The Punjab is Pakistan’s largest province with a population of 80 million, representing almost 60 percent of the country's total population. At the time of the project's launch, the Punjab had been witnessing insignificant improvements in the education sector with net primary enrollments rates of only 45 percent for a decade.
The provincial government's Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP) was launched in 2003 with the objective of improving access, quality and governance in the education sector, and has been supported by three IDA development sector policy credits. Reforms initially focused on on increasing enrollments and retention, especially for girls, and in improving sector governance and monitoring. High level of government commitment, with participation of heads of education, finance, planning and other key departments, has been a key factor driving the reform program. Strong leadership at the sector level supported by technical teams has led to good implementation progress. Participation of all key stakeholders, including parents/communities, civil society groups, and private sector has been instrumental in maintaining the momentum of the reforms and producing results. A strong monitoring system based on credible data, backed by independent external validations, has improved sector governance.
Enrollment in Grades 1 – 10 in public schools in Punjab has increased by 28 percent with approximately 2.5 million more students in three years (2003-2006). Girls’ enrollment in grades 6-8 in government elementary schools has increased by 40 percent. As a result, girls’ share of total public sector enrollments has increased from 43 percent to 46 percent, narrowing the gender gap. Sector governance has improved through robust monitoring, independent validations, and improvement in financial management.
Highlights:
- Primary net enrollment rate has increased to 58 percent in 2004/05 from 45 percent in 2001/02.
- Primary completion rate in government schools has increased from 58 percent to 61 percent.
- The sector budget has increased by almost 50 percent in a three-year period.
- Toilets, boundary walls, and additional classrooms have been provided to about 30,000 schools.
- 11 million students in grades primary-10 received free books in academic year 2006.
- 50,000 additional school teachers hired and posted to schools.
- Almost 300,000 eligible girls receive monthly stipends pegged to school attendance.
- Provision of financing to 300 low-cost private schools using a public-private partnership model to support students from lower income quintiles.
- Community-based school councils were established in 43,000 primary schools
- NGOs are providing capacity support to 2,400 school councils.
- 1,000 previously closed schools have been made functional.
- Sector governance improved through annual independent third-party validations.
- Annual third party validation reports show on time delivery of textbooks to 99 percent of students, and delivery of stipends to 98 percent of eligible girl students.
- New arrangements for sector governance established for the first time in the country through signing of performance based monitoring and financing agreements between the province and the 35 district governments.
- Teacher absenteeism reduced through hiring teachers on school-specific contracts.
- Strong and credible monitoring system has been established to track enrollments, sector expenditures, recruitment and school construction.
- Two community based surveys conducted by NGOs confirm availability of inputs and increase in enrollments.
- The provincial Government’s total education budget in FY06 was US$800 million. Out of this, IDA financing under PEDPC III amounted to US $100 million. Under the earlier two IDA credits, a total of US$200 million was provided to support education reforms in FY04 and FY05.
- IDA support enabled continuity of policy dialogue with the provincial government. This was further strengthened by continuity of IDA team, largely decentralized to the country office, which was able to provide on-time technical advice and guidance, and maintained contact with on-ground issues through regular field visits to districts and schools.
- IDA was also instrumental in supporting strong reforms to improve sector governance through better sector monitoring and expenditure management. Maintaining annual IDA financing supported continuity of policy dialogue.
- Continuity of IDA support enabled the province to maintain the reform momentum and show results. This has created a country-wide impact, both at the federal and provincial levels. The Prime Minister of Pakistan has acknowledged IDA support and requested similar support for other provinces of the country, including for Sindh province. The monitoring systems established under the program are being replicated in other provinces and in other sectors (such as irrigation) in the province.
The Punjab government has extended the reform program and has requested additional IDA support. The major challenges confronting the second generation of reforms include: a) increasing access and completion rates as drop outs are still high and access to secondary education is low; b) deepening the quality reforms and coordinating various interventions on the quality side to improve student learning outcomes.
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