implementation as well as current and
potential issues and problems which need to be addressed.
• Identify factors that may affect the long-term sustainability of the program.
• Highlight significant features that may serve as insights for the planning and
implementation of future similar projects.
• Identify opportunities and strengths that can be tapped to ensure successful program
management and implementation.
• Recommend policy options for effective and efficient program management and
implementation.
• Document initial success stories that may be useful for social mobilization and
advocacy, or for replication in related programs and projects. Immediately inform
program management and administrators of the status of program implementation so
that they can apply remedial measures to solve problems.
• Disseminate the results of the review; monitoring and evaluation work to the program
managers, planners, donors and other sponsors.
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Program monitoring objectives should be:
1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Achievable/attainable
4. Result-oriented,
5. fime-bound, as set by the program
8. Proposed Plan of Action
• Prepare a national, provincial and district level strategy for ensuring access, quality
equity and good governance in education sector. The establishment of PEB will a
positive step at the right time in the right direction. Establishment of new standards for
school infrastructure, facilities and staff to reflect quality considerations and
conducting a fresh survey of all schools for benchmarking and better planning.
• Improving the access of girls to schools at all levels through the introduction of
incentive systems such as food-for-education.
• Improving the retention rates and eliminate truancy patterns of students from class 1 to
class X by revitalizing the curricula and by making these more relevant to current days
and by introducing the basics of vocational training to provide an early exit to
vocational training or technical education on a full time basis.
• Discouraging drop outs in schools by provision of a child-friendly environment
through banning corporal punishment, rationalizing excessive subject’s text books and
work loads.
• Improving the skills of teachers away from rote learning to student-centred learning
and adopting a district-based and cluster-centred system of continuous professional
development of teachers along with incentives and accountability for improving the
quality of education.
• The development, testing and production of text books should be improved by
involvement of outside expertise and by introducing greater diversity and competition
and the process should be better regulated by education authorities,
• Establishing public sector’s regulatory and facilitation, monitoring and standardization
framework for private provision of education in a non-intrusive manner with minimal
interference and with emphasis on provision of information to households and other
players enabling them to make informed choices related to education Public Private
Partnership models demonstrated by Punjab Education Foundation could be replicated
which are cost effective and competitive incipient organic initiatives.
• The province establishing standards, monitoring performance and regulating both the
private and the devolved public sector establishments.
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• Tasking the revamped the Punjab Education Foundation to encourage greater
participation and upgrading of private sector, to explore and encourage public private
partnerships and to finance pilot test innovative policy interventions like encouraging
competition and school choice through school vouchers and other means.
• Finalizing the system of education management and implementing it in the whole
province and across the different tiers of educational institutions.
• Conversion of mosque schools into regular schools and up-gradation of all Middle
Schools to High School level.
• Mainstreaming of old municipal schools under urban disadvantaged areas
improvement program.
• Creation of clusters for better school management and teacher training and
establishment of infrastructure for creation of school districts concept.
• Improvements to be made to the existing education testing service to ensure a
uniformity in the output from the education sector and to evaluate teacher skills,
• A genuine education reform requires above all political will as reform challenges the
entire framework of patronage system and requires an overhaul of current thinking
within the department away from control to facilitation and regulation without
intrusion.
• The revision and modernization of the syllabi and curricula should be initiated only
after a detailed and independent evaluation of the current contents. Recent studies have
examined the curricula and textbooks in several subjects ranging from languages and
humanities to sciences and have found them wanting in a number of ways and include
wrong statements, inaccuracies and outdated notions. This clearly indicates the need
for urgent remedy. This should also be accompanied by an evaluation of the total
burden of education in each class, particularly at the primary level. Non-state players
(private sector and not-for-profit sector) should be involved in the design, testing and
production of text books.
• To encourage a wider participation a panel of well known educators from each subject
specialty should be appointed as judges to select one or more books as text books and
reference readings. Since a majority of private schools utilized public sector textbooks,
it is vital that the quality of public sector textbooks be improved.
• To ensure the effective regulation of educational establishments, and to ensure
adherence to minimum standards, the provincial government should establish the
framework and modalities of such regulations and standards. The provincial
government should use the National Education Testing Service to standardize the entry
requirements to Higher Secondary and Tertiary educational establishments and to
verify the skills attained by teachers at various levels.
• The relationship between the provincial government and district governments ought to
change in favour of greater decentralization of functions, staff and resources and the
establishment of new performance-based relationships incentivized through the general
and conditional grant mechanism and by a transparent regulatory and monitoring
framework. The provincial government should encourage the district governments to
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 implement necessary changes by providing them with an incentive for a limited time
during which the change should be implemented. It should retain only the functions
relating to the enunciation of policy, the establishment of standards, regulatory and
monitoring frameworks, the enactment of laws to encourage private sector
participation, the oversight of curricula and syllabi revision and the production of
textbooks.
• The consolidation and rationalization of schools are within the purview of the district
governments after devolution. The district education offices at present are not
equipped to undertake district level planning of education service delivery by utilizing
district data from MICS and EMIS.
• This capacity for evidence-based planning needs to be upgraded at the district level
and, given current constraints, the province has to play a lead role in this capacity
building. Moreover the structure of the district education office needs to be
reorganized from gender/facility wide classification (male/ female primary, secondary,
colleges) to one based on functional specialization (human resource management,
monitoring and evaluation, student assessment etc.). Again the province has to take a
lead in this reorganization.

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