Policy Brief No. 9. Public Private Partnerships and Educational Outcomes in Pakistan: A gendered perspective
As one of the eight Millennium Development goals, education has increasingly become a priority for the international community and the governments in developing countries alike. The growing involvement of the private sector in providing educational services has been hailed as an important determinant in the move towards achieving the goal of universal primary education. However, in countries where there is still a significant gender gap in access and intra household expenditure and where the private sector accounts for an increasing proportion of enrolments and institutions, the significance of public private partnerships, needs to be looked at through a gendered perspective. The policy brief uses insights from a detailed qualitative study to examine the issues surrounding access to quality education for boys and girls especially at the middle school level. It highlights the importance of involving all stakeholders, the parents, community, school and the government in developing educational policies that take into account local aspirations and cater to the needs of the people. Background of the Education System in Pakistan Pakistan has a faltering education system with more than half the population illiterate and the government nowhere near achieving the goals of providing universal and good quality education to the children. According to the Ministry of Education's National educational Policy, almost one third of primary school age children remain out of school, a proportion that rises to about threequarters for secondary school children (NEP, 2009) However, there has also been a remarkable change in the educational landscape with the number of private schools increasing at a dramatic rate in the country. Contrary to popular perception, these schools not only cater to the urban elite but are also utilised by the poor in both rural and urban areas (Andrabi, Das Khwaja, 2002) This mushrooming of low cost private schools has provided a much needed choice to parents who had to send their children to low quality government schools because that was the only option in the village. According to the LEAPS report, in rural Punjab, parents can choose between six or seven schools in their village. The emergence of private schools has also seen enrolment levels rise, although deficiencies remain. Data from various household and establishment surveys points to a consistent increase in enrolment from 21.36 million in 2001 to between 27.67 million (National Education Survey, 2005) and 28.84 million (PSLM, 2005) across the four provinces. Net enrolment has also increased from 51% in 2001 (Pakistan integrated household survey) to 61% in 2005 (PSLM, 2005) There have also been studies where private schools are seen to reduce gender gaps as parents are willing to send their daughters to these schools as well (Andrabi et al, 2002) Private schooling in Pakistan is being actively encouraged by the government as it decreases the costs of schooling that the government bears and because they are seen as providers of the necessary competition that may help revive the stagnating government schools. Choice of schooling, however, has a strongly gendered dimension that needs to be addressed in relation to the public private partnerships in the schooling system in Pakistan. The following section demonstrates some of the existing disparities that exist in this regard. The Gender context of schooling in Pakistan Historically, there have been a significantly larger number of girls out of school than boys at all educational levels. For every 100 enrolled boys (aged 59) only 82 girls were enrolled in primary school in 2004 (Aslam, 2007) In 2006, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) Policy Brief