Over the past decades, education reform has been one of the top priorities for Pakistan’s policymakers. On paper, this effort seems to be fruitful as school enrolment for ages 6-16 was at an all-time high of 81 per cent in 2021 according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). However, there is little evidence to suggest that this is leading to actual learning. The same report also mentions that only 56 per cent of these children can read a sentence in English indicating a high prevalence of learning poverty.
Learning Poverty is a concept developed by the World Bank which measures the inability of children to read and understand a short, age-appropriate text. World Bank estimates that 77 per cent of late-primary-age children in Pakistan face learning poverty. Primary school learning shapes lifelong learning and employability, which means its effects will be realised for a long time in the future.
In Pakistan, over 3.3 million children are trapped in labour, driven by the harsh realities of climate change and economic instability.
Pakistan compares poorly to its peers in terms of learning poverty, being 18.3 percentage points higher than the average country in the South Asian region and 16.6 percentage points higher than the average low- and middle-income country (LMIC), suggesting deeper systematic issues. Within the country, efforts have been non-equitable and there are large disparities between the provinces. ASER survey reports that, in Sindh, only 24 per cent of children aged 5-16 can read a simple text in English, compared to 73 per cent in Punjab and 86 per cent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. There are also significant differences between gendered learning. Despite boys having a lower rate of out-of-school children (29.3 per cent) compared to girls (39.6 per cent), only 30 per cent of boys achieve English proficiency at the end of primary school compared to 39.6 per cent of girls, likely owing to the socioeconomic conditions pressuring boys to focus on employment instead of education.
This poor dissemination of education is largely a product of other socio-political issues plaguing the country, but some are education sector-specific. There exists a lack of accountability where enrolments are celebrated but no check and balance exists to determine if children are showing up to classes or comprehending what is being taught. Promotion to the next level is arbitrary and no standardised testing system is in place to check whether those graduating primary schools meet the learning criteria. There is a lack of adequate infrastructure to support learning. Studies have positively linked education attainment with the availability of sanitation facilities in schools, however, the ASER survey reports that only 57 per cent of government schools had usable water access and only 70 per cent had usable toilet facilities. If despite all, children still attend schools, the public schools, which have 81 per cent primary school-going population, face a dearth of young teachers qualified to teach adequately. In addition, teachers employed by the government are often sent on administrative tasks like census data collection or election duties that take away their time and attention from school teaching.
The effects of learning poverty are far-reaching. The Ministry of Finance estimates that 47% of all education institutes in Pakistan are primary schools. When learning poverty exists at such a high rate at this level, it paves a bumpy road for future progress which is evidenced by only 1 in 5 children continuing education beyond the primary level, meaning that human capital development for the country is scarce. The World Skills Clock shows that in 2024, 87 per cent of the country’s youth population lacks secondary education level skills, and 90.4% lack digital skills. This is alarming as education does not lead to meaningful employability, and there is very little chance of socio-economic development.
Young people entering the workforce are at a disadvantage because there exists a gap between employer expectations and youth skills. Classroom teaching, even at the university level, does not meet industry requirements because of subpar education standards and low accountability. This has contributed to a rise in employment for people with degrees. This is a testament to the fact that education reforms over the last few decades have failed to have any substantial economic benefit.
While initiatives like The Citizens Foundation are helping, their limited impact highlights the urgent need for comprehensive state-led education reforms.
Some efforts have been made to bridge the learning gap. The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is an independently run group of schools aimed at providing quality education to the underprivileged. They have 1,921 schools spread across Pakistan and occasionally result in success stories like a student getting admission into LUMS, the country’s premiere private university. In Islamabad, Teach for Pakistan is a similar organisation that partners with public schools to improve their learning outcomes. In their ten years of presence, they have impacted over 24,000 students from 107 schools. In Sindh, the Idara Taleem o Agahi partnered with the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) Government of Sindh, after the 2022 floods to bridge the learning gaps and reintegrate out-of-school children through an accelerated learning programme. At a higher level, Parwaaz has partnered with the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) to give skills training to underprivileged youth in demand-driven and market-relevant trades. These private efforts are a step in the right direction but have limited reach, TCF have enrolled only 286,000 children from an out of school of 26.2 million. Teach for Pakistan’s operations have been limited to the outskirts of Pakistan. Even Parwaz’s partnership limits it to Punjab. These efforts have constraints because of the limitation of private funds. For effective change at a larger scale, reform has to begin and be carried out by the state. At a provincial level, some governments have taken the initiative to mirror these educational efforts, like the Sindh Education Foundation which attempts to address the education crisis in Sindh utilizing public-private partnership. The SEF has multiple programs aimed at improving education dissemination in public schools and accelerated primary education and vocational training for adults.
A first step would be to adopt a standardised age-appropriate syllabus. One program that has had proven positive outcomes in LMICs such as India and Nigeria is a “Teaching at the Right Level” (TaRL) approach which aims at closing foundational gaps in learning by tailoring teaching to the individual student’s level. Learning from this, education development efforts can be tailored to the needs of different provinces. For provinces like Sindh and Balochistan, which have a higher rate of learning poverty, the focus should be on providing quality education through trained teachers and assessments, but for Punjab, the focus should be on vocational training and secondary and higher education for valuable skills development. Learning poverty is an issue that requires rigorous attention from all stakeholders, from policymakers to teachers to parents.