pakistan improving basic education - world bank · pakistan, education executive summary the report...

Report No. 14960-PAK

PakistanImproving Basic Education:Community Participation, System Accountability,and EfficiencyJune 6, 1996

Population ancl Human Resources DivisionCountry Department ISouth Asia Region

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS(As of March 1996)

Pakistan Rupee = 100 paisaCurrency Unit = Rupee (Rs)

Rs 1.00 = US$ 0.03US$1.00 at appraisal = Rs 34.5 (March 1996)

FISCAL YEARJuly 1 - June 30

PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ASDEO - Assistant District Education OfficerCSP - Community Support ProgramDEO - District Education OfficerNGO - Non-Governmental OrganizationNWFP - North-West Frontier ProvincePEF - Provincial Education FoundationR&M - Repairs and MaintenanceUNICEF - United Nations Children's FundUSAID - United States Agency for International DevelopmentVEC - Village Education Committee

PREFACE

Mae Chu Chang and Guilherme Sedlacek led a participatory team effort in the preparation ofthis report, which included a series of seminars and focus group meetings with principalinvestigators of five independent contributing studies, peer reviewers, and departmental andsectoral advisors. Lynn Bennett (ASTHR), Emmanuel Jimenez (PRDPH), Elizabeth King(PRDPH), Lawrence Salmen (ENVSP), and Adriaan Verspoor (SA21N), as peer reviewers,provided guidance and detailed advice on the design of the studies and the overall sector workthroughout the process. Joanne Salop (SASVP), John Wall (SAIDR), Sadiq Ahmed, BashirParvez (SAIPK), Albert Aime, Regina Bendokat, Paul Blay, Jacob Bregman, Hugo Diaz, IanMorris (SAIPH), Sarbani Chakraborty (ESP), and Paud Murphy (EDIHR), provided generalguidaice as well as specific comments. Ivar Andersen prepared background materials. MarkThomas prepared the manuscript and some of the economic analysis. The study was preparedunder the direction of Barbara Herz, Division Chief, and Paul Isenman and subsequently MiekoNishimizu, Country Director.

The five major contributing studies, conducted throughout Pakistan between 1993 and 1995,are the following, with the principal investigators in parentheses: "Evaluation of BalochistanCommunity Support Process," (Christopher Thomas, Brian Spicer), "Parental Willingness to Payand Costs and Quality of Private and Public Schooling in Lahore," (Harold Alderman (PRDPH),Shahid Kardar, Peter Orazem), "Teacher Absenteeism and Student Dropout in NorthwestFrontier Province," (Rafiq Jaffar, the late Sar Khan, Peter Orazem), "Evaluation of BalochistanUrban and Rural Fellowship Schemes," (Harold Alderman (PRDPH), Peter Orazem, BrianSpicer, Mark Thomas) and "Roads to Success," (Per Dalin, Iffat Farah, Pamela Hunte (ASTHR),Halvard Kuloey, Matthew Miles, Ray Chesterfield). Institutional Collaborators included NWFP,Balochistan and Sindh Education Management Information Systems, IMTEC of Norway and theInstitute for Educational Development of the Aga Khan University. To enhance capacitybuilding, all of the studies were designed as components of project preparation orimplementation, funded by the Government of Pakistan and the World Bank. Additional grantfunds were provided by Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau and Japanese PHRD Grants.

PAKISTANIMPROVING BASIC EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN:

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION, SYSTEM ACCOUNTABILITY, ANDEFFICIENCY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............... I-VII

1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW. 1

Past Policy: Supply-focused with Limited Success .IDemand: for what? . 3Inefficient and Inadequate Supply. 4Studying the Successes .5

2. PARENTAL DEMAND FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION IS STRONG .10The Urban Private/NGO Sector .10The Government Sector .16Are Parents as Willing to Educate Girls as Boys? . 18

3. SCHOOLING IMPROVES WHEN COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATE .22Participation as an Exchange: What Parents Expect .27Participation in Practice .28

4. THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT .33Incentives for Employee Attendance .33Teacher Morale and Ownership .34Teacher Knowledge, Recruitment, and Training .37Materials .39

5. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS .41Nongovermment Schools .42Reform of Government Schools .44

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND BOXES IN TEXT

Figure 1. I Spending on Primary Education in Pakistan 1987-93 .2Figure 2.1 Performance Difference by Class Size and Teacher Qualifications . 1 Figure 2.2 Proportion of Expenditure Spent on Education by Monthly Income. 14Figure 2.3 Percentage of Children not enrolled in school, by family income Lahore 15Figure 2.4 Gross Primary Enrollment Rates among Girls and Boys by Province . 18Figure 2.5 Reasons Given for Educating a Child (NWFP) .19Figure 2.6 Gender Split of Kachi and Grades 1-5, Quetta .20Figure 2.7 Annual Educational Costs, Lahore .20Figure 2.8 Gross Primary Enrollment, by Income Quartile .21

Table 1.1 The Gender Gap in Pakistan and Comparable Countries ...............................2Table 2.1 Households Using Private Education, Lahore .............................................. 10Table 2.2 Private and Public Sector Performance, Lahore ........................................... 11Table 2.3 NWFP Achievements Test Results .................................................. 12Table 2.4 Average Annual Expenditures per Student, Lahore ....................................... 13Table 2.5 Annual Parental Expenditure on Public Education, Lahore .............. ........... 17Table 3.1 Different Forms of Participation According to Community Characteristics 30Table 4.1 The Effects of Teacher Attendance of Students' Achievement, Lahore . 34

Box 1 Ethnographic Interviews in Rural Government Schools in Four Provinces 6Box 2 Lahore Study .6Box 3 North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) Study .7Box 4 Balochistan Studies .7Box 5 14 Steps to Establishing a Village Education Committee and a School .8

ANNEXES

Annex 1.1 The Community Support Program in Rural Balochistan .48Annex 1.2 The Urban Girls' Fellowship Program in Quetta .48Annex 2 Regression Analyses .49Annex 2.1 NWFP .49Annex 2.2 Lahore .52Annex 2.3 Quetta .53

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Involve Parents, Teachers, the Private Sector, and NGOs to Enhance Implementation Capacity

1. The Federal and Provincial Governments of Pakistan all subscribe to the objective ofproviding universal primary education. They accept the responsibility of financing primaryeducation due to its high social returns. Yet the governments face budget constraints even forthe highest priority requirements such as primary education. The issue, therefore, is how toachieve and sustain cost-effective, high-quality, universal primary education within the nextdecade. The most important requirement is to provide education of high enough quality thatparents believe it is worthwhile to send children to school. The public sector must help deliversuch education but lacks the implementation capacity to do the job alone. The solution is toform partnerships between government, parents, teachers, the private sector, and NGOs. Suchpartnerships can expand service delivery capacity and ensure quality, each partner contributingaccording to its comparative advantage.

Demandfor Education Depends on Quality

2. Pakistan's enrollment rates remain relatively low compared to countries of similar levelsof development in other respects. But the analysis done for this report shows that parents exhibitstrong demand for basic education for their children--stronger for boys but still considerable forgirls. The critical point is that parents must feel that the education offered is of sufficientquality. Even "free" schooling carries substantial costs in auxiliary fees or lost chore time forchildren, so parents' willingness to send children to school depends considerably on theirassessment of the quality of education being offered, especially in the case of girls.

Community Participation Improves Quality

3. Experiments in community participation in rural and urban areas across Pakistan indicatethat participation improves the quality of education because parents contribute more and becauseteachers become accountable to parents for observable results. When parents trust local teachersin local schools, the report shows that they are more willing to contribute money, buildings, time,and effort to the school. Enrollment and achievement test results are higher when parentsappoint and monitor teachers, form committees to ensure the smooth running of schools, come toawards ceremonies, and assume other responsibilities. But in many other places, parents andteachers have felt they have had little power to improve the poor quality of the system, andparents' response has been to withdraw their children from school.

The Government Must FulflU its Part of the Bargain

4. The Government has a key role to play, not just in involving communities, but infulfilling its part of the bargain that such involvement implies. Teachers need to know what theyare teaching and to attend school regularly, and other inputs such as books and learning materialsshould be available. Governments also need to improve the efficiency of the entire educationalsystem.

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Pakistan, Education Executive Summary

The Report Draws Inferencesfrom Successes

5. This report draws its conclusions from a variety of educational successes in Pakistan. Inparticular, it draws on five studies of the determinants of successful schools, covering all fourprovinces of Pakistan, and both urban and rural environments.

* An analysis of the supply of and demand for public and private educational servicesacross 1,000 households and 273 schools in 50 low- and middle-income areas ofLahore.

* An evaluation of the urban girls' fellowship program in Quetta, Balochistan,canvassing all 4,777 participating families.

* An evaluation of attendance among 650 teachers and 1,505 students in a randomsample of 257 government and private schools, and of the relationship betweendemand for education and the type of schooling available in the North West FrontierProvince (NWFP).

* An ethnographic analysis of the factors giving rise to school success, comparing foursuccessful and four unsuccessful schools within each province.

- An evaluation of the Community Support Program in rural Balochistan, using asample of 50 CSP schools and 50 government schools as the control sample.

Strong Demandfor Private Education in Urban Areas

6. In the Lahore urban areas studied, over 90 percent of children -- and over 75 percent ofthe poorest -- attend school. Despite the greater cost to parents, most children are educated in theprivate sector. More than three-quarters of children from middle-income families go to privateschool, but about half of the poorest children do as well. Moreover, parents' decisions to useprivate schools are not driven by the absence of govemment schools in their area, but rather bythe greater value that they see in private schooling.

The PrivateiNGO Sector Can Deliver Quality Education

7. Many private schools run on shoe-string budgets but still outperform govemmentschools. Largely because of lower teacher salaries, overall per-student expenditures in privateschools in Lahore are approximately two thirds those in government schools. But students fromprivate schools charging monthly fees of only Rs. 50 or less outperformed students fromgovernment schools in achievement tests. Even when controlling for differences in socio-economic background and other characteristics, students in private schools perform better thanthose in govemment schools. Some of the reasons why students in private schools do better areclear. For instance, compared with government schools, attendance among private-schoolteachers is more regular and they appear to be more motivated. Based on quantitative evidencefrom NWFP, higher attendance among teachers improves performance among students. Thus,many parents feel private schools give better education and are worth the greater cost. But part ofthe performance advantage observed in private school students might be because parents whocare more about education may tend to send their children to private schools in the belief thatprivate education is superior. These parents may spend more time helping their children leamand devote more effort supporting the schools. The evaluation of the urban fellowship pilotprogram under implementation in Quetta should help distinguish these causes. In the meantime,

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the large proportion of low-income urban parents who opt for private schools suggests that itcannot simply be a small number of "parents who care" who account for the measured betterperformance of private school students.

The PrivateINGO Sector Is Thus an Important Delivery Mechanism

8. Governments accept the responsibility of financing primary education due to the socialreturns, particularly for girls. But the governments need not be the providers of all the servicesthey finance. To attain their stated goal of universal, high-quality, primary education quicklyand at the least cost, the Pakistan authorities should consider using the private and NGO sectorsto deliver more primary education, particularly in urban areas. In Lahore and parts of Karachi,the private and NGO sectors are already well developed. In Quetta, where the private/NGOsector is less developed, it has nevertheless proved a willing partner in programs to bring privateschools to poor areas. Although nongovemment education may not be a realistic option in somerural areas, government should do much more to help finance community and NGO schoolswhere possible, with subsidies or vouchers to parents. In some rural areas, local communityorganizations have worked successfully with NGOs to establish and run schools. Experiencewith subsidies in Sindh and Balochistan suggests that they are best directed at the communityrther than the student level.

Recommendationsfor the PrivateiNGO Sector

9. This report therefore recommends that the governments attempt to:

* Establish pilot programs to help finance expansion and quality improvement inexisting private and NGO schools that provide education to low-income urban andsemi-urban areas, targeted geographically and distributed directly to communities.

* Establish pilot programs to assist private and NGO suppliers to set up new schools inurban slums, distributing financial aid directly to the communities.

* Encourage the establishment of community- or NGO-managed schools in villages,especially where the Government is unable to recruit suitable women teachers, asparents involved in community schools may be more willing to allow men to teachgirls.

* Give priority to recurrent expenditures in existing Provincial Education Foundationloan-cum-grant schemes, and finance buildings only for established "shelterless"schools or for schools using rented space after sustained enrollment is shown.

* Simplify the educational codes regulating nongovemment schools to remove thecurrent administrative barriers to private/NGO operators in education.

* Clarify the legal status of nongovemment schools to minimize the scope for rent-seeking based on classification as profit making or non-profit making.

This process must be pursued with caution, however, as there is still uncertainty about the roleof the nongovernment sector in basic education provision and about the scope and mechanism ofgovernment financial assistance or subsidies to private/NGO operators in education.

Strong Demand Is Also Illustrated by Parents' Participation in Government Schools

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10. In successful schools (defined by enrollment growth) in rural Punjab and Sindh, parentsoften give money to the school for specific needs and participate in a variety of other ways.Moreover, the response of parents to innovative programs to establish new schools in both urbanand rural areas has been extremely positive. In rural areas of Balochistan lacking girls' schools,parents have formed village education committees (with NGO assistance) and donated money,buildings, and time to establish and supervise schools for girls. The teachers (women from thecommunity) are then funded by government. These schools have succeeded in increasing girls'enrollments and have run more efficiently than the regular government schools.

Participation Improves Results

1l. Contact and cooperation between teachers and parents yield tangible benefits. Parentalinvolvement, head teacher and teacher contact with parents, and teacher morale are keydeterminants of success in schools in comparisons throughout all four provinces. In communityschools in Balochistan, teacher attendance and teacher accountability to parents are better thanin regular schools, with a corresponding positive effect on student attendance and achievement.

Participation Matters Especiallyfor Female Attendance

12. The boy:girl enrollment ratio in Pakistan is 1.5 to 1, but within the lowest incomequartile it is 1.9 to 1, and within the lowest quartile in Balochistan it is 6.3 to 1. As income falls,parents' willingness to educate daughters falls faster than their willingness to educate sons. Poorparents rely more on girls for help at home, so that schooling carries a cost in lost chore time.Additionally, parents are more concerned about daughters' safety and adherence to traditions ofseclusion and therefore pay more attention to the conditions under which their daughters areeducated--the gender of the teacher, the distance to the school, and the sanitation, security andseclusion of the school buildings. Consequently, demand for girls' education is relatively morefragile than demand for boys' education. The participation of parents in the education of theirdaughters is thus particularly essential to ensure that they believe in its quality and acceptability.

The Social Returns to Femak Education are Highest

13. Although girls' attendance is fragile, worldwide research shows clearly that the socialreturns to female basic education are very high. Education for girls or boys boosts productivityand earning capability. But education of girls has much greater impact on the health and well-being of their future families and on population growth. Educated women tend to have smaller,healthier, and better educated families. Further, because the levels of female education inPakistan are so low, the returns to basic female education ought to be very high: femaleeducation may well have the highest returns of any investment available to Pakistan.

Participation Should Be Defined According to Context

14. The type of participation that makes the most sense will vary with the environment inwhich the school operates. The most obvious is the difference between rural and urban contexts.Village communities are more clearly defined and tight-knit than urban neighborhoods, andvillage schools are smaller. As a result, village parent organizations can assume a greater role inrunning a school. Budgeting for building maintenance, monitoring teacher attendance, buying

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materials, and promoting the school in the community are activities that parents have undertakenin the rural communities studied for this report. In the city, by contrast, communities tend to bemore loosely structured and schools are usually larger. In these circumstances, parents may havemore of a monitoring role as they interact with teachers, head teachers and school administratorsto raise accountability and performance.

Recommendations for Community Participation

15. This report recommends that parent committees be phased in for all government schools,and that school-based management gradually be adopted. For new schools, the creation of aparent committee should precede the creation of the school. Even where government initiativeshave already created parent committees, it is essential to ensure that these committees have thefull backing and involvement of parents. For all schools, the Government should:

* Define the minimum criteria to be met by parent committees and outline thefunctions of the committees.

* Initiate publicity campaigns in each province to make communities aware of theimportance and responsibilities of the committees.

* Train head teachers and administrators to promote and help establish parentcommittees

* Employ NGOs to provide technical assistance in forming committees.* Gradually delegate managerial and financial functions to the committees, under

general guidance from the Government.

Worldwide research shows, however, that such decentralized school-based management is bestcarried out under broad guidance from government on issues relating to curriculum andstandards.

The Role and Responsibility of the Government

16. Community participation alone is not sufficient to resolve the quality problem besettinggovernment schools in Pakistan. The curriculum needs updating and better books and teachingmaterials should be made available with wider choice. Teacher absenteeism is endemic, and ruralteachers frequently transfer to urban schools, often leaving the rural schools without vacanciessince their "post" travels with them to the new school. Rote learning is still the main teachingmethod, many teachers lack content knowledge of their subjects, and 62,000 teachers lack basicpedagogical training. Many schools are without boundary walls, roofs, running water, or usablelatrines. Yet steps can be taken to use resources more efficiently or to make low-cost changesthat would improve the quality of education in affordable ways.

Efficiency Must Be Improved

17. Waste is prevalent throughout the educational system, and the supply of teachers is notdistributed efficiently according to need. Ten to 20 percent of schools in Pakistan are empty ornearly so, but schools that have successfully increased their enrollments find it difficult to recruitnew teachers, overcrowding the school. Structural changes are needed:

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* Schools with fewer than 15 students should work with a parent committee to developan action plan to increase enrollment, or be run by the community, relocated, orclosed.

