EDUCATION
Punjab: Primary education in Punjab is achieving remarkable results. Between 2017 and 2018, Punjab has managed to increase enrolments by 1 million students, from 11.3 to 12.3 million students. Since 2016, the province also has managed to hire 100,000 teachers through a competitive, meritocratic hiring system. The increase in the number of teachers has reduced the number of schools with fewer than teachers from 23,000 down to 300. In January 2018, the province has adopted an Early Childhood Education Policy, and 11,000 early childhood classrooms have been established. As of today, 2.6 million students are studying in public-private programs led by the Punjab Education Foundation. In the past year alone, 4,000 low-performing public schools have been transferred to PEF. Basic literacy and numeracy also seems to be increasing in the 6-monthly LND exams Math, Urdu and English.
The year 2017-18 has been declared the year of learning, that reserved an hour per week for basic literacy and numeracy instruction, increased data monitoring based on tablets, and a new hotline where parents can register complaints. The Bank has supported these changes through the PESP-III program. However, huge quality challenges remain in the system, particularly with regards to instruction and international standards. The Bank has an innovative Service Delivery survey in the field to validate what kind of progress has been made and to diagnose what kind of problems remain, focusing on teacher knowledge, classroom instruction practices, parental support and student learning outcomes.
Sindh: The government is implementing a comprehensive Education Sector Reform Program to improve governance and accountability in the education sector. A special effort is being made to improve access and retention in selected schools through an improvement of infrastructure of approximately 4500 schools, assigning appropriate number of teachers to school to ensure there is a teacher available for every classroom in the school and train teachers and head teachers of the schools to improve the learning environment. These schools are expected to be role models for other schools in the area. The Government has initiated another round of recruitment for more than 6000 teachers, specifically focusing on Science and Mathematics subjects as well as Early Childhood Education to fill the gap of these teachers in the system. The government is providing necessary resources to schools through school specific grants and school management committee grants. These funds allow schools to manage minor repairs at the local level, alongwith ensuring the availability of teaching learning materials and to conduct co-curricular activities. The government is implementing a third party led, annual, large scale assessment of Grade 5 and 8 students to track learning outcomes of children in schools.
The government is also implementing a school consolidation program to ensure school resources are efficiently utilized. The Government has placed more than 900, competitively selected head teachers in schools. The head teachers were trained prior to placement and have initiated school improvement activities in their respective schools. The schools are monitored on a monthly basis through the Sindh School Monitoring System, allowing the Education Department to make evidence based decisions for education improvements.
Balochistan: The Government of Balochistan has received $34 million through the Global Partnership of Education to expand access to quality education. The Balochistan Education Project has helped to functionalize more than 900 schools across the province these include more than 700 schools with new or renovated buildings and more than 100 upgraded schools from primary to middle and high. 53,000 children enrolled in the project specific schools with 89% retention of children, Of these 72 % are girls. Almost 700 schools have a comprehensive Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program with trained teachers and ECE specific learning material. More than 1200 project specific teachers have been provided training on ECE, subject content especially mathematics and science and pedagogy. More than 2000 community members around the school sites have been provided training to support monitoring od school construction, ensure children’s participation in education and ensure teacher presence in schools. Real-Time Monitoring of more than 14,000 public sector schools across the province targeting more than 1 million children enrolled in the schools.
SKILLS
Punjab government, has a strong focus on skills development and has set a target of 2 million youth being trained within 2 years. Skills development opportunities have expanded rapidly to keep the progress on track. The Punjab Skills Development Program supported by World Bank aims to support employability of youth of Punjab. It has developed more than 30 competency-based learning assessments in priority sectors, with at least 80 public and private institutes offering these courses, and having trained 16,000 graduates. 12 partnership agreements signed with industry for market-based skills trainings. With more 800 students trained in priority sectors of Punjab having an employment rate of more than 50 percent. Increasing access in market relevant trades offered by public and private sector training providers by enrolling 52,000 students. Creating a conducive well-functioning skills sector policy landscape, by supporting reform towards a single and consolidated testing agency.
ENHANCING DISASTER RESILLIENCE
Being one of the most climate-change vulnerable countries in the world and recurrently affected by catastrophes, including the unprecedented 2010 floods which affected over 20 million people, Pakistan’s economy is under additional strain from prevailing and likely future threats by various hazards, being exacerbated by climate change. Since the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, which led to nearly 73,000 deaths and caused damages to over 570,000 houses, the Bank has been supporting the Government of Pakistan in shifting from an ex-post to an ex-ante risk management approach. Initially, the Bank provided technical assistance to the government to highlight physical and fiscal risks from hazards, including risk assessments of federal and provincial capitals.
In parallel, the Bank also used grant resources to build the capacity of Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Balochistan.
Following the floods of 2014 and at the request of Government of Pakistan, the Bank prepared the $125 million IDA-funded Disaster and Climate Resilience Improvement Project (DCRIP) to support restoration of flood protection infrastructure and strengthen government capacity to manage disasters and climate variability in Punjab and Northern Districts.
In 2016, the Bank also prepared and delivered the $120 million IDA-funded Sindh Resilience Project (SRP) to mitigate flood and drought risks in selected areas, and strengthen Government of Sindh's capacity to manage natural disasters. As part of pipeline investments, the Bank is preparing the Pakistan Hydromet and DRM Services Project which aims to strengthen Pakistan’s public-sector delivery of reliable and timely hydro-meteorological and disaster risk management services to user departments and communities.
Further, as part of ongoing technical assistance, the Bank is engaged with federal and provincial governments to improve understanding of seismic risks, and enhance fiscal resilience to disaster shocks through the development of a national and provincial disaster risk financing strategies.
OPERATING IN CONFLICT AREAS
The 2009 conflict in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) led to one of the worst security crises in Pakistan’s history, displacing an estimated two million people and severely disrupting lives, livelihoods, and the provision of public services.
A Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) was established in 2010 to support reconstruction and recovery from the impact of the crisis and reducing the potential for escalation or resumption. The MDTF has pooled a total of $270 million between 13 donors to support reconstruction and economic development in the border regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
lastupdated: Apr 04, 2019
