1) Pakistan faces major education issues including millions of out-of-school children, poor quality of education, and rapid growth of the private sector. 2) Both public and private school systems have significant shortcomings, with public schools lacking infrastructure and qualified teachers, and private schools often having low quality. 3) There is demand for education from parents but unclear if there is also demand for quality education given poor returns from low quality schooling. Providing free, compulsory education for all children as mandated by law has proven difficult.

1. Education Issues and Voice and
Accountability
Faisal Bari
Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives
(IDEAS)
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

2. Context
• Article 25A added more than 3 years ago
• Millions of children are out of schools
• Not even universal enrolment at primary level
• Drop out rates remain high…but is that
surprising?
• No plans for out of school children...What
happens to 10 year olds?
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

3. Context
• Quality of education quite poor (ASER)
• Rapid growth of private sector: 35-40%
enrolled children go to private schools
• Percentage higher in the Punjab, urban areas
and big cities…no clarity on role of private
sector
• People voting with their feet?
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

4. Context
• Test results (LEAPS, ASER) show children from
private sector schools perform better in tests
• Despite public sector having better salaries for
teachers and better working conditions
• Public sector quality, despite claims, continues to
be very poor
• Low fee private sector also poor, though
marginally better than public sector
• Clearly, this is not an equilibrium condition!
But then what is the vision for equilibrium
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

5. Supply: Public
• No schools in many places
• Schools not adequately provided for
(infrastructure, facilities, furniture)
• Governance structure quite broken
• Teachers not allocated/rationalized (our study
on Punjab…STR 40:1)
• Teachers not motivated? (nepotism and
corruption are big factors)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

6. Supply: Private
• Private schools…mostly low fee for-profit
schools
• Do not exist where there is not enough
demand or supply of students/supply of
teachers
• Reservation wage for teachers is low…main
advantage for private schools
• Low quality is a big issue: no incentives for
improving quality at the lower end
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

7. Demand
• Education is a right and ‘compulsory’
• State interests in education (Right, functional
reasons…growth, citizenship)
• Why do parents want education
(literacy, skills, jobs, obedience, culture)
• People voting with their feet?
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

8. Demand
• Demand for education seems to be
present…but demand for quality education?
(will return to this)
• But returns to poor quality education not
clear…so case for demand unclear
• Fees
• Transport and other costs
• Opportunity costs
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

9. Extreme Positions
• Is there something more tragic than a child sitting
in classes for 10 years and parents sending
children to schools for 10 years and at the end of
10 years, children are illiterate or barely literate
• Should we keep education departments open for
teachers and their stipends (salary)
• Whatever government touches, it turns to dust
• (See Shahid Kardar’s recent article in the
Dawn)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

10. Article 25A
• The State shall provide free and compulsory
education to all children of the age of five to
sixteen years in such manner as may be
determined by law.
• Shall…basic rights section
• Free
• Compulsory
• Five to sixteen years
• No law, draft or otherwise, is looking at the
issue holistically
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

11. Who is responsible
• The state has to bear the bulk of responsibility for
the poor state of education in the country
• The politicians and bureaucracy have to answer
for a lot
• As do teachers
• But parents, civil society and citizens cannot be
exempted…they have failed to articulate
discontent and have failed to hold their
representatives, elected or not,
accountable
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

12. 18th Amendment
• Education made a provincial subject….no
longer a concurrent subject
• Provinces responsible for everything from
curriculum to provision to ensuring
implementation of 25A
• Since 18th Amendment came post NFC
award…some clarity needed regarding
mechanisms/responsibilities for 25A but
bulk of responsibility with provinces
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

13. Devolution
• Things still unclear…but district educational
authorities being promised…KP and Punjab
• Curriculum, examinations to stay at province
• Provision decisions should become local
(school location,
• What level will teacher recruitment be at?
And teacher management?
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

14. Devolution
• Will district authorities be under Nazim or under
the provincial government? Punjab is going for
provincial control. How is this devolution?
• Who will be placed on District Authority Boards?
Will they strengthen voice or be more open to
corruption/nepotism
• Will education related development expenditure
be devolved
• Local taxation options? Will districts
explore?
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

15. Demand Articulation and Aggregation
• Exit and Voice (Hisrchman)
• What is voice
• Whose voice
• Exit reinforces poor quality issues and makes
voice articulation even harder
• Historically…the role of elites is important….but is
that a necessary connection? History does not
imply necessicity. But the problem is not an
easy one. (Irfan Muzaffar)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

16. Markets and More
• Can markets work on their own (early LEAPS)
• Information asymmetry…
• But are information markets enough?
• Public schools do not have autonomy to respond
• Competition in price rather than quality
(decreasing price)
• Investments in visible areas rather than longer
term quality improvements (Faisalabad)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

17. Demand Articulation and Aggregation
• Why do people choose to exit rather than use
voice?
• Voice options in public schools limited
• Voice options in private schools non-existent
• Costs of public action…Free rider and tragedy
of commons
• Costs of lack of public action
(the road/drain)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

18. Voice Articulation
• Students, parents, teachers, administrators, bure
aucrats, politicians, community members, and
citizens….all are important
• Information is not enough
• Awareness raising is not enough
• Voice does not automatically lead to
accountability
• Accountability? For everyone?
(Parent liability, EDO? Citizen?)
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan

19. Voice Articulation
• Sargodha example….
• We need innovations….plenty of them around
us and around the world…we will learn about
them in the next session
Advocacy and Innovation Funds for Education in Pakistan