* Clusters of underenrolled schools should be consolidated.* The number of teaching positions in a school should be linked to enrollment.

Absenteeism Among Teachers Must Be Addressed

18. A government school teacher may take nearly 20 percent of the year off as legalabsences in Pakistan. While parental monitoring may help, governments ought to phase in andtest other measures that strengthen incentives for teachers to attend. School teachers' "grade-enhancement" should be linked to their attendance and performance:

* Discussions between the Government and the teaching profession should addressabsenteeism among teachers and the amount of legal absences allowed.

* The district office should be given the power to penalize teachers for unauthorizedleave, based on clear criteria.

* Parent committees should monitor attendance. As a pilot, parent committees shouldhave budgets for attendance bonuses for teachers.

* Grade-enhancement among teachers should consider their attendance record.* The school year should be lengthened to about 200 days.

Teacher Morale, Recruitment, and Training are Crucial

19. When teachers do attend, research indicates that their morale and competence areimportant for students' performance, and the role of the head teacher is critical for morale.Changes of head teacher have turned bad schools into good ones and good schools into bad. Thetraining of head teachers is thus vital, as is teacher training in general, which the existing systemhas not provided. This report therefore recommends that:

* Discussions of recruitment and training be initiated between the Government andteaching profession representatives.

* Teachers should take a knowledge test prior to their admission for preservicetraining.

* Existing teachers be recertified, by passing a grade-five test.* The Government consider modifying preservice and in-service teacher training

curricula to make teaching more child-centered and activity-based, and developingtechniques for multigrade teaching and adapting local materials.

* School-based in-service training be considered.* Teachers not be transferred against the wishes of both community and teacher.* Grade-enhancement by years of service be abolished, to be replaced with a merit-

based system including community input.* The position of head teacher be created in all primary schools and training be given

to head teachers. Training courses for head teachers need to be developed.* Cooperation be encouraged between teachers (particularly head teachers) and

parents.

Better Physical Inputs are Important

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20. Physical inputs are important not only in themselves, but also because they help elicitparents' involvement with the school. According to interviews, parents' perceptions of a goodschool include that it have a boundary wall and running water, as well as such non-physicalaspects as pupil conduct. Books are obviously essential but they are often scarce or ofquestionable quality. The report therefore recommends that:

* The supply of water pumps, suitably designed latrines, and boundary walls be madea priority for all girls' schools, and be phased in for all boys' schools.

* Parent committees be given funds for minor repairs and maintenance.* Basic supplies be available before the beginning of the school year.* More sophisticated materials, like multigrade teaching kits, be supplied in

conjunction with in-service training programs.

The Empowerment of Parents Can Break the Cycle of Poor Performance and Low Enrollment

21. As many functions as possible should be delegated to the level of the school and theparents, empowering parents and teachers to control outcomes in their schools. Evidenceworldwide suggests that such decentralized management works best, however, when parents andteachers (especially head teachers) cooperate closely and when the Government provides overallbut flexible guidance on basic points such as general curriculum or standards. In the past, basiceducation in Pakistan has been caught in a vicious cycle of low quality and low parental demand.The recommendations in this report can supplant this vicious circle with improved quality ofschooling, higher enrollment, enhanced government implementation, and greater financialcapacity.

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Pakistan, Education

1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

PAST POLICY: SUPPLY-FOCUSED WITH LIMITED SUCCESS

1. Since 1955, The Government of Pakistan has recognized its responsibility to provideuniversal basic education to children. Basic education gives very high social returns: betterpublic health, lower fertility, and higher productivity of the population. The effects of basiceducation on public health and fertility are particularly strong for girls. Because femaleeducation is starting from a much worse state than male education in Pakistan, the social returnsto improvements in female education ought to be particularly high.

2. Given the results of previous research, which has indicated that educational enrollmentand achievement in Pakistan were still at alarmingly low levels, the governments and donorshave increased their commitment to primary education dramatically over the last decade.Resources for primary education in the development budget have doubled, and these increases indevelopment spending (strongly encouraged by donor funds) have led government to triplerecurrent spending in real terms in 10 years. This growth has far outpaced total public recurrentspending (although much of it has been diverted from higher levels of education). Enrollmentshave risen somewhat: Pakistan has seen 4.9 percent annualized growth in gross enrollment ratesbetween 1988 and 1993 (6.1 percent among girls and 4.3 percent among boys). But enrollmentsstill fall well below those in neighboring countries, and the quality of education has emerged as amajor problem. Many parents feel the effort of educating children is not worthwhile becausequality is so poor. If quality could be improved, more children would attend school, theirachievement would improve, and the system would function better and give a greater return oninvestment.

3. Most governments' and donor funding for primary education has sought to correctprevious imbalances, and allocations to primary education now constitute more than 50 percentof the total budget for education. This proportion is comparable to what the average country inAsia allocates to primary education, but in Pakistan the gap between allocations and actualspending remains unacceptably large. Between 1955 and the late 1970s, less than 50 percent ofthe development budget for primary education was actually used; since then, the utilization ratehas increased to about 80 percent of annual development plan allocations.

4. The governments, backed by donor funds, have generally sought to increase inputs thatare in short supply (such as teacher training and textbook development). The governments havealso, to some extent, tried to enhance educational incentives for girls (by providing scholarshipprograms, free textbooks, and hostels for female teachers, for example). Large donors such asthe World Bank, USAID, and the Asia Development Bank have also supported the constructionof school buildings. A recent examination of the expenditure program found that, althoughgovernment projects have increased the resources devoted to educational inputs, the compositionof government's own expenditure program in education has not changed much in the past fourdecades. The governments continue to allocate a large proportion of the education funds toconstruction (under the development budget) and employment (under the recurrent budget).Expenditures have often been inefficient and supply-driven; educational outcomes andperceptions of beneficiaries about the services provided have received little attention.

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Pakistan, Education

Figure 1.1 Spending on Primary Education in Pakistan 1987-93 (1993 million Rs.)Recurrent Development

12000 3500

0000K 3000

8000 25002000

6000 0 donor4000 ~~~~~~~~~~~1500 * govt.4010 1000 .

2000 500

0 087 88 89 90 91 92 93 87 88 89 90 91 92 93

Development: government Development: donor

2000 3500 l3000

1500 . < / 2500 I. ./ ~~~~~~2000

1000. - budget - budgetWactual 1500 . 7actuial

500 __________________ ~~1000500

0 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 87 88 89 90 91 92 93

5. Although universal education has been national policy since the 1950s, government

effort has not raised enrollment rates beyond the 60% level, partly because of a 3.1 percent

annual population growth rate. Furthermore, the gender gap, though improving, still persists

(table 1.1). Education for girls is far behind education for boys in Pakistan, and the gap in

Pakistan is large when compared with the gaps in neighboring countries in South Asia.

Table 1.1 The Gender Gap in Pakistan and Comparable Countries

GNP per capita, Primary gross Primary gross Ratio of enrollment1990 enrollment, boys enrollment, girls rates, girl/boy

Pakistan 380 54 30 56%India 350 112 84 75%Bangladesh 200 83 71 86%Sri Lanka 470 109 105 96%

Source: UNESCO World Education Report (1993).

6. This report focuses on identifying a cost-effective strategy for the governments to

achieve and sustain their goal of universal, high-quality, basic education within the next decade,

given that the governments alone lack adequate implementation capacity and face financial

constraints. To bring more children into school and ensure that they learn, the governments need

to improve the quality of education. Pakistan's poor educational performance may be thought of

as having two broad causes: weak demand for education, and inefficient, low-quality supply. But

these two causes interact, since inefficiency creates higher-cost, lower-quality education, which

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Pakistan, Education

parents value less for their children. It is critical to understand how improvements in the supplyof education can build demand for education in Pakistan.

DEMAND FOR WHAT?

7. The disappointing results of many projects that have focused primarily on supplyingeducation inputs suggests that demand factors may also be holding down enrollment, particularlyfor girls. Various explanations for low enrollment rates among girls have been offered. If girlsmarry at an early age, for example, then parents may perceive few private returns from havingdaughters educated. Similarly, the value of home production may be greater for girls than forboys, increasing the real cost of educating daughters. But while these explanations probablyhold some truth in Pakistan, they do not entirely explain why the country exhibits a larger gendergap than other countries of similar wealth and culture. The question therefore arises: to whatextent are parents willing to educate their sons and daughters in Pakistan?

8. The answer seems to be: More than was previously supposed. Female education inBalochistan is a good benchmark because Balochistan exhibits the worst educational indicatorsof all four provinces (it has an 18 percent primary enrollment ratio among girls, up from 14percent in 1990), as well as the largest disparity between the genders. For example, the overallliteracy rate is about 10 percent, and the female literacy rate in rural areas is two percent. In thepast, schools in this province were segregated by gender; in 1990 there were 11 times as manyboys' schools as girls' schools. Yet 28,000 girls (21 percent of all girls enrolled) were attendingthese boys' schools. When the Community Support Program began to establish new girls'schools with greater parental control in 1993, parents contributed heavily to the schools andwillingly sent their girls as well as their boys despite many cultural restrictions on girls'education in the region. By November 1994, about 10,000 girls were attending 198 schoolsunder the program. In CSP areas, 87 percent of the girls now attend school, compared with theprovincial average of 18 percent.

9. Given this evidence that parents hold positive attitudes towards the education of theirchildren, and other evidence that they sometimes pay surprisingly large sums for this education,why are enrollment rates so low and achievement so poor? Clues to the answer lie in thesuccesses that have been achieved thus far. This report will document that when parentsperceive that schools are performing their job well, then demand materializes. And when parentsare given an opportunity to contribute to improve the quality of education, they are willing to doso. But if education means poor-quality education, as is too often the case in Pakistan, and ifparents' input into the educational process is not sought, then they may turn their backs on thesystem and withdraw their children--particularly their girls. Much of the demand for educationin Pakistan is in this sense "latent"; it will only manifest itself when the educational systemfulfills their expectations of it.

10. Previous sector work and academic research has emphasized the supply side ofeducation: education is a "production function" which takes teachers, training, books, and so onas its inputs to produce educated students as its output. While this view has been helpful to apoint, it has encouraged government to feel that it faces a tradeoff between "quantity" and"quality": whether to educate fewer children using more resources per child, or more childrenusing less per child. The main conclusion from the work in Pakistan is that this view ismisleading. Increasing the quality of education can increase demand. Put another way, by

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Pakistan, Education

changing the way resources are used and encouraging parental input, it may be possible toimprove quality and so attract many more students at roughly the same total cost. The cost-effectiveness of expenditures on education could thus be improved. Government policy aimedsolely at increasing the supply of inputs will not succeed in Pakistan without addressing demandfactors--parental perceptions--at the same time.

INEFFICIENT AND INADEQUATE SUPPLY

II. Cost-effectiveness can further be improved since the current system clearly spends itsresources inefficiently. Between 10 and 20 percent of schools in Pakistan have few or nostudents. Low attendance rates among both teachers and students, high repetition rates, and theinefficient use of inputs (such as teaching kits being locked away unused) have translated intolow achievement levels of those enrolled. It is not surprising that parental demand for sucheducation is limited.

12. Teacher absenteeism is widespread. The absence of a teacher in class not only hindersthe academic performance of his or her own class, it creates a burden on other classes as otherteachers absorb the responsibilities of the missing teacher. In govemment and mosque schools inNWFP, spot checks revealed teacher absenteeism of 16 percent, and 93 percent of parents reportthat a teacher's absence hindered their child's education.

13. Many teachers also lack the necessary skills. Even when teachers attend, learning ishindered by poor content knowledge and weak teacher training. One study in NWFP found thatonly six of 10 teachers could pass a fifth-grade mathematics exam (compared to the four in 10pass rate among their students). The distribution of improved classroom materials failed toincrease achievement levels among students because the teachers failed to use the materials. Ifthe supply of educational services to children in Pakistan is to improve, teachers will have to beactive participants in the learning process. An increased number of teachers will not increasethe supply of educational services if the new teachers are ignorant, poorly trained, or absent.

14. Most schools lack basic materials and equipment. Even when teachers are trained andattend regularly, many schools are also hampered by a severe shortage of books and otherteaching materials and by the lack of such basics as a nearby water supply or a lavatory in ausable condition.

15. Appropriate schools with female teachers for girls are particularly scarce. Past researchhas identified the lack of schools as one of the main causes of low enrollment among girls inrural Pakistan. But although the availability of a school in a village clearly influences a family'sdecision about educating daughters, the story is more complex. Parents strongly prefer their girlsto be educated by a female teacher, for example, though an elderly male teacher from the localcommunity may also be acceptable for young girls. In addition, the school will need at leastrudimentary sanitation, especially for older girls, and adequate privacy. To sum up, the questionis whether an appropriate school is available--supply must be defined as the supply ofeducational services acceptable to parents.

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16. If resources are organized to provide schools with trained teachers who attend regularly,if enough teachers are women, if the teachers have the wherewithal to teach, and if schoolsreflect cultural norms, then the effective supply of education can be increased at minimal cost.

STUDYING THE SUCCESSES

17. This report addresses the interlinked supply and demand factors discussed in theprevious sections, and seeks to draw generic conclusions about some common features ofsuccessful education initiatives in Pakistan. The report draws on findings from three quantitativeand two qualitative studies, that collectively involved more than 130 communities, 550 schools,700 teachers, and 6,000 households (see boxes 1-5). But while we highlight the commonfeatures, we also pay careful attention to the differences in the programs. A universal model ofeducation is unsuitable for all environments in Pakistan: variation is required across all fourprovinces, urban and rural areas, and communities that may be more or less developed.

18. Despite Pakistan's disappointing performance in education as a whole, there have beensuccesses. The earliest successful model was the "home school" implemented in Lahore andKarachi in the 1980s. In communities where many girls were not attending school, an NGOselected a local woman to work as a teacher, with the task of recruiting students andsubsequently giving classes for very low fees in an available room in the community. Theprogram is low cost and has enabled the community to become involved in the practical detailsof schooling. This apparent success of community-based educational development prompted theintroduction of the Community Support Program (CSP) model in Balochistan (see chapter 3below, and annex 1). The CSP has succeeded in establishing girls' schools in rural areas wherenone had existed previously, by working closely with parents and hiring women from thecommunity as teachers.

19. Other programs have established new private schools for girls in previously unservedareas. In Quetta, a girls' fellowship program has sought to induce the private sector to supplyschools to very poor urban areas by funneling student scholarships to prospective schoolsthrough the community (see annex 1). The program has been able to establish new schools andmet the target enrollments. Some rural areas of Balochistan in which the CSP model has beenunworkable, because they lack educated females who are willing to teach, have adopted amodified version of the fellowship program in which they establish the schools themselves. Theresults of the CSP and the Quetta fellowship are discussed in box 4.

20. This report also draws on three studies of existing schools that sought to identify factorsthat promote success or lead to failure. One is an ethnographic study that compares foursuccessful rural government schools with four less successful "control" schools in each province(see box 1). Another study examined quantitative evidence on families' schooling choices inpoor neighborhoods of Lahore, relating their choices to cost and quality in both public andprivate schools (see box 2). The third is a quantitative study of the causes and effects of teacherand student absenteeism in NWFP, and parents' demand for education (see box 3).

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Box 1. Ethnographic Interviews in Rural Government Schools in Four Provinces

This qualitative study of successful changes in rural primary schools was conducted in 32 communities inPakistan's four major provinces: NWFP, Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan.

In carefully chosen samples of eight government primary schools per province (four boys' and fourgirls' schools), local teams of male and female researchers studied "what works and why" in both theschool and community. Four schools in each province were identified as successful and four as lesssuccessful (control schools).

A basic criterion for the selection of a successful school was improvement in the past 10 years.Referral by experts and others at the district/subdistrict level was also crucial. Where available,quantitative data at the provincial, district, or subdistrict level was also utilized (on such indicators asindividual school enrollment, retention, recidivism, attendance, and achievement); in addition, suchinformation was obtained in detail later from the schools. These data form part of the comparisons nowbeing undertaken between the successful and control schools.

The primary focus of this study is on stakeholders' perceptions of strategies that have led to successfulinstitutional changes. We consider changes in school and classroom climate, teacher motivation,commitment, and ownership, and parent and community participation. The field methodology includedparticipant observation, repeat visits to the schools, and interviews with head teachers, teachers,community leaders, parents, and children. District education officials and learning coordinators were alsointerviewed about the change process in the sample schools.

Based on this comparative focus, reports are now being prepared at the provincial and national levelon potential "Roads to Success" for primary education in Pakistan.

Box 2. Lahore Study

A random sample of 1,000 low- and middle-income families from 50 neighborhoods in the municipal areaof Lahore were interviewed. Each of the families had at least one child aged between six and 10 in school.Data were collected on family income, reasons for the choice of school, reasons for satisfaction ordissatisfaction with the school, and expenditures on education. The 273 schools attended by children in thesample were also visited to collect data on the number, qualifications, and attendance of teachers, as well ason expenditures by the school, levels of equipment and other inputs, and so on.

Finally two tests--in mathematics and Urdu--were administered to a class of third-grade students ineach school. Schools were classified according to the percentage of students who gained 50, 75, and 90percent in the tests.

The main contribution of this study was to analyze the "mappings" between parents' attributes (such aseducation and income), their choice of school (private versus public and the level of fees), and studentoutcomes, measured here as achievement on the two tests. In particular, the measurement of studentoutcomes adds data in an area that is relatively undocumented.

