Education plays an important role in human capital formation. It raises the productivity, efficiency of individuals and produces skilled manpower that is capable of leading the economy towards the path of sustainable economic development.

Importance of Education for human resource development does not need any elucidation. The developed countries attach highest priority to education so do the developing countries. The constitution of Pakistan accepts education as one of the fundamental rights of a citizen as well as constitutional commitment of the government to provide access to education to every citizen. Accordingly, promotion of education has always been a matter of concern for the policy makers and successive regimes in Pakistan who remained conscious of the importance of this catalyst of social change and demonstrated their zeal, for the expansion of education opportunities in the country by introducing/implementing their respective education policies.

However, like many other developing countries, the condition of the education sector in Pakistan is not very encouraging. The low enrollment rates at the primary level, wide disparities between regions and genders, lack of trained teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials, and poor physical infrastructure of schools indicate the poor performance of this sector. The literacy rate, at present, is estimated at 47.1 percent (male 59.0 percent and female 35.4 percent). Illiteracy among female is still prevalent particularly in rural areas. Non-formal primary education programmes of a number of the active NGOs are also addressing the issue of illiteracy among the women and girls.

National Education Policy envisaged to achieve 55 percent literacy rate by 2003 and 70 percent by 2010. It is hoped that through joint efforts of public, private and the NGO sectors, the targets would be achieved. High population growth rates are causing unprecedented increase in absolute number of illiterate adults; which were about 43 million in 1981 and gone up to 53 million according to the 1998 population census, posing a big challenge.

Elementary and Secondary Education
The number of primary and middle/elementary schools has increased substantially to 170524 and 24902 respectively, in 1999-2000. Private and NGO sectors' data are not available, but their contribution is said to be substantial. The major challenges of elementary education are as follows:

* More than 5.5 million primary school age Children (5-9) are left outs.
* Approximately 45 percent children drop out at the primary level.
* Teacher absenteeism is a common malady in schools especially in the rural areas.
* Instructional supervision is weak at the elementary level.
* About one-forth of primary school teachers are untrained and the present training infrastructure does not appear to improve the quality of instruction.
* Learning materials are inadequate and of poor quality. Teaching methods are hard and uncongenial for learning and motivating pupils.

Primary Education has been the top priority area within education sector. This is evident from the fact that, on average, half of the education budget/allocations had been earmarked for the promotion of primary education. It may be pointed out that primary education has the highest rate of return. A number of policy measures, strategies, innovative programmes, development plans and projects are being implemented for the promotion of Primary Education in Pakistan.

In primary education, the key SAP areas include the girls primary education in terms of
access and quality through:

* Introduction of mixed schools in places where it is culturally acceptable, introducing the provision of female teachers in mixed schools and putting them under female administration and provision of basic facilities in primary schools such as boundary walls, toilets, supply of water etc.

* Increased employment of female teachers with a ratio of 70:30 and setting up 60 percent girls and 40 percent boys schools in future.

* Improving the availability of female teachers through relaxation of age limits and qualification for entry and re-entry into the profession and localization of the teacher cadre to the district level.

One model secondary school (separate for boys & girls) will be set up at each district level. Participation rate at secondary level will be raised from 35 percent in 1998 to 45.8 percent by 2003 and 70 percent by 2010.

Participation Rate
Enrollment data given in Table 11.1 indicate a steady increase in student enrollment at primary, middle and secondary levels of education.

E: Estimated
Source: Academy of Educational Planning and Management (Ministry of Education).

