An official report released on Friday has categorized Pakistan Education System as ‘Low in performance’, underscoring critical areas for improvement to enhance educational outcomes. The District Education Performance Index (DEPIx) Report 2020-2023, published by the Planning Commission, revealed that Pakistan’s national average score is 53.46, placing the country firmly in the “low” performance bracket.
The report evaluated five key domains, with infrastructure and access leading the way at 58.95, reflecting some progress in expanding educational opportunities. The inclusion domain, which covers equity and technology, followed closely as the second-highest scorer. However, public financing received the lowest score, signaling an urgent need for increased and better-targeted funding in the education sector. The learning domain also showed poor results, highlighting persistently low student learning outcomes.
Governance and management, though slightly better than learning, still falls within the “low” category due to teacher shortages and high bureaucratic turnover, the report noted. Disturbingly, none of the 134 districts assessed falls within the ‘very high’ performance category, with only Islamabad making it to the ‘high performance’ category.
Over the past decades, Pakistan has achieved middle-income status and made strides in human capital development. However, this progress has been slower compared to other developing nations and regional peers, posing challenges to realizing the potential demographic dividend and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, as well as attaining upper-middle-income status by 2047.
The report emphasizes that providing quality and inclusive education is crucial for human capital development. Since the devolution of educational authority to provinces in 2010, various reforms have been enacted, including compulsory education laws, increased budget allocations, and improvements in governance and data systems. Despite these efforts, the fragmented nature of education data has often hindered effective decision-making.
To tackle these challenges and support the education emergency declared by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Planning Commission has integrated various school education indicators into a composite scorecard, the DEPIx report. This index covers 134 districts across Pakistan, including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, Sindh, and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Provincially, Punjab emerged as the Top Performer with a composite score of 61.39, followed by KP with 54.88. Sindh and Balochistan lagged behind with scores of 51.49 and 45.70, respectively. On a district level, Islamabad was the only district to fall into the ‘high’ performance category, while over half of Pakistan’s districts, predominantly in Balochistan and Sindh, were classified as ‘low’ performers.
The report also highlighted significant intra-provincial disparities, particularly in KP, where districts like Haripur, Chitral, and Abbottabad ranked among the top performers, while Kolai Palas and Kohistan districts ranked among the lowest performers. Punjab and Balochistan showed the least variation, with most of Punjab’s districts falling into the medium category and all of Balochistan’s districts in the low category. Sindh exhibited moderate variation, with most districts in the “low” category except for the urban areas of Karachi and Hyderabad.
This report underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions and reforms to address the systemic challenges in Pakistan’s education sector.
Also Read: Ahsan Iqbal Announced Teacher Training Centre During DEPIx Seminar to improve education quality in Pakistan
