Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools
Report Summary:
(Lahore, April 17, 2008) The report presents facts and findings from a survey of all public and private primary schools in 112 villages in Punjab province, and lays out important policy options based on detailed data to facilitate evidence-based policymaking.
Facts: - Student enrollment increased by 10% between 2001 and 2005 in Pakistan. - The highest increase occurred in Punjab province (12%). - Between 2000 and 2005, the number of private schools increased from 32,000 to 47,000. - 1 in every 3 enrolled children at the primary level was studying in a private school. - Since 1995, 50% of all new private schools have set up in rural areas.
A large fraction of rural Pakistani households no longer lives in a village with one or two government schools—half the population of rural Punjab, for instance, lives in villages where parents routinely have 7-8 schools to choose from. This new educational landscape is best described as an active educational marketplace with multiple schools vying for students whose parents are actively making educational decisions. From evaluating policy reform to understanding how the private sector can help educate the poor, the rise of such schools represents a significant opportunity and challenge, not only in Pakistan but also in the wider South-Asian context. Furthermore, with enrollments looking up, debate will likely shift to what children are learning in school. Enrollment does not imply learning. Low-income countries routinely place at the bottom of the charts in international comparisons. Measuring what children are learning in public and private schools and understanding how the educational marketplace can foster learning is a first step towards formulating policy in the new millennium.
This report is based on a large and independent survey and testing exercise that provides information on every aspect of the educational marketplace in selected districts of rural Punjab. This report presents findings from the first survey in 2003; a forthcoming report will incorporate information from all four survey rounds between 2003 and 2007. The first four chapters—on learning, schools, teachers, and households—present an overview of the education sector. The final chapter presents questions for debate and discussion based on these facts and suggests a new “modified” role government can play in this new educational landscape.
This chapter of the LEAPS report examines how much primary school students are learning in rural Punjab Province and how much factors like school facilities, parental education, and wealth matter. The sampling for the LEAPS report was done in two stages. In the first stage, three districts were chosen from the province of Punjab. The choice of districts follows the accepted division of the province into the “better” performing North and Central parts (Attock and Faisalabad) and a “poorer” performing South (Rahim Yar Khan). Within these districts, 112 villages were chosen randomly from a list of all villages with a private school in 2003. The total sample yields over 800 public and private schools. The LEAPS survey tested all 12,000 children in Class 3 enrolled in these schools on three subjects—English, Mathematics and Urdu. We describe the outcomes from these tests in two sections.
This chapter looks at over 800 schools offering primary schooling in 112 LEAPS project villages. That’s an average of almost 8 schools serving primary age children in any village. Before starting this work, our view of the schooling environment in a typical village was the same one shared by others in Pakistan—that a typical village is served by one school and that the decision for parents was simple---to send their children to school or not. Similarly,we also held the view that villages with private schools have 2 schools—one government (two if gender separated), one private—and the difference between the two lies in their quality and price. Reality is very different. One-third of all villages and 50 percent of the rural population in Punjab have, on average, 8 schools to choose from. This finding has led to a host of new questions.
A teacher in a public school is absent one-fifth of the time and has students that perform very poorly but still earns 5 times more than a teacher in a private school who is present nearly every day and has students that perform very well. One implication may be that the educational system would benefit if this government teacher were to stay at home, pocket 85 percent of his salary and use the other 15 percent to pay a teacher in the private sector to take his/her place. This chapter shows that such compensation schemes may still have benefits if used appropriately. The chapter analyzes why and how government and private compensation schemes are so different and suggest ways to build on the strengths of both to improve the overall quality of education.
This chapter presents detailed information on the choices that parents make regarding their children’s schools, the time and money they spend on their children, the daily activities that a child engages in, and reiterates the critical constraints that distance to school has for enrollment, especially among girls. While some findings from the survey data accord well with some of the commonly held beliefs mentioned above, other findings suggest a closer evaluation of the Pakistani rural household and its role in educating their children is in order.
Article 37 (b) & (c) of the Constitution of Pakistan (1973) affirms that “the State shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within the minimum possible period.” What Pakistan needs to debate is whether any attempt is being made to address the affirmation that the “State shall remove illiteracy”. It also needs to debate the implications of the rapid rise of well-performing private schools for achieving this goal. This chapter examines five issues related to the quality of education and future education policy that are frequently debated in Pakistan. The goal of this chapter is to argue that evidence can yield important insights for policy and provide a framework for further debate.
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