Despite improvements in Pakistan’s
literacy rate to currently being at
51.6%, it is far behind most countries
in the region. The subordinate status of
girls in Pakistan derived from
traditional customs and practices denies
them equal access to education which in
turn results in lower female literacy
rates. Although, various initiatives
have been undertaken by the public,
private and civil society actors for the
provision of primary education, these
have fallen short not only
quantitatively but also in appreciably
improving the quality of teachers,
teaching methodology, curriculum,
syllabi, supervision and monitoring of
the education system and making it
gender sensitive.
This report examines the access and
quality of education to women in
Pakistan using education in Punjab as a
background for the SAHE Community Based
School (CBS) initiative in the province.
CBS was conceived to address the gender
disparities in education through
improvement in quality of primary school
education in existing government schools
as well as those run by Non Government
Organizations (NGOs), Community Social
Organizations (CSOs) and the private
sector. The program takes a
multi-pronged approach; apart from
setting up 180 primary schools for girls
in 3 districts and expanding, it also
offers training and capacity building
opportunities to its own and government
school teaching and field staff. Quality
of education is targeted by redesigning
the existing syllabi, curriculum and
teaching methodology in primary
education. Community level networks are
connected to SAHE’s coordinators in the
head and regional office to create an
effective management system. CBS
initiative is connected to stakeholders
in the education sector, be they of the
public, private or development sector,
which has provided them with empirically
verified reports and evaluations on the
state of the education sector and impact
assessment of past initiatives.
Advocacy is another key component, with
insight gained from the CBS initiative
used in policy making by the government
for reforms in the education system. The
report concludes by outlining the
lessons learnt from CBS in Punjab and
how they will be instrumental in
redesigning and expansion of the
initiative.