The over all participation rate at primary stage is 89 percent (boys 99 percent and girls 79 percent), at middle stage this is 47.5 percent (55 percent boys and 40 percent girls), and at high stage, it is 29.5 percent (35 percent boys and 24 percent girls). Looking at participation rate from gender perspective, it may be observed that girls participation rate at all levels are lower than boys (Table 11.2)

Source: i) Academy of Educational Planning and Management
ii) Estimated population prepared by National Institute of Population studies.
iii) All Pakistan pre-school and school age Population 1981-2000 by National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

Public Sector Expenditure on Education
During the current year 1999-2000, total public sector expenditure on education is estimated at Rs.71.129 billion as compared to Rs.68.598 billion in last year, showing an increase of 1.7 percent. Of which, development expenditure is Rs.7.687 billion, compared to Rs.6.321 billion last year, and non development expenditure is Rs.63.442 billion, as compared to Rs.62.276 billion last year. Public sector expenditure on education as percentage of GDP for the last three years remained on average at around 2.2 percent (Table 11.3)

Source: Planning & Development Division.

Social Action Programme(SAP)
The SAP-I (1993-96) addressed to the needs of primary education, basic health, population welfare and rural water supply & sanitation. Overall planned investment size of SAP-I was Rs.127.4 billion while the actual expenditure amounted to Rs.106.4 billion, indicating an utilization of 83.4 percent of the target outlay. Of which, Rs.69.8 billion were spent on the education sector which is 64 percent of the total SAP-I expenditure. In physical terms, the results were satisfactory, Primary school participation rate improved from 84.8 percent to 89 percent for boys and those of girls it increased from 53.7 to 57 percent during the SAP-I period (1993-96).

SAP-II has been formulated for another 5 year (1997-98 to 2001-2002) on the consideration that the impact of SAP-I has been quite satisfactory. The objective of SAP-II is also to raise status of human development in Pakistan. During implementation of SAP-II, it is planned to spend 66 percent of the total SAP-II outlay of Rs.498.8 billion on the elementary education (primary & middle).

Science and Technical Education
Necessary initiatives have been taken for the qualitative improvement and quantitative expansion with emphasis on strengthening and consolidation of the Science, Technical and Vocational Education, including undertaking of many research projects.

Public-Private Partnership
Public-private partnership is essential to promote education in the country. It is in this perspective that various programmes including Community Support Rural Programme; Urban Fellowship Programme; Training of private School Teachers; Financial Assistance to Private Schools and NGOs programme; Education Programme for working children; and participatory development programmes are currently under operation.

Under the Community Rural School Programme, around 206 Community schools are functioning in the remote areas of FATA, FANA, AJK and Federal Areas of Islamabad. Furthermore, during the last financial year i.e. 1998-99 around 22 private schools were given grant-in-aid for encouragement and effective involvement of private sector in promotion of basic education. During 1999-2000, around 30 private schools would be given grant-in-aid. Crash Literacy Programme for drop-out & illiterates was started in 1998 and 93 Centres were established with an enrollment of 1643 in Federal Rural Area.

Middle School Project
It is in the same spirit of public-private partnership that the international financial institution is also collaborating with the government for the promotion of education in the country. In collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, the government is implementing the Middle School Project in all the four provinces of Pakistan. In 1999, a total number of 228 Middle schools were opened under this project and 120 teacher trainers were also trained.

Curriculum Improvement
Upgrading the curriculum from time to time is an essential ingredient of promoting quality education. It is in this spirit that the broad parameters of the Curriculum Reforms relating to all subjects of grades I to XII have been formulated. The review of the prevalent curricula and textbooks continued. To incorporate new dimensions, concepts and contents in Environment, Population, Drugs and Human Rights were included in the textbooks and teacher training courses.

The exercise which was undertaken during 1998-99 for introducing "Quran-i-Pak. Nazira" from classes I-VIII and teaching of Holy Quran with translation for classes IX-X was reviewed. The textbook of Islamiyat and Holy Quran with translation for class IX was revised/updated on the basis of feedback from students/teachers and print media. Textbooks for class X were also developed accordingly. For implementing the new textbooks of Islamyat and Holy Quran one hundred and fifty (150) Master Trainers belonging to Northern Area, AJK and Balochistan were trained.

Work on a development project relating to integration of Madrissa education with the Formal Education System continued. A sum of Rs.2.169 million was released to fifty four (54) "Madrassas", as pay of the teachers. In addition, a sum of Rs.1.5 million was released as grant-in-aid to two hundred (200) "Deeni Madaris" of Pakistan. Sixty three (63) teachers of "Deeni Madaris" were trained in teaching for school subjects.