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Box 3. North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) Study

A representative sample of 257 government and private primary schools in NWFP was selected for twostudies. The first study concentrated on parents' and teachers' attitudes towards school facilities andeducational materials. Information on each school was collected from the teachers or staff. Informationfrom the parents was collected during 34 group meetings. The main objective was to determine interest inand willingness to pay for improved textbooks.

The second study selected up to three teachers and up to six students from each of these 257 schools.The aim was to determine the causes and consequences of absenteeism among teachers and students.Given sharp reductions in enrollments in the first few grades of primary school, one teacher and twostudents were selected from each of the first three grades--kachi (kindergarten), pakki (grade one), andgrade two. The resulting samples included 650 teachers and 1,505 students. The teacher survey elicitedinformation on teachers' socioeconomic status, education, teaching experience, jobs outside teaching, andattitudes towards parents, students, and other teachers. An adult in each child's household providedinformation on the socioeconomic and health status of the child and siblings. The teacher and householdinformation was then merged with teacher and student attendance information obtained from random spot-checks of the school by learning coordinators. In addition, children were given achievement tests toevaluate the effect of attendance on learning.

Box 4. Balochistan Studies

(i Evaluation Survey of the Community Support ProgramThe community support program has formed education committees from parents of school-age girls andfounded community schools in villages of rural Balochistan (see annex I for a more complete description).An evaluation of the CSP program was conducted three years after its pilot phase had begun. Theethnographic part of this evaluation consisted of 144 interviews in the original CSP villages in southernBalochistan. This involved seven villages, five with CSP schools and two with regular government schools(the control group). A research team conducted interviews with 41 households, 12 teachers, 18 students inclass, eight village education committees, two senior district education officers, and held 63 "street corner"gatherings. In addition, the team conducted achievement tests in 11 schools (both CSP and non-CSP).

(ii) Evaluation of the Quetta Urban Girls' FellowshipData for 4777 families in 10 poor neighborhoods of Quetta were collected before and after the instigationof the urban girls' fellowship program. Baseline data describe family background, schooling decisions,educational aims, attitudes to education, and tuition fees paid by parents, as well as child characteristics.These data have been updated, since the introduction of the scheme, to record which children of theoriginal sample are attending the new schools. The relative importance of different influences on femaleenrollment and choice of school can thus be evaluated. The family profiles of girls who have taken up thefellowship allocations have also been compared with those not attending the new schools, in an attempt tounderstand the impact that the new schools are having on the schooling decisions of the communities.

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Box 5. 14 Steps to Establishing a Village Education Committee and a School

1. The NGO works with community members to identify a female middle or secondary-school graduatefrom the village (or walking distance from the village).2. The NGO verifies her residence in the village.3. The NGO verifies her school certificates through the district education office.4. The NGO tests the candidate's proficiency in Urdu and mathematics.5. The NGO and candidate conduct a household survey of the village:

-Counting the number of households- Counting the number of families-Counting the number of school age girls-Discussing with each family the importance of education for girls

6. The NGO and community members form a village education committee (VEC) with five to sevenmembers:

- 75 percent of parents must elect members-No two members of the same family can be VEC members- Relatives of the teacher cannot be VEC members- VEC members must have at least one school-age girl.

7. The VEC provides a temporary building and starts the school on a probationary basis. The NGO trainsthe VEC in its roles and responsibilities.8. The VEC requests certification of the school from the district education officer.9. The VEC and the Government sign a contract specifying each party's responsibilities in establishingand monitoring the school.10. The VEC decides on a suitable location for a permanent school and arranges to transfer ownership ofthe land (free of charge) to the Department of Education.11. The VEC nominates the teacher for participation in a mobile female teacher training course.12. Upon successful completion of the three-month probationary period, the teacher is given a regularappointment by the Government and supplies are sent to the school.13. The VEC and the Government monitor the school on at least a monthly basis.14. The VEC holds an annual community meeting to discuss the progress of the school and emergingissues.

21. In examining these studies this report presents both quantitative and qualitative evidenceof the determinants of success and failure. How does absenteeism among teachers affectachievement and attendance among students? What form does community participation take insuccessful versus unsuccessful schools? Which families use the private sector to educate theirchildren, and why? How does the private/NGO sector perform in comparison with the publicsector? How much do parents contribute to private and government schools? How are per-student costs related to achievement levels? What motivates teachers to innovate in theclassroom? Which levels of management are most helpful at driving a school to succeed? Thesequestions must be answered before education policy can work.

22. While we cannot use the case studies to infer all the reasons behind the performance ofindividual schools, they do provide strong evidence for encouraging wider communityparticipation in schooling. They also show clearly that such participation is likely to improve theaccountability, and thereby the performance, of the system. In any solutions to Pakistan'seducational problems, stakeholders in the system must be participants in it. Government mustform partnerships with teachers, parents, and the community. And change must be at the level ofthe school so as to take account of the information and details necessary for the partnership towork.

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23. The next three sections summarize the findings from the studies cited above, as well asother recent research and practical experience in Pakistani primary education, according to threethemes. First, parental demand for their children's education is found to be strong, provided thatthe education satisfies parental perceptions of quality. Second, community participation inschools is an effective way of assuring quality, and at the same time helps to galvanize demandby convincing parents of the value of the educational process in which they are involved.Intervention must be at the school level to achieve this--higher-level intervention cannot takeinto account the details, specific to each community or school, necessary to elicit parentalparticipation. Th7irce, further changes in the educational system of Pakistan are necessary toassure high-quality outcomes: these include changes in management, teachers' incentives,training, and the supply of materials. Community participation is a useful enabling mechanism,but it will not solve all the problems alone.

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2. PARENTAL DEMAND FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION IS STRONG

24. Poor parents in Pakistan are willing to sacrifice a great deal to educate their children ifthey believe the education will be of sufficient quality to justify the cost and effort. Evidence forthis assertion comes from a variety of sources. One is the strong private sector that exists incities in all four provinces. But parents also sacrifice significantly to send their children even togovernment schools: uniforms and books add to the costs of the earnings forgone when the childis not available for local labor markets. And although parents perceive that the education of girlsplays a different role from that of the education of boys, evidence suggests that where goodschools exist and meet cultural requirements for girls, the demand for girls' education does notsignificantly trail the demand for boys' education.

THE URBAN PRivATE/NGO SECTOR

25. Each province has an extensive urban private/NGO sector. Throughout all of Pakistan,an estimated 5,000 or more private/NGO schools enroll about 1.3 million students, or roughly 10percent of the total. Almost 86 percent of those schools are located in urban centers, andindividual entrepreneurs own a large majority of them. Approximately 70 percent operate inrented facilities. Of primary-only schools, the majority are also owned by individuals andestablished in rented buildings. Private schools generally cost parents more than governmentschools. Can the widespread use of private schools be taken as evidence that parents are willingto pay more for education that they perceive to be of higher quality?

26. In Lahore, approximately two-thirds of the families surveyed educate their children inprivate schools. The higher the family's income, the more likely the children were to attendprivate school. But even among the poorest families, those earning less than US$1 10 a month,more than half choose a private education for their children (table 2.1). In Orangi, a suburb ofKarachi of about a million inhabitants, private education system also dominates; as of 1990, 79percent of primary schools in Orangi were private, and they were educating 60 percent of allenrolled primary school students.

Table 2.1 Households using Private Education, LahoreMonthly income (Rs.) <3,500 3,500-5,000 5,000-7,000 >7,000 TotalTotalno.households 539 218 114 129 1000No. in private education 321 160 87 106 674Percent in private 59 73 76 82 67education

27. In Quetta the educational system has a less extensive private sector, although more of thesamnple is concentrated in the poorest areas than is the case in Lahore. Within these areas, 32percent of primary school students are educated in the private sector.

Performance

28. How does the private sector perform in comparison with the public sector? According tostudent achievement tests administered as part of the studies in Punjab (Lahore) and NWFP, the

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answer is unambiguous: much better. In Lahore, even students in the cheapest private schoolsoutperformed those in government schools on tests in Urdu and in mathematics (table 2.2). As agroup, the private schools were clearly superior.

Table 2.2 Private and Public Sector Performance, LahoreProportion of Schools All Private schools Government

private charging less schoolsschools than Rs. 50

>75% pupils passed both tests 75% 64% 5 3>90% pupils passed both tests 50%1 36°o 320/0

29. One possible explanation for different test results among private and government schoolstudents is that students theimselves differ. rather than the educationl they are receiving. Forexample, private school students may come from families who care more about education--carethat may be manifested in greater encouragement in schoolwork, home tuition, a better supply ofreading materials in the home. and so on. We tested this explanationi with the data from Punjab.Although parents' characteristics--especially the mother's level of education--do go some waytowards explaining differences in the test performance of the students, they do not explain all thedifference between the two groups. Controllinig for the relationship between the familycharacteristics of students and their examniationi performance. private school students still scoredapproximately 10 percent more than government school students on average. Of course, wecannot control perfectly for the possibility that parents who "care more" send their children toprivate schools. But with 60 percent of poor children in Lahore going to private school, it cannotbe just a minority of parents who "care more" who choose private schools. The schoolsthemselves seem to perform better.

30. In fact, comparative school performances by sector also reflect different factors withinthe school. For instance, performance differs with the size of classes and the qualifications of

Figure 2.1 Performance difference by class size and teacher qualifications(percentage of students attaining 75 percent)

so0" 90

s0

60 00X 70 60 I *~~~~~~~Nprivate

40 I | | Epublic 50

20 .40

>30 20-30 <20 Mat. Int. PTC BA

class size teacher qualification

Mat. = matriculation passInt. = intermediate passPTC = prinar) tcaching certillcatcBA = Bachelor's degree

teachers (figure 2.1). The difference between the performance of public and private schools isnarrowest for class sizes of between 20 and 30, and the performance of private schools improvesslightly with smaller class sizes. The performance of government schools is poor for both large

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and small class sizes: large classes are often very overcrowded, and small class sizes may beindicative of pupils' abandoning poor schools. Even when the two sectors are comparedcontrolling for class size in this way, however, the performance difference persists.

31. The difference between public and private-sector education in Lahore would seempuzzling at first glance, since the public sector employs more qualified and more experiencedteachers, But government schools in Lahore show no apparent correlation between thequalifications of a teacher and the achievement of the teacher's pupils. By contrast, withinprivate schools, where most teachers have only a matriculation pass as their qualification for thejob, the test results of students improve as the teachers become more qualified, particularly toBA degree level. For reasons perhaps linked to the incentives facing teachers, governmentschools do not generally seem to be getting the greater performance one would expect from morequalified teachers. Rarely are poor government school teachers sanctioned or fired, and raisesand grade enhancement are automatic.

32. The study in NWFP, a very different province from Punjab, yields similar conclusionsthat suggest the findings are robust across Pakistan (table 2.3). The NWFP survey also suggestsa reason for the disparity between public and private sector results: teacher attendance is muchbetter in private schools, with positive impacts on students' achievement. To be more precise, ina regression to explain teacher attendance controlling for the gender, marital status, number ofyoung children, father's education, commuting time, qualifications, and salary of the teachers,there was a highly significant difference between the likelihood of attendance of private schoolteachers over government school teachers. Furthermore, when this likelihood of attendance wasused to explain students' test scores, in a regression controlling for the students' backgroundcharacteristics (gender, mother's and father's education, health, number of younger and olderbrothers and sisters, family income, distance to school, and whether the child had a job), theeffect of the teacher's attendance was highly significant (see annex 2 for details of theregressions).

Table 2.3 NWFP Achievement Test ResultsGirls Boys Urban Rural

Math. Lang. Math. Lang. Math. Lang. Math. Lang.Govt. 15.7 11.6 14.8 8.6 15.6 10.3 15.0 9.4Private 17.6 15.9 17.7 13.9 17.7 14.6 17.7 13.3

33. The conclusion is that it is not simply the differences between private and governmentschool students which determine the difference in their achievements. School characteristicsmatter most, and teacher attendance is the most obvious and striking illustration. Are privateschools expending significantly more resources to generate their results? The next fewparagraphs address the issue of cost-effectiveness of the private sector versus the public sector.

Costs

34. The average annual expenditures of parents to educate a child in a government school inthe Lahore sample is about Rs. 2,100; in private schools it is about Rs. 3,900.1 Should we be

' Rs. 2,119 for girls and Rs. 2,147 for boys in Government schools, compared with Rs. 3,828 for girls andRs. 3,954 for boys in private schools. These gender differences within sectors are not statisticallysignificant.

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surprised if the results are better in private schools? But the higher cost to private school parentsmasks the fact that total per-student costs in private schools are lower than in governmentschools; parents just do not perceive the costs of government schools directly.

35. The study in Lahore suggests that government schools cost society significantly moreper student than private schools: nearly 50 percent more (table 2.4). The results from NWFPalso support this finding; government teachers in the sample were paid between two and threetimes private teachers' salaries on average. And in the 1990 survey of Orangi (Sindh) theestimated annual per-student cost to the school was Rs. 308 in a typical private school and Rs.880 in a government school. Allowing for inflation, these figures are not too discordant with theLahore results.

Table 2.4 Average Annual Expenditures per Student, Lahore (Rs.)Primary Primary section Primary sectionschool of middle school of high school

Private 1.070 760 960Govemment 1,510 1,710 2,350

36. A large part of this difference in costs lies with teacher salaries in each sector:government school teachers earn much more thani private school teachers. and their pay is linkedto seniority. Although government school teachers are more highly qualified in general, the paydifferences do not seem to be predicated on qualifications. There are other causes: suchinstitutional factors as a rigid official pay scale, and the fact that the private sector employs morefemale teachers who are paid less than male teachers. Moreover, as discussed, the extraqualifications of public school teachers do not seem to translate into better outcomes for pupils.

37. The existence of a healthy private sector in cities across Pakistan suggests that even quitepoor parents are willing to pay the costs of a private education for their children. Parents arepaying for better performance overall, greater attendance among teachers, better educationaloutcomes among students, and often instruction in English.

38. But can poor parents afford private education? Many poor families are using the privatesystem, and many of the private schools they are using are charging fairly low fees. In Lahore,27 percent of the private schools surveyed charged monthly fees of Rs. 50 or less. In Orangi,Karachi, most private primary schools were charging between Rs. 20 and Rs. 30 monthly in1990. In much of urban Pakistan, private education is viewed not so much as a luxury as anaffordable necessity. Nevertheless, poor families do tend to educate their children (especiallytheir daughters) less. Thus for the private/NGO sector to reach the very poorest families,incentives (possibly financial) and subsidies would be required.

39. This view is reinforced by an analysis of the proportion of income spent on education bydifferent income groups (figure 2.2). As family income rises, the proportion of householdincome spent on boys' education, as well as girls', falls, suggesting that primary education isindeed treated as a necessity rather than a luxury by the market in Pakistan.

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Figure 2.2 Proportion of expenditure (percent) spent on education by monthly income (Rs. '000)

Girls Boys

12%]Sa 10 /el~2%10% ~~~~~~~~~10%

8% _ _ _ 8%

6% : 1U other 6%4% M~~~~~~~~ fees 4

2°/c 2%0% ~~~~~~~~~0%

<2 2- 3.5- 5- 7- >10 <2 2- 3.5- 5- 7- >10

monthly family income monthly family income

40. These observations should not obscure the fact that parents do pay more to educate theirchildren privately than publicly. But the important point is that it is not just rich parents who aredevoting part of their hioLisehold income to the extra expenditure, but also the poor. Are theybeing forced into this expenditure by an underperforming public sector, or by the absence ofspace in a public sector that they would otherwise find acceptable?

41. This question cannot easily be answered with the data, since overcrowding ingovernment schools may indicate a lack of schools or cause poor educational outcomes, both ofwhich would drive parents towards the private sector--the first through obligation, the secondthrough choice. For example, in the Punjab study, the decision to pay for private school isrelated to the size of classes in public primary schools, but this effect could be interpreted as aresponse to the poor quality of public education as much as to rationing. In any case, themagnitude of the effect is moderate.

42. Other evidence favors parental choice rather than rationing as the reason for paying forprivate schooling. In the Lahore sample, the average reported distance to the nearest governmentschool is approximately 1.25 kilometers: only for 14 out of 584 cases was the distance threekilometers. and it was never more. Nor was there any neighborhood in which no child attended agovernment school. Only 17 of the 671 respondents reported that a child went to private schoolbecause he or she "could not get into another school". Thus, while there is no formal test forrationing, we have no evidence that parents choose private schools merely because a governmentschool is unavailable. This is not to deny that the costs of private schooling represent asignificant obstacle to poorer families (see references to regression analysis below in paragraph56); some poor families are nevertheless finding ways to overcome this obstacle.

43. Thus the private sector in Pakistan provides evidence that parents willingly contribute toeducate their children, and that private education is an important option for future educationpolicy in urban (and possibly rural) areas. Chapter I highlighted the high social returns frombasic education (particularly among girls). But the education benefits both society and the childwhen he or she grows up, not necessarily the parents who bear the costs. Basic education in factgenerates significant external benefits. The bulk of basic education funding should thus comefrom the governments, not parents. A policy issue for the future, therefore, is to what extent themore effective and cheaper private/NGO sector should be used to deliver more educationalservices, with government financial assistance channeled to suppliers through vouchers toparents. The next four paragraphs expand on this theme.

