Pakistan: World Bank Approves US$100 Million to Enhance Quality and Access to Education in Punjab

Contacts:

In Islamabad:
Shahzad Sharjeel (051) 2279641-6

Email: ssharjeel@worldbank.org

In Washington, DC:
Karina Manasseh   (202) 473-1729

Email: kmanasseh@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON D.C., March 29, 2005—The World Bank Board of Directors today approved a US$100 million credit for Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab.   The credit is aimed at enhancing and building upon the improvements in quality and access to education achieved under a similar credit last year.

Aiming to further improve the education indicators in this province of  almost 84 million people, the credit contributes towards progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to poverty reduction and Education For All (EFA) in the country. In September 2000, the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, which contained eight Millennium Development Goals. Among these eight goals, one of them relates to achieving universal primary education, which means that, by 2015, children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. These goals have been commonly accepted by the international community as a framework for measuring development progress.

“In 2003, Punjab embarked on a wide-ranging reform agenda to improve fiscal management, promote devolution, and improve service delivery starting with education.” said Tahseen Sayed, Task Leader for Second Punjab Education Development Policy Credit. “The credit is the second in a series of three development policy credits to support the Government of Punjab’s medium-term education reform program to enhance access and improve the quality of education.”

Although Punjab has slightly better education indicators than other provinces, it still trails behind in comparison to  low-income areas in the region. The rate of participation in the education sector is very low with 47 percent male and 43 percent female primary net enrollment rates. In terms of adult literacy rates, Punjab is also among the lowest in the region, with only 36 percent of women and 57 percent of men considered literate.

The system has low internal efficiency, with a high rate of dropouts and repeaters. There are substantial disparities across different regions of the province.  Low family income, high costs of school materials, poor quality of teaching, and inadequate infrastructure. It has been determined that these are the main constraints to providing greater access to education. However, targeted interventions through this reform program are beginning to show results.

“I am happy to note a commendable difference in the service delivery of the education sector in Punjab,” says John Wall, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “Primary school enrollment in the province registered an increase of 900,000 children under the first phase of the Education Reform. Thousands of girl students are receiving stipends, free text books are reaching the students in a timely manner, and community involvement is showing encouraging results. Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency; the hard work has just begun with the jump in enrollment.  Now the job is to improve the quality of teaching and  learning as well as continuing the implementation of what has already begun.” 

The Punjab Education Service Delivery Reform, which these credits support, has three main pillars:

1.       Public finance reforms: The Government is increasing public expenditures on pro-poor services with a focus on education by increasing provincial public sector expenditures with conditional grants for district governments.

2.       Devolution reforms: To strengthen Pakistan’s devolution of governing authority and to improve governance, the program has developed a framework that clarifies the roles and responsibilities of provincial and district governments of service providers and users and institutionalizes performance-based budgeting.

3.       Education sector reforms: To improve education sector performance, the Government is taking measures to strengthen education accountability by establishing transparent criteria for teacher recruitment and deployment. These reforms support the effective use of School Councils (SCs) to strengthen parental participation in school affairs.  Monitoring & evaluation systems are being strengthened, and reinforced with external validations.  Public private partnerships are being developed through the Punjab Education Foundation.

The interest-free US$100 million credit for the Government of Punjab is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, with a 35-year maturity, a 10-year grace period, and a 0.75 percent service charge.