Public Private Partnerships and Educational Outcomes in Pakistan: A gendered perspective

The policy brief sheds light on the accessibility issues surrounding quality education in schools across Pakistan and highlights the need to involve all stakeholders in designing and implementing educational policies. Individual interviews conducted in district of Sarghoda in Punjab and Charsadda in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa reveals that private schools are given higher preference due to higher quality of education as opposed to government schools. However, girls are faced with gender bias in terms of household expenditure which results in them to be enrolled into free government schools as opposed to boys who are enrolled within private schools that charge considerable fees. Educational sector lacks any mechanism through which parents can be involved in the decision making process and it is held that establishing committee designed to provide a forum of communication can aid in removing problems of accessibility and security faced by girls.

Private schools have shown immense growth in recent years and the paper recommends that public-private partnership could prove to be an effective way of improving enrollment and retention rates within both genders. Quality of girls schooling must be improved through gender empowerment and training of female teachers while public funds must be channeled towards improving accessibility and quality of education. The paper concludes that teacher-parent communication must be strengthened and functional committees should be established so that accountability is enhanced and solutions to problems are identified.