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Encouraging the Private and NGO Sectors

Figure 2.3 Percentage of children not enrolled in44. In Lahore. the noni-enrollmenlt school, by family income, Lahorerate among the poorest families is 23 25percent. Among richer families it is 2nowhere near this high (figure 2.3). 20%Similar conclusions come from the 15%.

Quetta data (with parents' educatioiused as an proxy for wealth). Of 10%families whose father is educated. 63 5%

percent of boys and 51 percent of girls 0%attend school: of those whose father is <% *2 2- 3.5- 5- 7- 10-uneducated, 53 percent and 38 percent monthly family income (Rs.'000)attend respectively. If policy is to usethe private/NGO sector as a tool forimproving educationial outcomes. therefore, equity becomes a salient issue: should governmentpolicy force poor parents to shoulder a greater finanicial burden to educate their children? Thisquestion is all the more acute since it is precisely the poorest sectors of society to thatgovernment seeks to help most.

45. Government subsidies that both enable parents to choose schools and provide financialrelief to poor families have two potential benefits: short term and long term. In the short term,subsidies may be used to alleviate the demand uncertainty facing private suppliers of educationalservices, addressing concerns about the availability of schools in certain areas. In the longerterm, even when schools are available, some of the poorest may still not be able to pay.Subsidies may therefore enhance the sustainability of schools in poor areas (especially for girls),thereby alleviating economic inequality.

46. The argument that the private/NGO sector is more efficient might suggest that a flat-rate,per-studenit subsidy to all private/NGO schools could improve the efficiency of delivery ofeducation in Pakistan. But implementing this policy might be difficult and costly. Who wouldmonitor enrollment? And there would be a danger that the subsidies would not find their way toschools in the neediest areas, but would instead be captured by richer parents and communities.Equity arguments for subsidies, on the other hand, suggest more targeted intervention. But thisapproach would also have its problems: for example, the criteria to be used to determine whichschools or communities qualify for subsidies. The design of a subsidy program simple enoughnot to become a tool of special interests, yet specific enough to reach the poorest communities, isa matter that can be resolved only with further practical experience in Pakistan.

47. Experience with subsidy programs in Pakistan is limited. In Sindh, a program has triedto target scholarship to individual girls whose families income is below a certain threshold; it hashad only limited success. In particular. program staff have encountered problems in identifyingfamilies. Families had to fill out forms to prove themselves eligible, and this turned out to beonerous for them; many forms were filled out incorrectly, rendering the application void. Todate, the full allocation of funds to the Sindh program has not even been completely used.

2 This figure was 21 percent for girls and 25 percent for boys, although the sample size was not very large:214 boys and 144 girls in the lowest income bracket.

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48. In rural and urban Balochistan, on the other hand, early experience with "geographictargeting" of subsidies to poor communities as a whole has been highly favorable, although a fullevaluation of these programs remains to be carried out. The fellowships have succeeded at theshort term goal of mobilizing the private sector in poor areas and meeting enrollment targets, andthe new schools have reached more children from poor families than was previously the case.

49. Finally, policy must consider the regulatory environment in which the privatelNGOsector is embedded. The rules and regulations of the provincial codes are cumbersome, and aredirected more at regulating the owners than at ensuring standards for education. The Punjabcode is particularly restrictive compared with the codes of other provinces. No provinceenforces the regulations systematically or regularly, creating incidents of harassment andbureaucratic delays. But there is little evidence that government rules have restrained the growthof commercial institutions. For most practical purposes, private education is an unregulatedmarket over which government exerts limited control.

THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR

50. Evidence of parents' demand for primary education is not restricted to the urban privatesector, even if this sector provides some of the starkest examples. Particularly in rural areas,parents are sacrificing a great deal to ensure that their children receive an education. Thesesacrifices may not always take an obvious financial form. They may be in the form of suchcontributions as buildings or land, or forgone earnings of children, but they are every bit as realas the payment of fees.

51. The Community Support Program in rural Balochistan attempted to establish girls'schools in the poorest areas of the country, an area the Government deemed to be unreceptive tothe idea of female education. Despite low and unstable income, parents of CSP school childrenmake both cash and in-kind contributions to their children's education. On the one hand, Balochiparents spend an average of Rs. 524 annually on uniforms, books, materials, and pocket moneyfor each child. This is a heavy burden: the estimated mean consumption for rural Pakistan isonly (1991) Rs. 456 per person monthly (World Bank 1995).3 On the other, they incursignificant opportunity costs in sending their children to school, particularly after children reach8 to 10 years of age and are able to make a significant contribution to market and householdproduction. A mother relates:

Before my son was helping, but now he is jobless. The other son was working at a petrolpump, but left to go to college. My husband was sellingfish in Turbat, but now is toosick to ride his bicycle there. If we had money [my daughter] would be in class seven bynow. She is a good student. She always gotfirst position. Now her brother teaches herat home. Sometimes we have lunch now, sometimes not. There are no brothers to help,no sons to work

52. But the costs of forgone earnings by the child do not prevent many parents from sendingtheir children to school. In a regression analysis for the NWFP study, the presence of a childlabor market did not seem to influence parents' decisions to send their children to school, either

3 World Bank, Poverty Survey, 1995

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girls or boys (see annex 2). In a regression analysis of child attendance controlling for themother's and father's education, the health of the child, number of brothers and sisters, familyincome, teacher attendance, and distance to school, only health and numbers of brothers andsisters were significant determinants of attendance for girls, and boys with jobs were more likelyto attend school. A similar analysis of the highest grade attained by school leavers found norelationship with child labor markets. Yet where these markets exist, parents are undeniablyforgoing income to educate their children.

Table 2.553. Educating a child in a government school also entails costs for Annual Parentalbooks, pocket money, and particularly uniforms, which can sometimes Expenditure on Publicbe expensive. Table 2.5 gives figures for an average government Education, Lahoreschool in Lahore, for example. These figures represent the least that it (Rs.)takes for a parent to educate a child. In addition, a typical family Fees 247educating their child in a government school spent a further Rs. 382 on Books 168private tuition in the Lahore sample. Stationery 388

Uniform 513

54. In Balochistan under the CSP, village education committees Transport 79(VECs) have managed to elicit contributions of labor, temporary Food 295buildings, and school materials (water containers, chalkboards, chalk, Other g 25and so on) from both wealthy individuals and parents. In a few cases, Total 1765they have organized special collections from parents to purchase ordeliver materials to the school.

55. In other successful government schools in rural areas, parents are often observed makingadditional voluntary contributions to the school if they are convinced that doing so will benefittheir children. These contributions are usually at the request of the head teacher or teachers. Inone successful girls' school in rural Punjab the community donated the proceeds of a holidaysacrifice to build a boundary wall:

Community members have played a role at critical points in the life of the school.Whenever the head teacher and staff have approached the community, they haveresponded positively. They donated the money collectedfrom the hides of animals-icrificed on the Eid holiday in order to construct the school boundary wall, and also.dllected money in order to buy the handpump. The extra room of the school was

' onstructed by the local Union Council chairman. The men of the community areconcerned and interested in girls' education, but they are reluctant to come to the girls'school due to social norms of gender segregation.

And a successful boys school, also in Punjab, illustrates how contributions from parents, initiallyhard to obtain, eventually created a sense of duty among teachers:

All of the villagers now talk of the school as "our school, " and it is evident that they arevery proud of it, for they contributed whatever cash they could in their own capacity.The Head Teacher talked to all of them individually or in groups and convinced themthat their money was a good investment in their children's future: they would geteducated and would be able to get better jobs. This was not easy--to collect money fromthese poor villagers-but the Head Teacher accomplished it. The teachers also have aRed Crescent Fund out of the monthly Rs. I collection from every child. This money isalso usedfor various school needs andfor poor students. The teachers now feel that they

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mustfulfill the expectations of the villagers by edutcating their children as best as theycan.

In a girls' control school in NWFP the offer of help was actually turned down by the teachers.The refusal may have been due to the extra trouble to which the teachers would have had to havegone, in order to organize an open day. The quote underlines the two-way nature ofcollaboration between teachers and parents; it is not enough that parents simply want toparticipate:

The local bank mianager wanted to help the girls'school. I offered the reachers fiulfinancial help to sponsor a special annual dm at the school. Then leachers could neetwith all the mothers of the students, and good students could receive pri:es. But theteachers refuised wvithout uny reason.

56. Additional evidence of parents' willingness to pay for improvements comes from anNWFP study of textbooks. The vast majority of parents (89 percent) were willing to pay forsturdier textbooks. and placed a higher priority on making textbooks last longer than on makingthem less expensive (84 percent). The support for sturdier textbooks reflects widespreadawareness among parents that school books tend to fall apart. More than half of governmentschool students have to replace books three or more times each year. Parents were also willingto pay for changes in content: 64 percent for more colorful books, and 45 percent for longertextbooks. Urban parents were more willing than rural parents to pay for improvements,reflecting income differences between the two groups.

ARE PARENTS AS WILLING TO EDUCATE GIRLS AS THEY ARE BoYs?

Figure 2.4 Gross Primary Enrollment Rates among Girls and Boys,57. Enrollment by Provincerates are lower for 100%girls than for boys in 80%all parts of thecountry (figure 2.4), 60% Ofemaleand girls drop out of 40% 0 maleschool earlier on 20%average. Government 0%policy has therefore Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistanstarted to attach ahigher priority to female primary education. To what extent do the preferences of parents reflectthis priority? Do low enrollments reflect a lack of availability of schools, or differences inparents' ambitions for girls versus boys?

58. In Punjab, where children's enrollment is high, regression analysis finds no differencebetween the determinants of female and male enrollment: income, and the mother's and thefather's levels of education are all highly influential and of similar importance for boys and

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girls.4 Further regression analysis of the choice between public and private sector schoolingrevealed that family income, mother's education, and school availability are all significant.However, the determinants of school choice are different for boys and girls. The choice of theprivate sector for boys increases more with income than for girls. By contrast, the choice of theprivate sector for girls increases more with measures of school availability: the number of privateor government schools within a given radius of the household, and the distance from each type ofschool (annex 2.2).

59. The views of parents towards their girls' education certainly reflect an awareness ofsocial change in Pakistan in favor of educating girls. Their views also illustrate that althoughacceptance of girls' education may be increasing, the reasons that parents choose to educate adaughter (primarily to be a good wife and a good person) differ from their reasons for educatinga son (to get a job). The following report is from rural Punjab:

Illiterate mothers and grandmiothers take a tremendous interest in girls' education thesedays: the), don 't make the girls work at home, but rather send them to school. Themothers relate that now, with transport available, the girls can later go on to study beyondprimary schooL There is also a growving demandfor educated brides in these communities.The impact of television in changing people's ideas has been great, particularly the dramaswhich oftenfeature educatedfemales as role models.

The following is from rural NWFP:

The villagers may be poor, buit they say that they vwant to educate their daughters. Later,they will be able tofindfuture employment in healthfields or in teaching... The men ofthe village even discuss girls' education in the local ht#ra [men's meeting place] these

Figure 2.5 Reasons given for educating a child (NWFP)

better job

better person

respectability r boys

better spouse _ girls

for marriage

not useful

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

days. There is a change in attitude among the people. Now people want more educationfor their children: they get inspired by seeing educated people succeed They see manygirls going to school: trends are changing.

4That is to say pooling of boys and girls could not be rejected. The Punjab data was not relied uponheavily for inferences about the decision to enroll, however, since nearly all children in the sampledneighborhoods were enrolled.

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60. Even villagers in rural Balochistan have changed their attitudes towards femaleeducation and employment. In fact, the mere presence of female teachers has provoked changesin perceptions. When girls in CSP schools in Balochistan were asked what they wanited to dowhen they were adults. they frequently responded with "'teacher''.

61. Evidence from Quetta and Oranoi Figure 2.6 Gender Split of Kachi and Grades(Karachi) also points to widespread 15. Quettaeducation of girls, at least in urbani areas. InQuetta, kachi classes are approxinmately half 100%female (figure 2.6). But in grades higlher 80%than kachi female enrollmenit trails maleenrollment. In Oranigi the overall ratio of 77grlfemale to male stujdents is 46:54. anid 69 40% 0bypercent of primary school teachers are 20%women. 0°

k 1 2 3 4 562. The NWFP study sheds lighit on whiyenrollment among girls falls away in highergrades: parents do not intend their daughltersto attend school for as long as their sons.When parents were asked how long they w*anted their daughiters to attend school, their answerswere on average 1.6 years less thani for their solls, controllinig for other household factors (seeannex 2). This difference was confirimied by behavior: girls completed an average of 2.1 years ofschooling and 1.2 grades less than boys. Predictably, more educated parents expressed a desirethat their offspring attain higher grades. and this effect was more marked for girls than for boys.This suggests that the gender gap is larger amonig less educated parents. In the analysis of thechildren's highest attained grades, however. the gender gap did not seem to be larger among lesseducated parents. For both sexes. there was also a tendenicy for children with younger brothersand sisters to complete higher grades, which did not appear to be the parents' intention. Theregression coefficients and details are given in annex 2.

Figure 2.7 Annual Educational Costs, Lahore (Rs.) 63. Parents who are educating theirdaughters are generally incurring coststhat are similar to those for educating

4000 their solls. Data from Punjab showv*Other parents paving only slightly less to

3000 .Private tuition educate their dauglhters (figure 2.7). Data

2000. 0 Uniform from Quetta reinforce these findings.* Bkslstat'nery

1000 0 Fees64. School enrollment and attendance

girl boy among girls do seem to be more sensitivethan among boys to variations in familyincome, however. An analysis in Punjabindicates that enrollment amonig girls tails

off more dramatically than among boys in the lowest income groups. An analysis in NWFPfound that household income has a strong influence on enrollment among girls, but not amongboys: poorer families are less likely to send their daughters to school, but they are not less likely

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to educate their sons. And national data indicate that enrollment among girls falls away morerapidly than among boys in the lowest income quartile. especialiv in Sindh, Balochistan, andNWFP (figure 2.8). In addition to subsidizing education for low-income families, thegovernments should also consider subsidizing educationi for low-income girls, on the grounds ofgender equity.

Figure 2.8 Gross Primary Enrollment, by income quartileFemale

120% -

100% .

80% 4- U poorest 25%/60% * 2nd poorest

40V U 11 ~~~~~~~hi-J I-A ~~~~ 0 3rd poorest20° /I ___ 1 _t

Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan

Male

120%

100%80% U poorest 2F%

60% N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2nd poorest40% 0 3rd poorest20% 0 richest 25%0%

Punjab Sindh NWFP Blochistan

65. The evidence from Pakistan gives two messages. First. reasonably strong demand forgirls' education exists under the right conditions. and sometimes only after a little prompting(CSP is a case in point). Second, this demand is more fragile than that it is for boys' education.It is particularly sensitive to parents' income. And as parents have different--more cultural, lesseconomic--reasons for educating girls than for educating boys, demand for the education of girlsmay also be more sensitive to conditionis in the school. A strong case can thus be made, on bothefficiency grounds (high social returns) and equity grounds (opportunities for boys and girls) forsubsidizing education for girls in Pakistan.

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3. SCHOOLING IMPROVES WHEN COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATE

66. Several examples of successful community participation in government schools suggestthat there are tangible benefits at stake; this section describes these successes. By contrast,successful government schools which do not involve the participation of parents are rare. Thesection goes on to discuss the role of government policy in engendering communityparticipation, and to distinguish between some different forms of community participation inpractice, according to the type of community: rural, urban, and more or less institutionallydeveloped.

Early Participatory Initiatives

67. The current attempts to introduce community participation in Pakistan can best beunderstood in the context of earlier initiatives that suggested that participation might improveenrollment and quality of education. Two initiatives have been notable for their influence onsubsequent efforts.

68. In 1979 UNICEF began financing a slum improvement project in Baldia (a suburb ofKarachi with a population of about 300,000) called the Baldia Soakpit Pilot Project. The ideawas that by using sanitation as the first intervention in an area, the project team could launch anintegrated slum development program that would incorporate three main components:

* Sanitation: the construction of soakpit latrines in houses* Education: a home school program* Primary health care distributed through the home schools.

The project was notable because it involved women exclusively. By 1986, the project hadestablished 100 home schools for 2,000 pupils, 80 percent of whom were girls. Teachers fromthe schools were registered with the Sindh Government as the Home School Teachers WelfareOrganization. There are now 250 home schools in Karachi and 300 in rural Sindh, and 10 of theoriginal 100 have become private schools offering education up to grade 12.

69. The Northern Areas of Pakistan provide another example of successful communityparticipation. Under the twelve-year Aga Khan Rural Support Program, more than 70 percent ofcommunities in the Northern Areas already have established an active "village organization".While the organizations were originally mobilized primarily for irrigation and income-generatingactivities, they were quick to respond when the Government offered them an endowment of Rs.100,000 to establish community-based schools. The Government received more than 700applications from village organizations, 125 of which were accepted in the first phase of theproject. The organization and the community were responsible for providing a room, recruitinga local female teacher, and establishing a local education committee, and despite funding delays,the communities quickly established the schools. Until funds were made available, manyteachers worked without pay in order to keep the schools open. There are now 250 schools, witha total enrollment of 3,690 girls and 2,391 boys.

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The Community Support Program in Rural Balochistan

70. Building on earlier experience, the Community Support Program in rural Balochistan hasbeen piloted since 1992. Community participation is encouraged by "promoters" who belong toa locally formed NGO (see box 5); their job is to establish a village education committee withthe villagers' cooperation. This committee then helps to run the school.

