‘Quality and inclusive education among critical factors in human capital development’

Pakistan’s national average score in the District Education Performance Index (DEPIx) report 2023 is 53.46, placing the country in the “low” performance category.

The initial concept for the DEPIx report was conceived by the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiative. Building on this foundation, a draft methodology was developed through extensive consultations with key stakeholders and experts in the education sector. These consultations were instrumental in identifying the critical indicators for inclusion in DEPIx.

According to the report, Pakistan, with nearly 67% of its population under 30, is experiencing a large youth bulge. Over the past decades, the country has reached middle-income status and has made commendable progress in developing its human capital.

However, this progress has been slower than that of other developing countries and regional peers. The slow pace of human capital development poses challenges to realizing the potential demographic dividend and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and attaining upper-middle-income status by 2047.

Providing quality and inclusive education is paramount among the critical factors in human capital development. In 2010, the Parliament of Pakistan devolved policy, administrative, and fiscal authority over education to the provinces and enshrined the right to free education as a fundamental right through Article 25-A of the Constitution. Since then, provincial governments have enacted compulsory education laws, increased budgetary allocations for school education, and implemented various governance and data reforms.

Notably, reforms in the education data regime have improved data availability on education indicators. Even with these efforts, the complexity, breadth, and fragmentation of education data have often made it challenging for policymakers and stakeholders to use it effectively in decision-making.

To address this issue and support the education emergency Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared in May 2024, the Federal Planning Commission has integrated various school education indicators into composite scorecards.

The objective is to make data available in a form that can be easily understood and utilized by policymakers and other stakeholders to inform advocacy, policy planning, and resource allocation in school education.

The DEPIx is a comprehensive tool that measures the performance of education systems at the district level, focusing on key outcomes such as access, learning, and equity, processes such as governance, and inputs like public financing and infrastructure. The DEPIx is structured across five domains: Infrastructure & Access, Learning, Inclusion (Equity & Technology), Governance & Management, and Public Financing.

It covers 134 districts across Pakistan, including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, Sindh, and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

National Overview

Per the report’s national overview, Pakistan’s national average score in the DEPIx is 53.46, placing the country in the “Low” performance category.

Infrastructure & Access scores the highest among the five domains at 58.95, indicating some progress in expanding educational opportunities. Inclusion (Equity & Technology) follows as the second-highest domain. Public Financing records the lowest score, highlighting the need for increased and better-targeted spending in the education sector. The Learning domain also scores poorly, reflecting persistently low student learning outcomes.

Governance & Management, though slightly better than Learning, still falls in the “Low” category, mainly due to teacher shortages and high bureaucratic turnover.

Provincial Overview

Punjab emerges as the top-performing province with a composite score of 61.39. KP follows with a score of 54.47, while Sindh and Balochistan lag with scores of 51.55 and 45.50, respectively.

Notwithstanding the overall index scores, there are notable differences in provincial scores across domains, indicating each province’s relative strengths and weaknesses within the larger education delivery system.

Punjab outperforms other provinces in Infrastructure and access (73.36) and Inclusion (75.05) but scores lower in Public Financing and Governance and management. Meanwhile, KP excels in Governance and management and Public Financing but ranks lower in Learning than other provinces.

Sindh shows relative strength in Public Financing, where it ranks highest, but lags in Infrastructure and access and Governance and management. Conversely, Balochistan faces severe challenges across all domains, ranking lowest in nearly all areas except Learning, where it performs only slightly better than the worst-performing province.

District-Level Insights

None of the 134 districts fall within the “Very High” performance category, and only Islamabad falls into the “High” category, making it an outlier as the highest-performing district in the country. Nearly two-fifths (56) of districts fall into the “Medium” category, with Punjab leading with 32 districts, followed by KP with 16, and Sindh with eight.

Alarmingly, more than half of Pakistan’s districts (77) fall into the “Low” performance category. These low-performing districts are predominantly in Balochistan and Sindh, with 33 districts in Balochistan and 22 in Sindh, highlighting substantial inter-provincial disparities. Notably, all districts of Balochistan fall in the “Low” education performance category, indicating severe challenges across the province.

Highest and lowest

Apart from Islamabad Capital Territory, the top 10 districts are exclusively from Punjab and KP, with seven from Punjab and two from KP. No districts from Sindh or Balochistan are represented among the top 10. The strong performance in these districts is largely due to high scores in Infrastructure & Access (82.54) and Inclusion (Equity & Technology) (76.58).

In contrast, Balochistan dominates the lowest-scoring districts, with six out of 10. Infrastructure & Access, a strength for top districts, is the most significant weakness for the lowest-ranked ones, with an average score of 36.39.

Intra-Provincial Disparities

Significant disparities in education performance exist within provinces. KP exhibits the greatest intra-provincial differences, with districts like Haripur, Chitral, and Abbottabad among the top performers, while Kolai Palas and Upper Kohistan rank among the lowest. There is nearly a 30-point gap between KP’s best and worst-performing districts.

Punjab and Balochistan show the least interprovincial variation, with Punjab’s districts mostly falling into the medium category and all of Balochistan’s districts in the low category. Sindh has moderate variation, with most districts in the “Low” category except for the urban districts of Karachi and Hyderabad.

Correlations

The DEPIx reveals interesting insights into the relationship between input and process domains (Governance & Management and Public Financing) and outcome domains (Infrastructure & Access, Learning, and Inclusion).

Governance and management strongly correlate with Infrastructure and access but do not consistently correlate with Learning outcomes and have limited influence on Inclusion. Similarly, the relationship between Public Financing and Infrastructure and access could be more straightforward, indicating the need for more nuanced policy interventions.

In conclusion, the DEPIx report highlights the critical areas requiring attention to improve education outcomes across Pakistan. It underscores the importance of targeted investments, robust governance, and equitable resource distribution to address the substantial disparities in education performance across districts and provinces. The findings and insights from DEPIx will serve as a crucial tool for policymakers and stakeholders in driving effective and evidence-based education reforms.