Higher Education
Universities play an important role in the overall development of the country by being a source of new scientific knowledge, technological applications and training of scientists and technicians. There were only two public sector Universities in Pakistan in 1947 whose number has now increased to 27, including one recently established "Bahria University at Islamabad". Besides, Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) established in 1998 has started master level courses in 12 subjects. During 1995-99, a record number of
20 new universities have been given charters, (4 public sector and 16 private universities). In total there are now 27 public sector and 16 private universities, in addition to 4 and 5 degree awarding institutions in the public and private sectors, respectively.

To Improve the quality of higher education, entry test have been introduced in all the professional institutions and quota system has been abolished. Self-finance scheme has also been introduced in the public sector universities to lessen the burden of the government. With these efforts, the financial position of the universities has improved. The ratio between the government grant and own income of the Universities was 85:15 in 1993-94 which, on an average, has now increased to 50:50 in 1999-2000. Almost all the public sector universities have established linkages with foreign universities to improve the quality of education.

Research projects worth Rs.289.520 million have been launched for the promotion of research in the universities. The curricula of various subjects have been revised. For the current financial year 1999-2000, Rs.2581.232 million have been allocated as grant-in-aid to the universities and other institutions of higher learning which is 7.3 percent higher over the last year. There are 44 development projects of higher education for which an amount of Rs.323.859 million, including foreign aid of Rs.0.642 million have been provided in the PSDP, 1999-2000.

Scholarship
Scholarships for higher studies abroad are awarded in various disciplines to the students selected on merit under various Scholarships Schemes. The schemes includes: (i) Central Overseas Training Scheme, (ii) Quaid-e-Azam Scholarship Scheme, (iii) Merit Scholarship Scheme, (iv) 100 Scholarship scheme, (v) Commonwealth Scholarships scheme and (vi) Cultural Scholarship scheme. Due to foreign exchange constraints, the fresh awards under these scholarship schemes remained suspended during 1999-2000, excepting the Commonwealth Scholarships Programme scheme under which 73 nominations were forwarded to the Association of Commonwealth, U.K. for consideration. Awards under Cultural Scholarships were offered, on the terms and conditions of the donors with no supplementation of the Government of Pakistan. During 1999-2000, 117 nominations were forwarded against the offer of 60 Scholarships from various Countries under the Cultural Exchange Programme.

Women Education
Female education has generally lagged behind male education due to a comparatively low base/societal attitudes since the inception of Pakistan. The participation of girls is 62 percent whereas for boys it is 92 percent. The major bottleneck to formal education are lack of schools for girls, especially when education is sex segregated in the country, reluctance on the part of female teachers to work in isolated rural areas or in urban slum area, irrelevance of primary school curricula to women employment possibilities, demand for girls household labour and restriction placed upon physical mobility.

Following programmes/projects have been launched to enhance literacy rate of women:-

* To enhance girls participation especially in rural area, government has launched inter-alia Middle Schooling Project in Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan. Stipends have been given to girls students to retain them at schools. Sindh Implementation Unit has awarded 4370 stipend to girls students, NWFP 3080 and Balochistan 2080.

* To produce more female teachers, Sindh implementation Unit has awarded 96 stipend to female teachers under rural female teacher stipend programme. 60 teachers in NWFP and 80 teachers in Balochistan have been awarded stipends.

* Motivational Campaign for the purpose of generating enrollment in primary schools has been launched.

* Free text-book/school bags have been given to poor girls students of rural areas under Community Model Schools Programme. In addition, skilled allowance to female teachers at the rate of Rs.300/- per teacher has been given.

* Girls Primary Education Development Project-II has been launched in all the four provinces wherein 937 Community Model Schools will be established to enhance participation rate of girls especially in rural areas.

* Under SAP-II, 1997-98 to 2001-2002, 70 percent new schools will be for girls and 30 percent for Boys.