71. The village education committee requires an investment of time and effort on the part ofits members, parents of children at the school. After having appointed a teacher and provided atemporary school building, the committee is contractually obliged to:

* Provide security for the school and teacher* Provide land to the Education Department for the building free of cost* Provide guidance and information to women in the village* Monitor the progress of the monthly syllabus* Monitor the attendance of the teacher* Monitor the attendance of the children* Check the dropout rate of the students* Evaluate the success of the school* Provide valid information to parents and the Education Department.

Members must carry out these responsibilities monthly, and the committee also holds an annualmeeting to discuss issues associated with the operation of the school.

72. The results so far from the CSP have been encouraging. The female enrollment rate inthe CSP villages two years into the program was 87 percent, compared with 18 percent in theprovince as a whole. Teachers, parents, and committee members commonly distinguish betweenCSP schools and non-CSP schools. They refer to the former as "the community's school" or"our school" and to the latter as "government schools" (although CSP schools are in factofficially government schools, with buildings and teachers paid for by the Government). Parentsin CSP villages have prevented vandalism against the school, participated in critical decisionsabout teacher employment and supervision, and monitored construction. Ownership andinvolvement in the school have improved its environment and helped foster familiarity and trustin the school among parents. Now, three years after the pilot, 12,769 students are enrolled in 273CSP schools.

73. The following observations from members of villages where CSP schools have beenestablished are typical. They illustrate the level of community involvement in these schools andthe contrast with the previous status quo. In particular, villagers report that problems ofvandalism are much less serious for the CSP schools.

A boys' middle school principalfrom the village, complaining of vandalism against hisschool, remarked "the same will not happen in the girls' school because it is under thecontrol of the VEC and the committee looks after the school. "

Further observations of villagers illustrate the value of devolving monitoring and involveinent tothe village.

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It is better for the Government to give the village education committee the moneydirectly. They will choose better. We trust them because they belong to this village.They can't use the moneyfor other things. The kids belong to this community, so they dobetter for the kids.

This school is better because it is shared with the public. It is not under the control of theGovernment. If it were under the control of the Government, there would be rubbish.For example, in one village, there was a school sanctioned.for girls in June, but it is stillnot started because ofwrong policy. The teacher assigned belonged to another village,and it is difficultfor her to go to the school. .. Appointments are allfrom the Minister...Here we do not agree to have teachers appointed by the Government unless we approve.. . The difference with the other school is that that school is under the control of theGovernment, and the Government agreed to put this school under the control of thepublic. Therefore, people think this school is for their children... We watch this school.When we see any problem we make a report... This system is best: people here knowmore about the education in this school than people in Quetta or Islamabad Peoplemonitor the school and develop the school.

And lastly, villagers indicate the role that a committee can play, allowing them access to theschool to check its operation, access that they are not given to traditional government schools.

We go to the [CSP] school to check attendance, listen to lessons from the students, checkcleanliness, and whether the teacher is teaching or not. We don't do this at the boys'[non-CSP] school. We can't approach there. We are not watching that schooL . . The[CSP] teacher knows the committee members are coming and asking... We are incontrol of the girls' school, but the boys' school is free. If we go to the girls 'school andwe knock on the door, and the kids answer, and we say we are committee members, theteacher allows us to come. They do not allow us at the boys 'schooL The teachers don'tlisten. We complained of absence to the DEO, but there is no use complaining. [Boys'teachers are not answerable to anyone, and no one takes action... Teachers in the girls'school are answerable to us.

The Urban Girls' Fellowship Program in Quetta

74. While the CSP seems to be galvanizing demand and improving outcomes in ruralBalochistan, a fellowship program for girls is being piloted in Quetta, also with encouragingresults. In this case as in the rural case, the communities are involved in setting up the newschool: they contract private education suppliers, and neither the Government nor the donor (TheWorld Bank) are involved in the details of the bilateral contract that is signed between thecommunity and the contractor. In response to the scholarships, 10 new private schools are nowoperating in Quetta, educating 1,790 pupils (1,247 girls), of whom 1,070 (896 girls) are from thetarget areas. Of these 1,070, 660 (563 girls) were not previously in the education system. In allcases, private suppliers were available to provide the educational services required by thecommunities

75. The subsidy from the fellowship program has not simply been accepted by thecommunities as a gift; it has also generated contributions from the local community. Thesecontributions are important for at least two reasons. They suggest that future programs will notnecessarily have to be financed entirely by government or donor funds. They also suggest thatthe services being provided by the program are valued by the people who receive them.

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Evidence from the Ethnographic Studies

76. Community ownership of and involvement with the school also emerged from theethnographic interviews as a common correlate of success. This involvement emerged withoutthe assistance of any outside program. In a successful school in NWFP:

The head teacher said that mothers in the community are very cooperative, and that theycome to school whenever they are called. [The interviewer] observed a mother.. . whowanted to readmit her daughter to the school. The parents are very pleased because theynow have a "proper building" in the center of the village for their girls' school.

The housewife said that she usually visits the school informally when she passes by, orwhen there is some special occasion at the schooL "We have respect for the teachers:they cooperate with us and with each other. "

These observations contrast with a "control" school in Punjab:

The staff [believed] that parents took little interest in the school. It seems that thisdistance between the parents and the school had arisen from the fact that the headteacher always avoids approaching the community for any help directly, and only goesthrough the village headman.

77. In successful rural schools the roles of the VEC in Balochistan are often being assumedinformally by groups within the community. In rural Sindh a parent stated:

There is a Welfare Association here which is very old and has been active for a longtime. To be a memberyou have to be a matriculate, so the farmers and shopkeepers arenot members. The Welfare Association makes contacts with various officials and helpswith the school affairs: for example it got the previous head transferred. It also getsdonations for the school, in coordination with the head teacher.

Can the Government Promote Community Participation?

78. A note of caution is necessary regarding community participation in education.Although the school availability and performance have been transformed in what wereconsidered to be some of the least receptive areas of the country (rural Balochistan, for example),the process may not be replicated in all rural communities. Two common problems emerge: theabsence of a qualified, willing female teacher, and community unwillingness to form a villageeducation committee and establish a school. The first reason is the more common. Thefollowing observation from rural Punjab describes a community resistant on cultural grounds tothe education of girls:

Many families do not send their girls to school in this community and would rather savethe money for her dowry. Girls are married off early in the villages here, especiallyamong the "low caste" groups. Most girls earn their dowry by working on the fields.There are also some orthodox Muslim families (Wahabis) who do not send their girls toschool and are of the view that education spoils the character of girls ("educated girlswrite love letters"). Not a single female from their families is educated

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Similarly, although the CSP has had success in many communities, many have resisted itsovertures, usually due to the absence of a willing and qualified female teacher. This reluctanceon the part of some communities raises the question: Do variations in school quality simplyreflect variations in communities' willingness to educate their children, or on the contrary cangovernment policy create the conditions for schools to thrive?

79. The hypothesis that the success of a school is based simply on community characteristicsis not supported by the data. First, the communities chosen for the girls' fellowship in Quettawere diverse, forming a random sample, selected on the basis of poverty level. Yet in eachtarget area, a school has been created in response to the progran. Differences amongcommunities do not seem to be the overriding determinants of differences in success amongschools.

80. Second, the ethnographic interviews repeatedly point to the critical importance of thehead teacher as a catalyst for community involvement. The strongest evidence comes fromcommunities in which good and bad schools coexist, or where schools improved or deteriorateddramatically upon a change of head teacher, as the following observations attest.

The main reason for these positive changes has been the role of the head teacher. He isvery hard-working and committed, and the villagers appreciate this. The EducationDepartment also appreciates his hard work, He has involved the community in alldecisions, and they are now proud to help more and more. Even when the Pakistan Armydecided to dig a big trench right in front of the schoolfor the soldiers, and demandedthat they move the school, the community stood up and won the argument. (Balochistan)

A second example highlights the partnership between the head teacher and a community leader asthe key to the school's earlier success. Without this partnership, decline set in.

In previous years the girls' school had an enthused head teacher and local support froma prominent leader and social worker in the community. He encouragedfemaleeducation among the villagers and they accepted. Then the good head was transferredand the leader died; the school went downhill after that, and enrollment has decreased toonly 38 students. Neither teachers or community are interested anymore. (NWFP)

And in a third, the partnership between the head teacher and another teacher in the school isidentified as the initial deterninant of success.

When the present head teacher took over, she found it hard to change the easy-goingattitude of the teachers.. . The head teacher started by changing herself and presentingherself as a role model. Luckily, another woman on the staffjoined her in this effort.Together, the two changed the school slowly... The head's father was an educator, andher husband is a lecturer in a nearby government college; she has been stronglyinfluenced by these family members and takes her role very seriously. She has succeededin creating a sense of teamwork among her staff of six women teachers, and she statesthat unity and understanding between the staff is the most important factor in theschool 'sfunctioning. The whole school seems to be geared towards getting a good gradefive result. (Punjab)

81. But the importance of the head teacher poses a problem for policy: how are good headteachers created? Previous initiatives aimed at teacher training in Pakistan have not met withsuccess, and little can be said about the subject with much confidence. Certainly the system of

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grade-enhancement and transfer should be geared towards placing the most motivated teachers inthis position. Head teachers should not be transferred from schools against their will and thecommunity's, as they are currently. But beyond qualified teachers and training, we must turn toother requirements of schools that are necessary to encourage parental participation in education.

PARTICIPATION AS AN EXCHANGE: WHAT PARENTS EXPECT

82. The evidence in Pakistan shows clearly that the involvement of parents and communitiesin schooling decisions is important, but parents and community leaders enter into the processexpecting certain things in return, without which they will drift away from the partnership. Whatdo parents and communities expect in order to participate?

83. The ethnographic interviews asked parents, community leaders, and teachers what theybelieved constituted a good school; the following factors, some of which repeat previousmessages, are suggestive of policy implications:

Physical characteristics* The school possesses a solid structure and a boundary wall* It has a water pump and latrine, both in working order

Non-physical characteristics* The teachers are present and punctual* Beatings do not occur* There is no bribery between parents and teachers* The children who attend the school are polite to their elders* Children should be able to read and write* Children should obtain scholarships for further study.

The first two characteristics illustrate that, although physical inputs are not sufficient on theirown to generate enrollment, they may be an important determinant of the acceptance of theschool in the community and, in turn, the participation of parents and community leaders. Forbeatings, it may be that they are in part a symptom rather than a cause of bad schools; yet, if theycan be discouraged, the chances that the school will be perceived as successful will increase.

84. The final expectation of scholarship availability reflects parents' more general concernthat their children have access to higher levels of education: middle and secondary school.Parents may question the value of primary education if it cannot be followed up, and interviewswith them often revealed their desire for "upgrade" to a middle school.

Coordination between Partners in Participation

85. After the participation of parents and the community is elicited, someone must organizetheir involvement. In most education models the coordinator is the head teacher. In the CSPmodel, it is the NGO, since most teachers in that project are still inexperienced and often veryyoung. In the home school model, this responsibility falls to the teacher herself, who maintainscontact with the children's mothers through a neighborhood mothers' group. In the urbanfellowship program in Quetta the role is being carried out by the community support NGO. As

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new programs are piloted and expanded, staff should clarify at the outset which individual ororganization is being designated to play this organizational and motivational role.

Empowerment

86. Many of the successful systems operating in Pakistan go further than simply involvingparents in daily decisions about the school: they empower parents by making them responsiblefor budgets and rules. The extent to which management can be devolved to parent or villagecommittees depends on the strength of the institutions in the community. As seen in Sindh andthe Northern Areas, many communities already have "welfare committees" or "villageorganizations" that spontaneously assume the responsibilities of an education committee; yet inBalochistan, NGO promoters often encounter resistance from conservative parents or communityleaders to establishing a committee. In the end, policy should encourage as much school-baseddecision-making and budgeting as is feasible, since this is the strongest mechanism forencouraging community involvement.

87. Government subsidies could thus serve a dual role in Pakistan. First, particularly incities, reliance on private/NGO-sector education calls for subsidies to promote equity;government policy should seek to educate children from the poorest families without placing afinancial burden on them. Second, subsidies should be allocated directly to the communities (toschools or education committees), to empower the community to manage its own spending.

PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE

88. Community participation in education may take different forms depending on thecharacteristics of the community. There is no single recipe for success across Pakistan. Thefollowing examples suggest dimensions to be considered in practice.

89. The CSP in rural Balochistan, the girls' fellowship scheme in urban Balochistan, and thehome school experiments in Sindh and Balochistan all involved community participation inestablishing a new school rather than reforming an existing one. While establishing new schoolspresents extra logistical challenges, it also generates a degree of novelty and enthusiasm thatmight be absent when the plan is to reform an existing school. Arrangements to empower parentsin the reform of existing government schools should reflect this difference.

90. In rural areas, participation schemes can often rely on a strong sense of communitywithin the village. In urban areas, where neighborhoods overlap and parents may have a choiceabout the neighborhood school which they can send their children to, participation may be harderto implement. Community institutions may be weaker in the cities. And even among villages,the strength of institutions may vary considerably, making it easier to devolve decision-makingto the community level in some villages, or areas, than in others.

91. There is therefore a spectrum of "appropriate involvement" according to the capacity ofthe community to organize itself. This spectrum includes arrangements best suited to specificcommunities and their schools--from the large urban school, to the home schools and urbanfellowship schools, to the type of spontaneously monitored successes described in theethnographic study, to village education committee arrangements and rural fellowship schemes.

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Participation of Urban Communities

92. We consider urban environments at one end of the spectrum. In cities, where schoolsmay comprise, say, 15 classes, and communities are less distinct than in the countryside, thechallenge is to generate the appropriate interaction between parents and teachers. Individualparents can be expected to involve themselves only with the class of their child. Where parent-teacher associations are formed, they may receive budgets for minor repairs and maintenance ofgovernment schools, but in cities this function would probably involve hiring contractors to dothe job, rather than the kind of full-scale involvement seen in rural areas.

93. Next in this spectrum comes the girls' fellowship scheme and the home schools. Here,the degree of mobilization required of the community is greater, because it must form acommittee charged with establishing the school in the first place. The community may still relyon private/NGO-sector contractors (as in the fellowship scheme), or on a highly motivated localteacher (as in the home schools), and it usually requires the technical assistance of an NGO. Butthe entire budget for the school is typically placed in the hands of the community organizationcharged with establishing the school.

Participation of Rural Communities

94. Many rural areas already have community organizations in some form, such as thevillage welfare committees seen in Sindh. In such cases, these organizations may lighten thetasks of NGOs, who need not undertake the groundwork of promoting a school (often for girls),recruiting a village education committee, and setting up meetings; these early tasks are amongthe most expensive in the CSP program, given the intensive door-to-door canvassing required.In villages with these institutions, devolving school-based budgeting to the village and recruitingan NGO to provide technical assistance in managing funds is the most effective approach.

95. Villages that do not have such institutions must create them, adding another tier ofpreparation to the participation process. It may be necessary to convince village elders about theworthiness of the school before teachers can be recruited or a school organization established.This heavier involvement should follow approximately the same lines as the CSP, and is suitableonly for rural areas. Government programs have already formed the equivalent of villageeducation committees in Punjab and NWFP. But the roles of these committees have not yet beendefined clearly, and parents are under-represented on them, reducing their effectiveness.Whether they form a sufficient institutional base from which to work can only be evaluated caseby case.

96. At the other end of the spectrum are the rural fellowship schools that have been started inBalochistan. Here, community involvement is at its maximum, since privatelNGO-sectorschools are being established without any of the government promises of future support thatobtain in the CSP, and all contractual details are left to the community. Again, technicalassistance from an educational NGO is necessary for management.

97. Table 3.1 summarizes the main functions involved in setting up and managing a school,and indicates which parties assume these functions under the various arrangements observedacross Pakistan for the purposes of this report.

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Table 3.1 Different Forms of Participation According to Community CharacteristicsGovt.: Go.t.: CSP ~Rural Urban Prvate Hm

"00 0 00 70 - : ii i- :g; contro I':.suceessful ;iCoan-g Fellowship 6or NGO:: j: lI|IhArea Task schools schools unity sector

...Parent. .. -.t:g tf Establish;: Not done Head teacher NGO and NGO and NGO, Private/NGO Teacher;:ilCommittee t::: -: :g; f f; ! :: A g : S :; ;;:; ; (informal) parents parents parents, and operator (informal)

:_________ _ _ _ _ ________ :: :; - :PEF (informnal)::Trai Not done Not done NGO NGOot done

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N G O _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Maintain Not done Head teacher NGO NGO PEF and Private/NGO Teacher(informal) NGO operator (infonnal)

____________i;::;:;: ___________ _ __ ; :(informnal)Promotion Not done Head teacher NGO and NGO and NGO, PEC, PrivatelNGO Teacher

:of School VEC VEC and Private operator_____________ __________ ~operator _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Teacher den tify Politicians Politicians NGO and NGO and Private/NGO Private/NGO Teacherand VEC VEC operator, operator self-Community with PEF identifies

_________ ________ .E::E: ;: :: i: approval and NGOTrain Teacher Teacher Mobile Mobile Private/NGO Private/NGO NGO

training training female female operator and operator orcollege college (poor) teacher teacher PEF other private(poor) training training institution

:_a_::_:_:___::_: (NGO) (NGO)H:Ei :: : :ire, :District DEO Govt., VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO NGOFire, education (political) with VEC operator, operatorTransf ::::: t er iofficer with parents' input with PEF

____ :;:::: : : ::(political) input approvalMonito ASDEOASDEO , VEC or VEC Private/NGO PrivatefNGO Parents

and head head teacher, ASDEO operator and operator & and.. teacher and parents PEC parents NGO

_____________ ____________ :(poor) (informal) (informal)Buildingi T emporAry Parents Parents VEC VEC

Permanent Govt. Govt. Govt. VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO Teacher'soperator, operator homewith PEF

__:::____:___ ______________ : :inspectionMinor Not done Head teacher VEC VEC PrivatefNGO Private/NGO: :: ::R&iM: :: ! if: and operator wit operator

_________ : :. :parents PECMajor Govt. Govt. (rarely) Govt. VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO:R&M (rarely) with parents' operator wit operator

:___ :i : :; ; 0 :t: :: : :: E : E : : : : input PECMaterial Identif: Govt. Govt. and Govt. NGO, Private/NGO Private/NGO NGO

(poorly) head teacher VEC, operator operator_________ _________ : : : : : i :;0G ovt.Purchase Govt. Govt., head Govt. VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO NGO and

(poorly) teacher, and operator operator teacher____________ ~parents__ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

...... : :::SDistrbute Govt. Govt. Govt., VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO NGOand(poorly) VEC, operator operator teacher

::hool Daily Head Head teacher Teacher VEC and PrivatelNGO Private/NGO TeacherManage teacher teacher operator operator

m ent __: ____ ___ __ ______

ncentiv Govt. (ina- Govt. and Govt. and VEC Private/NGO Private/NGO Parents___________ ___________ i :0 ppropriate) parents VEC operator operatorAbbreviations used: DEO - district education officer, ASDEO - assistant district education officer, VEC -village education committee, PEC - parent education committee, NGO - nongovermmental organization,PEF - Provincial Education Foundation, Govt. - Government, R&M - repairs and maintenance.

