Publication: Spend Better, Spend More: How to Make Education Expenditures Count for Children in Pakistan
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2024-09-24
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2024-09-24
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Over the last three decades, Pakistan has expanded free and compulsory education to millions of students and increased female students’ attendance at school. Punjab alone doubled the number of 6- to 15-year-old children in school to 26 million between 1998 and 2020. The country has also introduced innovative reforms, most notably, merit-based recruitment of teachers and strategic use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to support the expansion of the system and improve teaching. In addition, the government has increased data availability and encouraged active participation of civil society organizations, promoting transparency and inclusivity and establishing a foundation for sustained improvement in the education system. These laid a solid foundation for sustained improvement in its education system.
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“Barón, Juan D.; Bend, Mary; Mirza, Fahad; Afzal, Nimra; Wolde, Hirut; Hussain, Nadeem. 2024. Spend Better, Spend More: How to Make Education Expenditures Count for Children in Pakistan. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42190 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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This calls for a long-term commitment, recognition of the multidimensional and cumulative nature of human capital investments, deliberate efforts from multiple stakeholders and sectors to build on intersectoral linkages, and a continuity of policies across political parties and governments. Many countries previously at Pakistan’s level of development have managed to precisely do this, even with regional variations and gaps just as large. Pakistan has the tools to implement the recommendations in this report, provide stewardship for human capital investments, and enhance economic growth over the long term. Pakistan’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the country can manage complex challenges, despite its institutional constraints.
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