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Respondents suggested that the country can definitely adopt the models that are successful
elsewhere and should work on homework management techniques, student centered learning,
programs for teachers’ attachment etc. in order to improve student learning. All reflected that
madrasahs should be definitely mainstreamed and that they play a significant role in educating
children specially belonging to poor households.
3.3.6. Conclusion
At the heart of any education enterprise is the question ‘are ALL children learning?” Access and
schooling can only be successfully sustained if quality is pursued actively. Pakistan remains off
target on access mainly on account of quality challenges. As increasing evidence mounts on
learning across the education spectrum through both citizen led and government high stakes
assessments, there is an urgency to develop equity and implementation focused action plans.
These are to be fully backed by government resources mainly through domestic financing and
new partnership arrangements that yield value for money, and measurable outcomes that are
reported publicly sensitive to income differentials and inclusion. With the 2017 census results
coming in and poverty score cards generated by BISP for targeting of the poorest, Pakistan needs
policies and actions based on ‘progressive universalism’ (Education Commission 2016),
whereby the most vulnerable groups have access to quality education opportunities and
teachers deliver learning through an equity lens.
3.3.7. Recommendations
Taking into considerations findings from the analysis of the determinants of student
achievement and stakeholder perceptions of quality education, following recommendations are
made to achieve the target of inclusive and quality education in Pakistan.
First, the principle of ‘equity and inclusion’ where the poorest are targeted to enroll and learn
on priority In Pakistan, as revealed by ASER data annually the poorest girls remain 7-20%
behind poorest boys in learning and access within the same quartile; it is these gaps that need
to be bridged in a targeted manner that will demonstrate positive results to investment.
Second, a culture of evidence based reforms and ‘deliverology’ for results has to be made part of
ministries and departments of education and literacy in Pakistan to clear the backlog of poor
performance. The education reforms narrative has been deeply embedded in the political
narrative linked with a five year political/elections cycle. With better and regular evidence,
policy reforms need to coincide with annual fiscal cycles at local and sub-national levels pushing
for result based actions and transformations. Data driven regimes have been established in all
provinces of Pakistan with technology enabled governance initiatives; such as biometrics, real
time monitoring on key parameters of reforms and learning challenges, giving hope that policy
is not a one-time milestone but can be far more iterative and upgraded within systems. The
mentality events based policy rhetoric needs to be replaced by sharp results based actions for
bridging gender gaps in learning, access and other implementation challenges.
Third, Pakistan’s education system is committed to the twin pillars of 25 A and SDGs/SDG 4 with
agreed indicators, which needs regular tracking and reporting on right to quality education as a
public good. The education sector can benefit from accountability driven regimes spurred by
technologies for real time reporting, deepening democratic processes and holding decision
makers to account for delivering human development. In all provinces real time monitoring has
been introduced through tech enabled governance systems that range from biometrics (Sindh)
together with monthly third party monitoring that provide the evidence for district rankings on