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Gender Issues

98. Details of participation in education in Pakistan are also sensitive to the gender of theparticipants. In Balochistan village education committees are an important source of informationabout education for parents, and promote education within the village. Male committeemembers tend to generate discussion at public forums: community meetings and infornalgatherings in tea houses and shops or at sports events. However, they are reluctant to engage inhouse-to-house extension efforts, where they may be interfering in another man's business. Forexample, when asked whether the committee had visited the home of one girl who had droppedout of school, one member replied:

No. That is their business. There is not much we can do to press the family to let hercome, except ask them to let her sit the exams. This is the prerogative of the parents andthe brother.

Female committee members appear more willing than men to engage in private advocacy. Asone member said:

We, being women, are the only ones who can do that. We can go to homes and motivatepeople.

The most common task facing members is convincing mothers to release their daughters fromhousehold chores or embroidery (for sale), by promoting the value of the school. Femalemembers also generate discussion about education in places where women meet: at wells, atsocial events, and in homes.

Cost-effectiveness

99. Are intensive programs of community mobilization such as CSP cost-effective?Establishing a CSP school adds between 15 and 20 percent to the cost of a regular governmentschool: the door-to-door canvassing under the CSP is the most expensive part of the process.But this cost must be weighed against the 50 percent increase in enrollment, better attendance,and higher achievement generated by the schools; "unit" costs may actually fall. But Pakistanprobably does not have the capacity now to scale such an effort up to the national level; andbesides, experience suggests that this level of intensity would not continue to be necessary.News of the success of the village education committees and new schools tends to travel quicklyamong villages. This "demonstration effect" should lower future project costs to a sustainablelevel for a wider application of the principles of community participation. Schemes such as CSPare thus cost-effective.

100. In its first two years of operation, for example, the NGO involved in the CSP visited 900villages and established 198 schools. The NGO spent significant amounts of time and effortvisiting villages that ultimately did not have a potential female teacher or whose parents wereunwilling or unable to establish a girls' school. But in its third year of operation, the NGO isfinding that these initial efforts were not in vain. The publicity generated from having started198 schools has encouraged several villages to "self-select", submitting applications for schoolsto district education offices or the NGO itself. No longer facing the burden of canvassing largenumbers of villages, the NGO can focus more heavily on within-village promotion andinstitutional development among village education committees. The hope is that, eventually,

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routine steps in the CSP process can be integrated into the Government's own procedures foropening schools (such steps as identifying villages with potential female teacher candidates,verifying the candidates' documents and residence, testing the candidate in mathematics andUrdu, and conducting the initial village survey). This process should lower costs, allowing theGovernment to focus its contracts with NGOs on the more specialized tasks of organizing anddeveloping village education committees.

101. The concept of "clustering" villages formalizes this shift of emphasis from the earlyphases to the implementation of programs. In future, the NGO may select one village in a groupof, say, six or eight as the first one in which a girls' school is established. As the school becomesaccepted in the first village, and is seen as a success by the surrounding villages, the hope is thata village education committee in each of the other villages will be mobilized automatically,significantly reducing costs.

102. A final caveat is necessary. As this section has discussed, the burden taken bycommunity organizations in rural areas is much greater than it is in urban areas. Consequently,experimentation has been more successful in rural areas, while the successes in urban areas havebeen more spontaneous (due largely to private enterprise and a few large NGOs) and lessunderstood. Government policy should reflect this by adopting a more prudent approach inurban areas than in rural areas, relying more heavily on pilot projects and milder modificationsof existing successful arrangements.

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4. THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT

103. As documented in chapter 3, some degree of parental participation is necessary ineducation; it accompanies almost every instance of success in the primary education of the poorin Pakistan. But these successes do not prove that communities' involvement in establishing orreforming their schools will guarantee success. The governments have a role to play, not just ininvolving communities, but in fulfilling their part of the bargain that such participation implies.There are faults of the education system in Pakistan that parents and communities cannot beexpected to address.

INCENTIVES FOR EMPLOYEE ATTENDANCE

104. Chapter 3 illustrated that attendance among teachers improves when parents are closelyinvolved in monitoring of a school (for example, under the CSP), or where teachers face censurefor non-attendance (for example, in the urban private/NGO sector). But close parentalmonitoring will mean nothing if parents perceive no mechanism for correcting the problems theydetect.

105. The informal monitoring that occurs in successful rural schools illustrates the importancethat parents place on attendance:

A local policeman was very pleased with the teachers in the girls'school because of theirprompt attendance. "Just check with the shopkeepers who are located in front of theschool: they'll tell you that the teachers are always on time in the morning and theyremain until after the school has closed " (NWFP)

A spot-check of teacher attendance in April 1994 indicated that the attendance rate in CSPschools was 90 percent, compared with 79 percent in non-CSP schools. The teachers themselvesdemonstrated a high level of commitment by generally refusing to take part in a three monthlong strike in 1994. In the words of one teacher:

A man came and asked me to strike. He was saying all of the schools are closed, thenwhy do you open your school? I said I do not like to strike. If schools are closed,students do not learn, and if schools are open they learn and prepare for their exams. Ifwe are regular, the school willfunction better. .. I am concerned about the education ofthe students.

106. Absenteeism among teachers is endemic in the public sector in Pakistan; in all provinces,absences are frequent and largely legal. In NWFP, salaries of government school teachers aretwice the level of those in private schools (four times in Lahore). Yet absenteeism amonggovernment school teachers is two and a half times higher than among private-school teachers,whose rate is only 7 percent. The lower absenteeism rate for private-school teachers holds evenwhen school, home, and individual characteristics are held constant. Thus the strong suspicion isthat absenteeism rates are related to school policies.

107. A government school teacher with one year of experience can legally miss 18 percent ofthe terrn. Teachers on pregnancy leave can miss half the term. Medical leave, disability leave,

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and assorted other leaves also add to absences. Consequently, teachers can miss a considerableproportion of the year without breaking their contractual obligations. Beyond the legal leaves,teachers sometimes take unauthorized leaves, which are not monitored. It is unclear whethergovernment school teachers face penalties for these, but the penalties are clearly not as severe asthey are in private schools. Private school teachers risk losing their position if they do not fulfilltheir contractual obligations with the school, and private schools risk losing revenue if they donot fulfill their contractual obligations with the parents.

108. In NWFP, the study of the effect of teacher attendance on student achievement foundthat students in schools with good attendance rates among teachers scored higher on tests. InLahore 42 percent of head teachers in government schools believe that absenteeism amongteachers is a serious problem, compared with 23 percent of head teachers in private schools.Test results were generally poorer in schools where absenteeism is considered to be a seriousproblem (see table 4.1).

Table 4.1 The Effects of Teacher attendance on Students' Achievement, LahorePrivate Schools Government schools

Is teacher Proportion of Proportion of Proportion of Proportion ofabsenteeism a schools where schools where schools where schools whereserious problem in 75% of students 90% of students 75% of students 90% of studentsthe school? passed both tests passed both tests passed both tests passed both testsNo 75 53 62 36Yes 74 40 41 28

109. The implication is that improving attendance rates among teachers will improve theperformance of students. Making leave policies more stringent or putting teeth into penalties forunsanctioned leave would be obvious policy options. Alternatively, absenteeism could beaddressed with a carrot rather than a stick. Linking salary bonuses to attendance would be onesuch incentive device. These recommendations are developed in chapter 5.

TEACHER MORALE AND OWNERSHIP

110. In schools that are operating more effectively, teacher morale is always higher, andteachers take responsibility for the performance of their students. Of course, better performanceraises morale, but there is no doubt that better morale also raises performance. The role of thehead teacher in forging links with parents and creating teamwork among teachers appears to becrucial in this respect. The following observations describe the importance of this role, capturingone contrast between successful and less successful schools in the sample.

The success of a public boys' school in NWFP began with the arrival of a new head:

The present head teacher's posting at the school proved to be a turning point in itshistory. He first filled in the ditches in the courtyard with the help of the students...Then things started to change. The second teacher came in 1983. Two more rooms wereadded to the school building in 1988, which was the result of a combined effort by fivecommunity leaders and the teachers. The school then got drinking water with communityhelp in digging a well, and later a villager provided an electric water pump. Theteachers constructed the bathroom and white-washed the school. .. All the staff get

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along well and work as a team. The head teacher plays the role of team leader, not of anofficer, and this has led to a good working relationship. One of the teachers was given atransfer notice, but he has refused to leave the school. The community leaders say thatthey will also resist and prevent any teacher's transfer from here through their links withthe Government. The villagers recognize the quality of the school and discuss itsprogress in localjirga [village meetings].

A successful boys' school in Punjab highlights the importance of the head teacher's role ofpromoting teamwork among teachers, producing tangible benefits, and even eliciting financialcontributions from the teachers:

The relationship between the head teacher and his staff of three teachers is very friendlyand relaxed, and is one of the main reasons for the good school climate. The boys seethis, and they learn to be cooperative among themselves, too. In 1993 teacherscontributed Rs. 4000 for a new school room from their own pockets, and during summervacation they periodically visit the school compound to check that all is well.

A successful NWFP girls' school illustrates that the head teacher need not be highly qualified if sheassumes ownership of the school:

The head teacher is very experienced and well versed in management skills. She has astrong feeling of ownership of the school, and she has worked here for the past 24 years.She has only a tenth-grade education, with PTC [Primary Teaching Certificate] training.

And two observations from girls' control schools suggest that the example set by the head can havean equally negative influence. In particular, if head teachers are perpetually late or absent, otherteachers in the school are likely to follow suit:

I entered the school in the morning. There was no assembly, and the girls were busyplaying or sitting in their classes. The two teachers were late in arriving, because thehead teacher always comes late too. The DEO has supposedly warned the presentteachers about theirfrequent lateness and absence, but it has not been effective becausethey are both relatives of the khan's [village leader 's] family, and they are not afraid ofany officials. (NWFP girls' control school)

I reached the school at 10:40 am: it was raining and very cold Two teachers weresitting on the verandah, but the head teacher was absent. There were only 28 out of 261girls in the schooL No teaching was going on, and most of the girls were playing outsidethe classrooms or in the fields. One teacher said that there were many girls in themorning, but they left as the teachers arrived late. It was obvious they wanted me toleave so that they could dismiss schoolfor the day. (Punjab girls ' control school)

111. Hiring teachers locally also seems to generate the right atmosphere of ownership andmorale among staff: the following quotes come from rural Sindh--the first from a successful school,and the second from a control school:

Teacher ownership and commitment are high because they say that in this school manychildren are from their "own caste ". Thus, they teach the children with sincerity. Sevenout of the eight teachers are local, and many graduatedfrom this school.

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Of the eight teachers at this school, seven are nonlocal and come to the school daily bybus. .. they have no feeling of ownership towards the school . . and in this village veryfew community members are helping the school. They do not like the head teacher, whois also a landlord and has a bad character. He tries to blackmail the parents to passtheir children. Parents realize that their children are not learning.

In the successful of these two schools enrollment has increased from 210 to 314, dropouts have

fallen dramatically, attendance has risen from about 45 percent to 67 percent, and achievement has

risen appreciably in the past five years.

112. Local hiring also helps combat the problem of secondment among teachers. Secondment

allows teachers to transfer from positions they find unattractive (often in rural schools when the

teacher is from the city) to other (urban) schools, taking the teaching post with them (so leaving the

rural school without even a vacancy to fill). This practice often precipitates or accelerates the

decline of rural schools, and the rules surrounding it must be modified.

113. Finally, large class sizes discourage teachers who are not able to give students the attention

they need. Evidence suggests that when government schools are successful in some areas of

Pakistan, they attract so many students that they become overcrowded, which of course jeopardizes

the very success that attracted the students.

The following describes a successful girls' school that, according to one of the parents, is in danger

of decline:

The villager, who is one of the local leaders, said that his daughter works hard everynight at home on her studies. She knows her lessons, and likes her teachers, who checkher work regularly and write notes in her notebook about the quality of the work. Hewants to have the school upgraded to a middle school ifpossible, and also recruit moreteachers. "It is impossible for the teachers to cope with the increasing number of girls!"(NWFP)

In a girls' control school in Punjab the researcher explicitly associates the decline of the school with

its earlier success:

The following negative changes have taken place in the school: the grade repetition ratehas increased, school discipline has deteriorated, the number ofpupils out of uniformhas increased, and teacher commitment has decreased which is expressed in greaterabsenteeism, poorer punctuality among staff and students, the use ofpupil guides formemorization, and less coverage of the curriculum.

The main causes of the negative changes are increased enrollment, the consequentlack of staff, and the complete absence of supervision and supportfrom officials. Theproblems have been compounded by the increasing age of the head, who has lost theenergy and drive to work to improve the school, recruit more staff, and so on.

In a sense, the success of the school has been the cause of its failure. There is acontinuous tension between the pressures to increase enrollment from the communityand, in recent years, from officials and the resistance of teachers to doing so because ofthe lack of staff andphysicalfacilities.

114. It is therefore important that successful schools (and generally increasing enrollment is a

sign of success) are allowed to recruit more teachers. Teacher allocations should be tied to

enrollment. Doing so will require reformning the hiring function; new teaching positions should be

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awarded to successful schools, and parents should be consulted about whether their school needsnew teachers. In the first instance, a more rational distribution of teachers, entailing aredeployment of teachers from under-used schools to under-staffed ones, would not involvesignificant costs for government.

TEACHER KNOWLEDGE, RECRUITMENT, AND TRAINING

Training

115. The evidence suggests that teacher training is an important element of educational success,and of course one way to increase the morale of teachers is through properly designed trainingprograms. A full treatment of the complex subject of teacher training is outside the scope of thisreport; we restrict ourselves to broad recommendations following from the evidence from thestudies. That good training raises morale and is appreciated by teachers is not in doubt, as thefollowing observation captures. The head of a successful girls' school in Punjab received someinformal coaching in management and teaching techniques from a well-liked deputy districteducation officer, and she related its importance:

This was the first time that an official had encouraged us. We were thrilled This had agreat impact on us. She explained the role of a head teacher to me, both the positive andthe negative points. She said that the head teacher was the life of a school. I learned agreat dealfrom her.

But when staff have appreciated training programs, the local education administration seems not tohave been made aware of the fact:

Up until 1992 the Government had given some lessons regularly in planningregisters,'diaries for teachers, but this practice had ceased, and no reasons were given bythe authorities why it was not continued Teachers hadfound this helpful. (A successfulboys' schools, Punjab)

116. Teacher training has also been a critical element in the success of the CSP initiative inBalochistan. In contrast with teachers in most government schools, CSP teachers have beenobserved making intensive use of materials and techniques learned in training. Nevertheless, theCSP scheme is asking a great deal of teachers who may be as young as 15 years old, with as littleas an eighth-grade pass from school. These teachers are responsible for an entire school, and atleast to some extent for motivating students and parents to keep up attendance. As communitiesexpect more of the teachers, support and training will be imperative, and the existing trainingsystem must be upgraded.

117. But the quality of teacher training in Pakistan has been poor. In an analysis of thefactors affecting schooling outcomes, Warwick and Reimers (in press) conclude that the amountof training is not influential on schooling outcomes. Rather than casting doubt on the value oftraining per se, this should cast doubt on the value of the training currently provided to teachersin Pakistan. Previous training initiatives have generally not been very effective, as indicated by thehead of a girls' control school in Punjab:

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The head teacher had received training in mathematics and social studies, but she saidthat she never used the training. The only other training was in the recitation of theQuran, received by all staff

118. The task is enormous: about 62,000 teachers in Pakistan are essentially untrained. Onepotential measure to address this backlog is through in-service teacher training. However, in itsusual form this has not been an effective response due to poor quality. A further problem,especially relevant in one-room schools, is that in-service training takes the teacher out of theclassroom, away from teaching, for apparently little gain. For example, a head teacher of asuccessful girls' school in NWFP reports being left alone for a month in charge of a two-teacherschool:

There are only two teachers in this school. One is on leavefor a month, because she isattending a training course called "Service Training". . . In her absence the headteacher is alone, which is difficult with 182 students present.

