Mapping Skills for the Future: Capturing Student Aspirations at District Level

Built on a skills-mapping survey conducted by PCE’s member organisations across 12 districts, this scorecard series profiles the skills and aspirations of students in grades 10 and 12—girls (47%), boys (47%), and children with disabilities (6%)—across government schools and special education centres. By disaggregating results by age, gender, grade, and disability, it gives teachers, planners, and policymakers a data-driven foundation for designing interventions that match young people’s real aspirations and build an inclusive, skilled next generation.

Key highlights/findings

Across all 12 districts, most students sit at the intermediate level across the five core skill domains.

Digital and technological skills are consistently the weakest domain across districts, pointing to an urgent infrastructure and curriculum gap.

Lahore and Nankana Sahib show notably higher overall proficiency than districts like Rahim Yar Khan and Muzaffargarh, revealing how sharply outcomes differ even within a province (Punjab).

Girls in several districts show comparable or stronger skill levels to boys but the sample also surfaces pockets where gender gaps are significant and need targeted attention.

Students with disabilities are included in the survey across most districts, but their skill profiles point to an inclusion gap that standard programming isn’t yet meeting.