Challenge
Punjab is Pakistan’s largest province, with a population of almost 100 million, about 60 percent of the country's total population. Punjab has long made the most substantial contribution to Pakistan’s national economy; it is the country’s most industrialized province and, because of widespread irrigation, features diverse agricultural productivity. However, in the country’s efforts to alleviate poverty, low educational attainment has long been a stumbling block. As recently as 2001, primary school enrollment was only 45 percent, where efforts to improve access and quality were stalled. Over the past decade, primary enrollment rates have increased to just over 60 percent, but rural-urban and regional disparities persist in participation, along with low learning levels. While the goals are daunting, if Punjab moves closer to achieving universal primary enrollment, this will reflect in Pakistan’s progress.
Approach
To address these challenges, the Government of Punjab embarked upon a comprehensive sector reform program – the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP) in 2003, which aims to enhance access to quality education and bring about fundamental reforms in governance and accountability. The objectives of this program are to increase school participation, improve completion rates, reduce gender and urban-rural disparities in school participation, and improve the measurement of student learning.
The Punjab Education Sector Project (PESP) will support the PESRP and has four defining design features. First, the project is performance based, and only disburses once the annual agreed indicators referred to as Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) are met. The DLIs capture intermediate results that are considered central to the medium-term achievement of the project development objectives. Second, the project is underpinned by education sector governance initiatives that aim to improve accountability and capacity, and provide appropriate incentives for service delivery performance. Third, the project supports improvements in budget and fiscal management, financial management, procurement management, and environmental safeguard principles and practices. Fourth, it further strengthens monitoring and evaluation systems in several ways, including via third party validation studies and rigorous impact evaluations.
Results
- Net enrollment in middle schools in Punjab has increased from 20 to 22 percent since the launch of the PESP, between 2008 and 2010. Female to male ratio at this level has improved from 74 to 85 percent during this period. Primary net enrollment rates, which increased from 45 (2002) to 62 percent (2008) since the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP) was launched, have been sustained under the PESP.
- Supply-side interventions, such as improvements in school infrastructure and textbooks, have made schools better. Toilets, boundary walls, and additional classrooms were provided to over 30,000 schools. Under the PESP, a whole school improvement approach was adopted and 1,400 schools were provided with all the missing facilities under one scheme. A little over 34 million free textbooks were distributed to over 11 million students in grades 1-10 during the academic year 2010-11. This effort builds upon the textbook reforms whereby competitive textbook printing, publishing, and authorship were instituted in the province, resulting in improved quality of textbook production.
- Teacher hiring, training, and performance enhanced. Between 2003 and 2006, 150,000 teachers were hired on merit and placed in schools. An additional 79,000 schoolteachers were hired on merit since the start of the PESP. Teacher absenteeism was reduced by hiring teachers on school-specific contracts.
- Girls’ stipends worked. Over 400,000 eligible girls receive targeted monthly stipends pegged to school attendance in the sixteen lowest literacy districts.
- Partnerships supported needy students. Financial support was provided to approximately 2,000 low-cost private schools using a public-private partnership model to support almost one million students from lower-income quintiles.
- Enhanced capacity created. Community-based school councils were established in 43,000 primary schools and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been contracted by the government to provide capacity support to all school councils. Sector governance has been improved through annual independent third-party validations. District capacity for monitoring and implementation has been strengthened, with all schools in the province being regularly monitored by trained government officers.
- Credible exam standards and sector monitoring instituted. An independent Punjab Examination Commission for universal examinations for grades 5 and 8 was established and three rounds of examinations were conducted. A strong and credible monitoring system has been established to track enrollments, sector expenditures, recruitment, and school construction.
Voices
I am studying in this school since I was in nursery. The building of the school has improved remarkably and the teachers come to school regularly and so do we.
Map
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Bank Contribution
The International Development Association (IDA)-financed US$350 million Punjab Education Sector Project was launched in 2008, and is financing about 10 percent of the provincial government’s total education budget over a three-year period. The project also contains a US$10 million component for providing technical assistance to support implementation of the government’s medium-term sector program. The PESP supports the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program, which was previously supported by four IDA credits amounting to a total of US$400 million to support education reforms from 2004 through 2007. Continuous IDA support has provided a real continuity of policy dialogue with the provincial government. Moreover, IDA has also leveraged additional support from development partners for the province’s education reform program. Furthermore, the monitoring systems established under the project are being replicated in other provinces and in other sectors (such as irrigation) in the province. IDA support has also funded a series of rigorous impact evaluations to determine best practices for future expansion and potential adaptation in other country contexts.
Partners
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is providing parallel financing of GB£ 45 million in support of the PESRP with synchronized disbursements and using the same supervision mechanisms. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is supporting the PESRP through a co-financing arrangement of CAD 19 million with IDA. Together, development partner assistance to the education sector in Punjab comprises less than 12 percent of the total Punjab education sector budget.
Toward the Future
With 38 percent of Punjab’s primary school-age children still out of school, low participation at the middle and secondary levels, and low learning outcomes, Punjab is faced with a significant unfinished agenda in education. The Punjab government has launched a second generation of reforms that focuses on increasing access and completion rates, enhancing the quality of reforms and student learning outcomes, and strengthening school management and sector governance. IDA financing is tied to the achievement of concrete results. This support is helping expand sector capacity for implementation and monitoring, and improve the governance of the sector.
RSS