119. One strategy to address the problem has been to develop a three-month compressedtraining program. Such a program has been introduced in Balochistan covering the samesyllabus as the nine-month primary teaching certificate, but in only three months during thesummer. Beyond the obvious time saving and thus cost reduction, there is no longer the need fora substitute teacher. The program has not fully addressed the shortcomings of the originalsyllabus, however, which does not equip teachers with the skills necessary to teach multigradeclasses or to use activity-based approaches, both of which are necessary in Pakistan. Theoriginal syllabus also lacks practical content: teachers are lectured to, rather than observed andcounseled in the classroom. In addition, there is doubt as to whether the trainers have sufficientclassroom experience or knowledge of training methods. Better trainers, more teacher training,refresher courses to buttress the basic training, and school based practical training thus remainurgent necessities.

120. There have been successes. Two examples of more successful training that teachers findsuitable are the Aga Khan Field Based Teacher Development (FBTD) program and the FemaleMobile Teacher Training Program (FMTTP) in Balochistan. Among its activities, FMTTPprovides the training of CSP teachers. Both provide on-site training for a cluster of schools,rather than asking that trainees attend a central institution far away from school. Women whocannot travel or who live away from home can thus receive training. Furthermore, the per-student cost of the FBTD program is much less than the cost at traditional teacher trainingcolleges (Rs. 18,000 compared with Rs. 23,000), even though the field-based approach providesmore individualized instruction to about 10 teachers whereas teacher training colleges instruct upto 200 teachers in one center. Both successful programs emphasize child-centered teaching andpromote the use of local materials and activity-based learning.

121. A training program along the lines of the Aga Khan program or the FMTTP should bepiloted more widely in schools across the four provinces. But it should go further, providingyearly refresher courses to sustain initial training. And, as with the Aga Khan model, theprogram should train teams to provide school-based in-service training, monitoring and refiningteachers' classroom techniques.

122. A factor in the success of CSP was that, in addition to receiving valuable training,teachers were properly screened before being recruited. Before entering training, potential

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teachers took examinations in mathematics and Urdu to establish sufficient competency. Thiskind of screening is generally lacking in the rest of the public sector school system.

Content Knowledge and Teacher Recruitment

123. According to Warwick and Reimers, "Between 1987 and 1992 Pakistan's teachertraining had a poor reputation and did not develop either skills in teaching or mastery of fieldssuch as mathematics and [science]".5 This observation identifies two major problems: theteaching skills of teachers, normally the domain of teacher training, and teachers' generalmastery of their fields, which should ideally be identified at the recruitment stage. In their study,Warwick and Reimers found that the most important determinant of variation in outcomes wasthe general educational level of the teacher.

124. One task is therefore to recruit the appropriately qualified candidates. The ideal longterm solution to this problem is to raise the level of the matriculation (tenth-grade) examinationwhich all incoming teachers are required to have. An interim solution for the governments is todesign an appropriate (fifth-grade) content-knowledge examination and pretest all candidates.But the larger task in the short term is to upgrade the mastery of teachers already in theprofession. All government primary school teachers should be recertified, contingent uponpassing a basic test of content knowledge.

125. As the experience in Balochistan attests, finding qualified female teachers in rural areascan present problems. In the CSP, age and qualification restrictions on female teachers wererelaxed in order to increase the supply of potential candidates. However, there need not be atradeoff between raising the standards of teacher education and increasing the supply of femaleteachers. The scarcity of candidates has not led the program to accept teachers without thenecessary level of basic knowledge. Entry standards must be clear, and, subsequent to entry,teachers must be supported by training programs and pass the matriculation examination.

126. Any discussion of teaching methods leads naturally into a consideration of appropriateteaching materials. In certain of the successful schools in the ethnographic study, teachers wereusing sand and stones as teaching aids for writing and arithmetic, a method introduced to them inteacher training sessions. At the same time, more expensive and complicated teaching kits wereleft unused, despite having been introduced with the aim of modifying teaching practices.Teacher training can clearly promote more widespread and innovative use of materials, and amove away from the rote-learning that is so common in today's system. But if materials are tobe used, then they should be appropriate and teachers must understand how to use them and wantto use them.

MATERIALS

127. Past government spending has been devoted largely to the construction of schoolbuildings. Yet books and basic teaching materials, which in many cases would do more toimprove education, and which parents appreciate (as the book survey in NWFP illustrates), cost

5 Warwick, Don and Fernando Reimers, Hope or Despair: Learning in Pakistan's Primary Schools, inpress, Praeger.

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only a fraction of the outlay for a construction project. The following describes the misplacedemphasis on construction under the current system:

Recently, the Government [. .] constructed a large new buildingfor this schooL Thishas not been very well-received, however.... "They didn't even ask us what kind of aschool building we wanted, " related the staff. The contractors tore down the boundarywall, which had been constructed by the community and maintained by the teachers andstudents, andput up a crooked single-brick wall, which is likely tofall down. The newbuilding, whose walls are already beginning to crack and crumble, ignores the needs ofthe community, which likes open, airy, and well-lit rooms. The small classroom windowshave grills and painted wire gauze, which stops light and air and is suffocatingfor thelarge number of children in each class. Thefour new toilets are equipped with mirrorsbut no water. " (Punjab)

128. Previous initiatives to increase the supply of classroom inputs and improve their deliverymet with some success, but often suffered from inefficiency in implementation. For example,some provinces have purchased learning materials but have not distributed them to schools intime for the start of the academic year, and sometimes not at all.

129. A greater supply and the more careful distribution of basic inputs does not imply thatthe governments should abandon attempts to provide physical infrastructure. Parents repeatedlystated in interviews that the structure of a school was an important indicator of quality, and manyschools in rural areas still lack any form of shelter, discouraging parents from sending theirchildren to school. However, policy should be sensitive to the type of physical structures thatcommunities want. A basic building, an outside wall, latrines, and water pumps seem to be themost highly valued items, these should be provided at minimum cost.

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5. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

130. The recommendations that follow fall into three broad categories. First, there arerecommendations to "implement": those for which the evidence is strong, and for which enoughpractical experience exists in Pakistan, to justify immediate and widespread implementation.Second, there are recommendations to "phase-in" which should be executed incrementally, todevelop the processes of reform and implementation jointly with the governments. Third, thereare recommendations to "pilot ", in those areas where successful experiences suggest the needfor further experimentation. We make use of these categories below.

131. Recommendations for "implementing" are those designed to reform the governmentschools system through: (a) more meaningful involvement of parents, teachers, and headteachers, and with substantially greater delegation of power to the community and school level,(b) enhancement of the availability of non-salary inputs at the school level (basic supplies,teaching materials, repair and maintenance, etc.) and improvement in the condition of existingschool buildings, provision of boundary walls, water pumps, and suitably designed latrines, and(c) certification and upgrading of the skills (content knowledge and methodology) of all primaryschool teachers. The certification and upgrading process should be conducted in full consultationwith representatives of the teaching profession.

132. The "phase-in" category recommendations cover those areas for which strong evidenceexists to support the recommendations but further work is needed to define or refine animplementation strategy. They cover three broad policy areas: (a) those involving large scalereplication of successful pilots for the establishment of urban home-schools, rural community-managed schools, and the rural loan or grant financing schemes managed by the ProvincialEducation Foundations, (b) reforms of the teacher service rules and conditions of employmentwithin the teaching profession which aim at increasing the effectiveness and accountability ofprimary school teachers, and (c) schemes that are working successfully on a small-scale toupgrade content and pedagogical knowledge among primary school teachers, including makingin-service training more school based, and overhauling teacher training and recruitment systems.

133. The "pilot" category recommendations cover three broad areas, that government: (a)form partnerships with NGOs and Private Operators to reach the objective of providing universalprimary education (in a context in which the Government does not have to deliver all the primaryeducation it finances), (b) experiment with different incentive mechanisms and reforms ofprimary school teachers' service rules and conditions of employment to improve theireffectiveness and accountability, and (c) pilot alternative teacher training methods, field andactivity based preservice and in-service approaches (taking into account multigradeenvironments and the need to adapt local materials), leading to longer-term reforms to thesystem of training educators (intended to make fundamental changes in their pedagogical skillsand content knowledge, and the way in which teaching is performed in government schools).

134. Finally, we would like to recommend strongly that the authorities not be selective inimplementing the policy recommendations presented below. They form a minimum packagedesigned to enhance the effectiveness and accountability of the primary education system. Thereis strong evidence that community participation alone is not sufficient to ensure a "successful"school and similarly there is strong evidence that school inputs are ineffective when placed in

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isolation in a school. There is also strong evidence that the Government, by itself and in the nearfuture, does not have the financial or implementation capacity to fulfill the goal of universalprimary quality education. That goal requires complementary support from NGOs and theprivate sector.

NONGOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

135. It is the accepted responsibility of governments to finance primary education, due to itshigh social returns. The governments alone, however, do not have the managerial capacity, orthe long-term financing capacity, to achieve and sustain the goal of universal, high-quality,primary education within the next decade. The solution is to form partnerships with parents,teachers, the private sector, and NGOs to implement a ten-year development plan, with eachpartner contributing according to its comparative advantage. In other words, the governmentsneed not be the providers of all the services they finance.

136. This process must nevertheless be pursued with caution. There is still uncertainty aboutthe precise role for the nongovemment sectors in this partnership. In some -- mostly urban --areas, a private/NGO education sector is already established. Even in these areas, however, thereis still a need to determine the desirable government share of basic education provision andmeasures to assist poor students including the mechanisms and amounts of subsidies. In rural andurban areas with only an infant private/NGO sector, there is additional uncertainty about how tostimulate private/NGO sector participation.

Financing: Subsidies, Technical Assistance, and Focused Intervention

137. The governments should develop further efforts to offer targeted subsidies to providersof education serving low income areas, with special emphasis on girls' education. Individualschemes should target low-income neighborhoods geographically (to ensure low-costmonitoring) and selectively, by distributing bundles of fellowships to communities and allowingthem to contract private or NGO operators for services under guidance from government. Meansof support will differ according to local conditions.

138. Experience demonstrates that the provision of education services through private/NGOproviders can be a cost-effective strategy. The arrangements analyzed and recommended belowimply that resources equivalent to one government primary teacher (Rs. 2,500 per month) wouldbe transferred to a poor community on the understanding that at least 25 students will beenrolled. In all subsidy schemes envisaged in this report, therefore, the level of governmentexpenditure involved per student would be less than the direct cost of hiring government teachersto achieve the same goals (approximately Rs. 100, assuming 25 students per teacher in agovernment school, plus indirect costs and nonteaching salaries). Moreover, experience to datehas suggested that the educational outcomes under private/NGO programs (including thosesubsidized by government) tend to be better than those in government schools, so that "unitcosts" may be even lower and cost-effectiveness greater.

139. Reaching in the poorest sectors of society with sustainable and reasonable-qualityeducational services will almost certainly require a modest subsidy (Rs. 20-60 per studentmonthly) for the foreseeable future, targeted to poor students.

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Urban Areas

140. In urban areas that have a robust private/NGO education sector, the governments shouldtry programs offering moderate subsidies to help finance expansion and quality improvements inexisting successful schools that provide education to children (particularly girls) living in low-income urban and semi-urban areas. It should give priority to private/NGO operators' projectsthat seek to enhance both enrollment in and the quality of education. ("pilot")

141. In urban areas that have an infant private/NGO education sector, the governments shouldtry programs of subsidies for establishing new, good-quality, private/NGO schools that serve thepoor areas exclusively. It should also evaluate the Quetta Girls' Urban Fellowship Program andreplicate it with appropriate modifications in urban slums of other cities. ("pilot")

142. The governments should finance and encourage NGOs to replicate the home schoolsprojects and should also grant subsidies for upgrading successful home schools (with ademonstrated track record of at least two years) into registered primary schools. Under theupgrading scheme, the governments should consider subsidizing the recurrent costs of homeschools, conditional on their formalization and registration with the Provincial EducationalDepartment. ("'phase-in ")

Rural Areas

143. In rural villages that do not have a qualified local female teacher, or a female teacheracceptable to the community, the governments should encourage the establishment ofcommunity- or NGO-managed primary schools that delegate decisions over teacher hiring tolocal parents, who then may be willing to accept a local male teacher to teach their daughters.The governments should evaluate the Balochistan Girls' Rural Fellowship Program, makeappropriate modifications, and then replicate when appropriate. ("phase-in")

144. Loan or grant schemes managed by the Provincial Education Foundations shouldinitially fund only the recurrent expenditures of existing private or NGO schools (possiblyestablished in rented buildings) serving low income areas (schools charging monthly fees of lessthan Rs. 100). If schools demonstrate sustainable enrollment for a two-year probation period,then civil works financing could be additionally considered. ("implement")

145. The Provincial Education Foundations should provide private and NGO operators withtechnical assistance in management and education. The Foundations should also considerproviding subsidies, incentives, and technical assistance to established private teacher trainingcolleges, that have demonstrated their ability to serve private/NGO schools in poor areas.("implement")

Regulatory Structure

146. The educational codes and associated rules regulating nongovernment schools should bereframed and simplified. They must be implementable and transparent. ("implement")

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147. The Government should also clarify the legal status of nongoverment schools tominimize the scope for rent-seeking based on classification as profit making and non-profitmaking. ("implement")

REFORM OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

148. Government schools represent the vast majority of schools in rural Pakistan: nationallythe private sector makes up less than 10 percent of the system. Reform of the government sectoris therefore obviously of paramount importance, even if policy also encourages the private/NGOsector, as this report is arguing for.

Community Participation

149. The research findings discussed in this report have shown that the impact of anyintervention on educational outcomes depends on school-based reform, with meaningfulinvolvement of parents, and some delegation of power to the community and school level.

150. The experience in Balochistan demonstrates that community participation in governmentschools is a cost effective strategy (CSP government girls' schools). Although it increased thecapital cost of establishing a school by approximately 20 percent (mostly the cost of hiring theNGO) it then increased enrollment by as much as 50 percent and simultaneously raisedstandards.

151. A priority reform in a ten-year framework, therefore, is to institute parent educationcommittees for all 156,500 schools in Pakistan, under a phased-in implementation. This requiresthe following steps ("implement"):

* Defining minimum criteria for such a parent committee, as well as the tasks andresponsibilities of the committee.

* Initiating a publicity campaign in each of the provinces to make parents aware ofboth the benefits of being involved in their children's schools and the functions andresponsibilities of the parent committee.

* Training head teachers to promote the parent committees, and negotiating yearlytargets with them for the formation and operation of the committees. Their successat promoting parent committees should be reflected when their performance isevaluated. Similarly, district level officers, sub-district level officers, and learningcoordinators should be trained in this role, thereby sensitizing them to theimportance of the committees, as experience in Balochistan suggests.

* Using experienced NGOs to provide training and promotion.* Gradually delegating managerial and financial tasks to the committees--monitoring

attendance among teachers and students, controlling repair and maintenance funds,allocating funds for classroom materials, and distributing small teacher attendancebonuses. ("phase-in ")

152. Parent committees should be formed before any new government school is established.In rural areas, an NGO may have to provide intensive door-to-door promotion (as in the CSP

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model). Before construction, the new schools ought to operate for a minimum probationaryperiod, and demonstrate minimum enrollment. ("implement")

153. The position of head teacher should be formalized and include the role of communitymobilization. ("implement")

Structural Changes

154. Given that the effective school year tends to be shortened by sanctioned andunsanctioned teacher absences, the official school year should be extended, perhaps to about 200school days. ( "phase-in ")

155. Research illustrates that communities should be made co-responsible for nonfunctioningschools. Underenrolled schools (schools with fewer than 15 students) should be identified, andcommunities be offered a menu of options ("implement"):

* A parent committee be formed and, with the help of an appropriate NGO wherenecessary, an action plan to create sufficient enrollment be prepared by thecommunity and teachers, and presented to the district office.

* If a successful action plan cannot be implemented, the school be closed and theequivalent money given to the parent committee to establish a community (possiblyprivately- or NGO-run) school.

* The school be closed or relocated.

156. Clusters of underenrolled schools that are less than 1.5 km from each other should beconsolidated. Surplus teachers should be relocated away from underenrolled schools. Thenumber of teaching positions in a school should be linked to enrollment; new teaching positionsshould be awarded to successful schools that need them. ("implement")

The Teaching Service

157. In order to work out the details of recommendations affecting conditions of service ofeducation sector employees, discussions must be held with all interested parties, especiallyteachers. These discussions should include the amount of legal absences allowed under thecurrent system. ("implement")

158. An attendance bonus for teachers should be pilot-tested. This should provideinformation about how to design the most cost-effective bonus scheme. In these pilots, parenteducation committees should be allowed to administer the teacher attendance bonus. Theyshould award the bonus to those teachers who have taken the minimum necessary leave. Anyamount not distributed in one period can be applied to other school-related expenditures.( "pilot")

159. The governments should enforce appropriate penalties for unauthorized leave, includingthe disallowance of grade-enhancements and step increases. District education officers shouldbe given power to penalize teachers for demonstrable nonattendance, based on clear criteria, andmonitored in their use of these powers. ( "phase-in ")

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160. Automatic grade-enhancement of teachers by years of service should be abolished.Merit-based grade-enhancement should be instituted, taking into account parent committeerecommendations about attendance. Grade-enhancement should be vetted by educationcommittees: teachers who are chronically absent (as certified by the district office and the parentcommittee) should not be considered for grade-enhancement. ("phase-in")

161. The community, through the parent committee, should have more voice in the hiring andtransfer of teachers. Formal consultations between the parent committees and the districteducation officers should regulate teachers' postings and transfers. Teachers or heads should notbe transferred or posted against the wishes of both the teacher and community. ("implement")

The Monitoring System

162. Implementing the above recommendations requires an effective monitoring mechanism("implement"). First, the monitoring of teacher attendance should be conducted by the parentcommittees. Second, a formal feedback mechanism should be created to integrate thecommittees' monitoring results into the assistant district education officers' reports. Third,education departments should perform spot checks that parent committees are:

* Representative of the parents.* Performing agreed functions appropriately.* Using repair and maintenance funds and the attendance bonus properly.* Participating in teacher transfer decisions.* Vetting grade-enhancement decisions.

