Background

Balochistan is the largest but least populated province of Pakistan, spreading over an area of 347,190 square kilometres forming 43.6 per cent of the total area of Pakistan, but with a population of less than 8% of the whole country13. Balochistan is divided into 32 districts and has a population density of only 18 as per last

census done in 1998.

According to Balochistan Annual School Census 2014-15, Balochistan has a total of 13,279 public schools out of which 28% are girls’ schools. A major portion of these schools are at primary level (84%) followed by middle schools (9%), secondary schools (6%) and higher secondary schools (1%). Public sector schools in Balochistan have an enrolment of 1 million out of which 39% are girls. The number of teachers working in Balochistan is 0.04 million out of which 32% are female teachers.

According to the PSLM 2014-1514_{, the gross enrolment rate at primary level}15 _is

73%, net enrolment rate at primary level is 56% while the literacy rate for population 10 years and older is 44%. The survival rate of students to grade 5 is 34% while the effective transition rate from primary to lower secondary in the province is 71%16_.

The number of out of school children of 5-16 years’ age in the province is 2 million which is 66% of the total population of the school-going age children in the province17_.

In 2015-16, the government of Balochistan allocated a budget of Rs. 48 billion for education which constitutes 20% of the total provincial budget18_{. The highest share}

of 32% of the education budget has been allocated for higher education in 2015-16

13 Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2015

14 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2014-15 15 Combined for public and private sectors

16 Pakistan Education Statistics 2014-15

17 Alif Ailaan (2014). 25 Million Broken Promises: The Crisis of Out-of-School Children. Islamabad: Alif

Ailaan.

followed by secondary and primary education with allocations of 31% and 26% of the education budget respectively.

The province’s low educational levels are both a cause and a consequence of continued underdevelopment. As in other provinces, the international aid agencies have been working in Balochistan for a long time, providing their support for

improving the education performance of the province.

USAID has been working in Balochistan almost uninterruptedly for the past 10-12 years, covering the areas of teacher professional development (pre and in-

service), public-private partnerships, youth and adult literacy, school and classroom improvement, and early grade reading and mathematics.

The USAID funded Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) programme was implemented in five districts of Balochistan from 2003 to 2007 and spent almost $40 million. The programme focused upon teacher professional development at the primary level, literacy drive, and public-private partnerships for improving education delivery. Almost 10,000 teachers, head teachers and other education officials were trained through different initiatives, and more than 50,000 individuals were offered literacy programmes. Some good practices emerged from the ESRA initiative, which however could not be continued beyond the project duration as the government was not interested, which was evident by the fact that it showed no commitment to include any of the good practices as part of its future policies and plan.

The USAID funded EDLINKS project covered eleven districts in Balochistan covering teacher professional development at the middle and secondary levels, school improvement, education policy support, and flood relief services. The programme spent around $40 million in the province between 2007 and 2012. The USAID funded Pre-Step was implemented in the province from 2008 to 2013 covering all the teacher training colleges for strengthening pre-service teacher education, and introduced a two-year Associate Degree in Education as well as a four year B.Ed. Altogether some $15 million were spent in the province. Both the programmes faced and are still facing numerous challenges relating to context, capacity and resource limitation.

In 2013 USAID initiated another initiative called the Pakistan Reading Programme (PRP) valued at $120 million across all provinces and areas of the country

focusing upon early grade literacy and numeracy.

The Balochistan Education Support Project (BESP) is a World Bank funded $22 million initiative operating since 2006. The key objective of the project is to promote public-private-community partnerships for improving access to quality primary education, in particular for girls. The project, like many other donor initiatives is contributing to Pakistan's objective of achieving MDG Goals by targeting literacy, gender equity in education, and increased net enrolment. The data analysis following this section shows the challenges that the province faced with regards to enrolment, dropout, and access in particular for girls.

The Canadian Government through CIDA initiated a Canada Debt Swap Programme (2008 – 2013) to convert a $100 million debt into an education programme for strengthening of teacher training across Pakistan. Under the Programme, a Computer Laboratory was established at the Provincial Management Unit (PMU). Other than conducting trainings and provision of material, general repair and renovation of 14 teacher training institutions was done; 16 transport buses were also provided to the training institutions and 14 air conditioners and generators have also installed been in the training institutions. A number of other smaller initiatives focusing upon increasing enrolment, teacher education, public private partnerships, and community mobilization and

strengthening were also implemented under UNICEF, UNHCR, AKF, JICA and some other donors.

For better organization of donor programmes, following on the same lines as other provinces, Balochistan also created and notified the Project Planning and

Implementation Unit (PPIU) in September 2008. The PPIU supports the Education Department in decision making, policy & planning, coordination with donors and development partners working in the education sector and also compiles and disseminates the educational information/data. The TORs of the PPIU included coordination with donors; lead the education sector plan implementation; steer Balochistan Education Department implementation strategy and agenda by working closely with districts and provincial institutions, and lead EFA, MDG and

other donor funded initiatives through closer coordination with the districts. The PPIU, per its TORs should be facilitating all policy borrowing done under donor programmes by creating a platform for review, research and dialogue before any best practices or policies are borrowed. However, in reality there is no mechanism to review any international best practices or approaches imported under policy borrowing, be it the stipend programme for girls, or setting up of low cost private schools for increasing access in the province.

There are many NGOs working in Balochistan in the education sector, receiving support from the international donors. In theory, many of these NGOs can be seen to operate like a public sphere, bringing together stakeholders and hold the

government sector accountable; however, in practice these NGOs are created through donor funds, and their role as a public sphere will serve at cross purpose with the donors, who neither have the time nor the resources to allow a

public/private body to review, research, and carry out dialogues on their

interventions. Aside from these NGOs or smaller community based organisations (CBOs) there are no other organised groups that could be termed as a public sphere. However, the experiences under USAID funded ESRA and EDLINKS projects with the professional development forums (PDF) from 2003 to 2012 in selected districts of the province provide evidence that if resources are provided along with a conducive environment and the independence to operate freely, such groups can be very effective for steering the education process, holding

accountabilities and providing a platform for doing effective planning and informed decision making.