Education Governance in Pakistan: An Indicative Study

This study examines how Pakistan’s education governance system shapes school performance and learning quality—and confirms deep inequalities between regions, communities, schools, and between girls and boys. It documents missing essentials in surveyed schools (electricity, furniture, libraries, textbooks), the urban-rural divide, the under-use and confusion surrounding school management committees, and the consequences of weak coordination, insufficient teacher training, and chronic under-investment. It argues that genuine decentralisation requires the capacity-building and community ownership that earlier reforms neglected.

Key highlights/findings

Where you live determines the quality of education you get. Islamabad ranked first, Kech last - out of 11 districts studied.

Schools where head teachers are involved in planning consistently do better but only 28% of them actually are.

Most schools have management committees on paper. Few are meaningfully active or understand their own role.

Political interference in teacher hiring and transfers was flagged across provinces as a core barrier to quality.