Teacher Training

163. The teacher recruitment and training systems must be overhauled; teachers must have agreater grasp of the subject matter and teaching methods. ( "phase-in ")

164. Cost-effective means of improving teachers' content knowledge need to be explored. Forexample, preservice teacher training colleges should administer a content-knowledge test prior toadmission. Candidates who wish to enroll in the primary teacher training program should pass agrade five test, regardless of their results from the matriculation degree examination. Candidateswho cannot pass grade five tests should not be admitted. ("phase-in ")

165. Existing teachers should be recertified. Those failing a grade five literacy and numeracytest should be redeployed to nonteaching jobs under a three-year action plan. All new teachersshould be required to pass the same certification test. Teachers hired under the CSP should betutored to help them pass the matriculation examination. ("implement")

166. Based on the experience of the Aga Khan field-based training program in AJK, thegovernments should consider changes to preservice and in-service teacher training curricula tomake teaching more child-centered and activity-based. The governments should also considerdeveloping techniques for teaching in a multigrade environment and adapting local materials. Ifthese changes are adopted, then faculty members of teacher training colleges should receivetraining in these areas and give practice-teaching in primary schools. ("phase-in")

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167. In-service training for untrained teachers should no longer be provided at residentialteacher training colleges. Instead, funds should be devoted to school-based teacher training. Forexample, mobile teacher training teams could provide nine months of training over a three-yearperiod (three months during summer vacations each year) at different schools throughout theschool year. Trainees should include teachers from neighboring schools, and the trainingregimen shouJd require that trainees teach primary school students. Master trainers wouldprovide demonstration lessons, and observe and correct the teaching techniques of trainees.( "phase-in ")

168. Most of the recommendations for teacher training involve redeploying training materialsand staff, and so do not entail significant costs (to the extent that the teacher training materialsand staff located at the government teacher training colleges can be redeployed and rationalizedas part of the reforms). The major substantive change that carries a significant cost is theprovision of intensive in-service training with the characteristics of the Aga Khan program. Hereour estimate is that the total training cost would be equivalent to an increase in teachers' salariesof about 3 to 4 percent (based on training teachers locally in groups of ten, for three months,once every three years).

169. Proposed changes in teacher recruitment and training should be discussed betweengovernments and representatives of the teaching profession. ("implement")

Non-salary Inputs

170. Because parents perceive that the existence and condition of a school building is animportant element of a successful school, the school building must be acceptable to parents. Toavoid waste, approval for school construction must be contingent on proven demand;construction should be sanctioned only when a school has passed a probationary period withstable enrollment. ("implement")

171. Boundary walls, water pumps, and suitably designed latrines should be provided to allgirls' schools as a priority, and to all boys' schools in a phased manner. ("implement")

172. Sufficient funds should be budgeted for minor school repairs and maintenance, and bemanaged by the parent committees wherever possible. ("phase-in " as VECs are established)

173. Basic supplies--chalkboards, chalk, classroom aids--should be available to all schoolsbefore the beginning of the school year. The governments should consider maintaining a year'ssupply of all basic materials within the school. ("implement")

174. Other school supplies, such as textbooks, multigrade teaching kits, should be provided inconjunction with in-service and preservice teacher training. ("implement")

175. All of the inputs listed above already form part of government budgets, so theserecommendations carry minimal additional costs. However, allocations for the management andsupervisory staff in the primary education system are clearly inadequate. Higher allocationsbetter reflecting needs could significantly affect government recurrent budgets.

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ANNEX 1.1 THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROGRAM IN RURAL BALOCHISTAN

Under the Community Support Program community members join with the Government toaddress factors that inhibit girls from attaining education in rural Balochistan: little initial parentdemand, difficulty in identifying qualified female teaching candidates, absenteeism amongposted teachers, inadequate facilities, and weak local administration. In its first two years, CSPestablished more than 200 schools in areas where girls' schools had not existed previously.

Under the CSP, much of the community's input goes towards establishing the school. AnNGO works with community members to identify a potential teacher, to verify her residence inthe village and qualifications, and to test her competency in Urdu and mathematics. NGOextension workers then help the community establish a village education committee. A typicalcommittee has five members, each of whom must have a child in school and be elected by 75percent of the parents in the village. Members may not be related to other members or to theteacher. In some communities, all-female committees are also established.

The education committee and the teacher arrange a temporary building for the school andstart the school on a trial basis. If the school maintains enrollment and attendance for threemonths, the teacher receives a full post from the Government, along with a package ofinstructional materials, and three months of teacher training. The Government also commits toproviding a permanent building after two more years of successful operation. Once the school isestablished, the committee monitors attendance among students and teachers, continues topromote enrollment, and works with local administration to improve conditions in and theperformance of the school.

ANNEX 1.2 THE URBAN GIRLS' FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM IN QUETTA

The program has encouraged the private sector to establish high-quality, low-cost privateprimary schools for girls in twelve different low-income areas of Quetta. These schools aresupported by student scholarships paid by the community. Further support to the schools comesfrom two sources: a community support NGO whose function is to promote the school andmotivate community participation, and the Balochistan Private Education Foundation, whichprovides technical assistance in monitoring, planning, and financial management. Each of thecommunities selected has between 200 and 300 girls of age four to eight. None of the areascontains a government primary school for girls.

With the help of the NGO, each community established a parent education committee andwas assigned resources equivalent to 100 scholarships. The committee hired a private schooloperator to establish a primary school, and was obliged to enroll a minimum of 100 girls age fiveto eight from the community. Schools are to receive subsidies for three years from their openingin March 1995, to February 1998. The subsidy is expected to cover the costs of one teacher plussome recurrent costs for every 25 girls. Schools that enroll fewer than 50 girls do not receive asubsidy. Schools may enroll boys or girls older than eight, but these children do not counttowards the subsidy.

Teachers must have at least a grade ten pass and the school must train them before the startof the school year. Classes may not exceed 50 students. To encourage savings for future needs,the program stipulates that Rs. 2500 ($80) of each monthly subsidy be placed into a bankaccount held jointly by the Foundation and the school. The school can use these funds during thethree-year period if the Foundation agrees, but the primary purpose of the account is to give theschool a cushion when the scholarships are discontinued. The account will be released to theschool at the end of the third year.

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ANNEX 2. REGRESSION ANALYSES

For all regression coefficients, * indicates significance at the 10 percent level, **

indicates significance at the 5 percent level.

A.2.1. NWFP

Explanation of Independent Variables for All NWFP Analyses

Mother's and Father's Education number of years schooling attendedHealthy? response to the question, "Is the child usually healthy?"-- I if "yes."Younger/older males/females number of siblingsChild Labor Market I if sample of 6 households per community stated that there was a

labor market for children of the age of the childPredicted Income income predicted from labor market data, household assets, and

number of adults, from Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, 1991Predicted Teacher Attendance teacher attendance predicted from regression shownDistance to School in kilometersPredicted Starting Age child's school starting age instrumented using household wealth,

productive attributes, and community characteristicsMarried dummy variable -- I if teacher is marriedChildren Under 5 number of children under 5 teacher hasCommuting Time minutes travel for teacher to schoolHighest Degree teacher's highest degree -- CALL PETERSalary/1000 teacher's monthly salary in Rs.'000Private School dummy variable -- I if private, 0 if government

Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Probit Analysis of Child Attendance

Dependent variable: attendance at school in previous week (1 if attended, 0 if not).

Girls BoysConstant -0.556 (0.76) -0.433 (0.43)Mother's Education 0.046 (0.04) -0.002 (0.02)Father's Education -0.005 (0.02) -0.001 (0.01)Healthy? 1.10** (0.46) 0.873** (0.21)Younger Females 0.276** (0.11) 0.110 (0.07)Younger Males 0.058 (0.09) 0.207** (0.08)Older Females 0.027 (0.09) 0.098** (0.05)Older Males 0.035 (0.06) 0.073* (0.04)Child Labor Market -0.411 (0.39) 0.364** (0.15)Predicted Income -0.0005 (0.03) -0.0000 (0.02)Predicted Teacher Attendance -0.243 (0.53) 0.010 (0.31)Distance to School 0.141 (0.11) 0.013 (0.02)N 255 738

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Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Probit Analysis of Teacher Attendance

Dependent variable: spot check of teacher attendance (I if present, 0 if absent)

Constant 1.022* (0.43)Male -0.016 (0.17)Married -0.304 (0.19)Children Under 5 -0.049 (0.09)Father's Education -0.007* (0.004)Commuting Time -0.001 (0.002)Highest Degree -0.025 (0.09)Salary/1000 0.277** (0.17)Private School 0.768** (0.31N 642

Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Two-Stage Least Squares Analysis of Test Scores

Dependent variable: scores on grade-one test taken at beginning of grade two

Mathematics LanguageConstant 1.29 (4.3) -15.9** (4.8)Male -0.515 (0.59) -2.39** (0.66)Mother's Education 0.162 (0.10) 0.114 (0.12)Father's Education -0.046 (0.05) -0.03 (0.06)Healthy? 0.452 (0.95) 1.96* (1.1)Younger Females 0.354 (0.29) 0.626* (0.32)Younger Males 1.13** (0.29) 0.941** (0.32)Older Females 0.110 (0.24) -0.225 (0.27)Older Males 0.340* (0.18) 0.360* (0.21)Child Labor Market -0.262 (0.53) -0.332 (0.59)Predicted Income -0.037 (0.07) -0.006 (0.07)Predicted Teacher Attendance 14.12** (4.6) 27.7** (5.1)Distance to School 0.140 (0.09) 0.189* (0.10)N 315 315

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Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Two-Stage Least Squares Analysis of Stated Desired Yearsof Schooling, and Tobit Analyses of Actual Grade Attained and Years of Schooling

Dependent variables: Desired Years -- number of years as stated by parentsYears -- years of schooling completed by children not in schoolGrade -- highest grade completed by children not in school

Girls and Boys Girls BoysDesired Years Years Grade Grade Grade

Constant 10.25** 2.252 5.758 12.76* 8.330(0.73) (6.9) (5.1) (7.0) (6.5)

Male 1.63** 2.09** 1.21 **(0.20) (0.69) (0.51)

Mother's 0.171** 0.447** 0.289** Dropped for 0.149Education (0.04) (0.18) (0.12) stability (0.14)Father's 0.153** 0.182** 0.174** 0.158* 0.175**Education (0.02) (0.06) (0.05) (0.08) (0.05)Healthy? 0.477 2.382** 1.919** 2.90** 1.936**

(0.40) (0.91) (0.66) (1.3) (0.78)Younger Females 0.016 -0.075 0.317** -0.093 0.445**

(0.10) (0.21) (0.15) (0.24) (0.19)Younger Males -0.041 0.004 0.627** 1.47** 0.569**

(0.01) (0.21) (0.15) (0.43) (0.17)Older Females 0.176** -0.113 -0.119 0.363 -0.264

(0.08) (0.35) (0.25) (0.56) (0.27)Older Males -0.036 -0.680** 0.341 1.95* 0.207

(0.06) (0.34) (0.30) (1.0) (0.32)Child Labor -0.130 0.358 0.135 0.411 0.060Market (0.25) (0.73) (0.54) (0.77) (0.74)Predicted Income -0.034 0.175* 0.055 0.291* -0.015

(0.03) (0.10) (0.07) (0.15) (0.07)Predicted Teacher 0.304 -2.829** -1.694* -5.31** -0.353Attendance (0.49) (1.41) (1.02) (1.77) (1.18)Distance to School -0.068

(0.04)Predicted Starting 1.104 -0.184 -1.79 -0.417Age (1.18) (0.88) (1.2) (1.2)N 1114 2255 2472 473 1999

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A.2.2. Lahore

Explanation of Variables from Lahore Analyses

Predicted Private School probability of attending private school instrumentedfrom regressions shown in first two columns

Female dummy variable, I if girl, 0 if boyIncome logarithm of family incomeFather's/Mother's Primary/Secondary Education dummy variable, I if completedPrivate/Government Fees per child per month as reported by the householdPrivate/Government Costs household spending on books, uniforms, and

stationeryDistance to Private/Government area-level vector of median distance to schoolNumber of Government/Private Schools within a radius of 2 kilometers

Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Logit Analysis of Choice of Private School and Two StageLeast Squares Analysis of Achievement Test Scores

Dependent variable:Private School Choice -- I if private school, 0 if government schoolTest Scores -- combined total of scores on Urdu and math tests

Girls' Private School Boys' Private School Test ScoresChoice Choice

Constant -7.03** (1.60) -11.46** (1.69) 36.72** (9.36)Predicted Private School 9.589** (3.02)Female 1.911 * (1.10)Income 0.534** (0.16) 1.153** (0.18) -1.283 (1.23)Father's Primary Ed. 0.245 (0.22) 0.063 (0.21) 0.622 (1.41)Father's Secondary Ed. 0.173 (0.22) 0.018 (0.22) 1.292 (1.91)Mother's Primary Ed. 0.182 (0.19) 0.435** (0.20) 2.251* (1.31)Mother's Secondary Ed. 0.764** (0.22) 0.814** (0.24) 4.157** (1.50)Private Fees -0.003 (0.002) -0.010** (0.002)Government Fees 0.002 (0.007) 0.004 (0.006)Private Costs 0.012** (.0004) 0.015** (0.005)Government Costs -0.012** (0.004) -0.012** (0.003)Distance to Private -0.833** (0.29) 0.147 (0.37)Distance to Government 0.813** (0.24) 0.375* (0.194)Number of Private 2.020** (0.40) 1.689** (0.39)Number of Government -0.980** (0.35) -0.821** (0.35)N 822 907 263

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A.2.3. Quetta

Explanation of Independent Variables for Quetta Analyses

Desired Grade for the child as expressed by the motherMother's/Father's Education dummy variable, I if the parent attended school at allMale Teacher Allowed? for girls, dummy variable, I if parents will allow a male teacherFamilies in Household number of families under the same roofMother's Age-group I if under 25, 2 if between 25 and 35, 3 if over 35Father's Attitude towards education of boys (if child is a boy) or girls (if child is a girl):

I if "very good", 2 if "good", 3 if "undecided", "negative", or no responseChild's Age in yearsYounger/Older Siblings numberDistance to Government or neighborhood-level vector of mean distance travelled toPrivate School government/private school

Coefficients (Standard Errors) from Probit Analysis of Enrollment, Choice of Private School,and Uptake of Urban Girls 'FellowshipsDependent variables: Enrollment -- I if mother reported child as enrolled in school

Private School -- for enrolled children, I if private schoolFellowship -- I if girl enrolled at new fellowship school

Enrollment Private School FellowshipGirls Boys Girls Boys Girls

Constant -3.038** -2.589** -2.154** 0.701* -0.570*(0.28) (0.28) (0.46) (0.38) (0.31)

Desired Grade 0.102** 0.0667** -0.0234* 0.050** -0.0019(0.008) (0.008) (0.012) (0.010) (0.009)

Mother's Education 0.132 0.420** 0.204* 0.459** -0.375**(0.090) (0.094) (0.11) (0.094) (0.11)

Father's Education 0.176** 0.217** -0.0126 0.323** 0.055(0.052) (0.055) (0.078) (0.065) (0.057)

Male Teacher Allowed? 0.251 ** 0.686* * 0.015(0.060) (0.096) (0.066)

Families in Household 0.024 0.011 0.0575** 0.055** 0.060**(0.016) (0.016) (0.026) (0.021) (0.018)

Mother's Age-group 0. 127** 0.259** 0.038 -0.165** 0.051(0.046) (0.048) (0.070) (0.060) (0.051)

Father's Attitude -0.148** -0.287** 0.344** -0.051 0.0074(0.053) (0.061) (0.079) (0.090) (0.060)

Child's Age 0.328** 0.420** -0.247** -0.108** -0.048**(0.016) (0.016) (0.025) (0.021) (0.022)

Younger Siblings -0.000 0.094** -0.038 -0.022 0.024(0.02) (0.024) (0.030) (0.026) (0.026)

Older Siblings -0.004 -0.012 -0.208** -0.073** 0.039**(0.02) (0.0 19) (0.030) (0.027) (0.020)

Distance to Government -0.214** -0.188* * -0.469** 0.058 0.179**School (0.060) (0.064) (0.094) (0.078) (0.065)Distance to Private -0.094** -0.386** 0.71 1** -0.381** -0.570*School i (0.043) (0.057) (0.080) (0.082) (0.31)N 3422 3498 1533 1983 2677

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IMAGING

Repor N o 149i60 PAKType: S-R

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