This education policy analysis does a comprehensive review of all the sectors in education
from pre-primary till tertiary levels along with vocational, non-formal, special education
sectors. The analysis also looks at the progress of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over EFA and MDG
goals, public sector education budget and donors’ financial assistance. The implementation of
National Education Policy 2009 in KP is also looked at in detail. Towards the end the report
does some projections regarding EFA/MDG goals, meeting constitutional commitments and
proposes strategies to meet pressing needs at various education sub-sectors.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa covers an area of 74,521 sq. km is one the most important strategically
located province and is playing an important role in the economy of Pakistan. It inhabits
26.62 million people growing at the rate of 2.8% per year. Amongst the 9-39 years age group,
about 7 million people in KP are illiterate (less than 30% of females in this age group are
literate). Faced by law and order situation, and low social development indicators further
affected by floods pose serious development challenges for KP. The Vision 2030 of KP
makes commitments to uplift the province to greater heights. The potential is there in the
form of natural resources, dry port, oil and gas and coal for energy and industry. The current
ADP allocation for KP stand at Rs. 69,028.3 million with Rs.10,142 million for education.
The education policy of KP can be understood through its various development projects,
governance structure and developments over the implementation of national education policy.
In wake of 18th Constitutional Amendment the Education Department is repositioning itself
to undertake additional responsibilities. A joint declaration at national level presided by the
Prime Minister and represented by all federating units has endorsed NEP 2009 and agreed to
national coordination.
Some prominent recent education development projects in KP are a multi-sectoral
programme financed by GIZ, CIDA, USAID, DFID, Dutch, AUS-AID, and European Union.
DFID is going to provide huge amount of £ 203 million for improving the education sector in
KP. It aims to improve governance, numeracy, female literacy and quality of education across
various sectors in the public education system.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 32,276 schools in which 24,719 are Primary, out of which 7858 are
for girls and 2010 are co-education, 4504 are Middle schools in which 1043 are for girls and
1781 are co-education, 3161 are High schools in which 565 are for girls and 1190 are coeducation
schools and there are 624 Higher secondary schools in which 134 are for girls and
223 are co-education. The share of various sub-sectors is as follows: primary – 76.6%;
Middle – 13.9%; Secondary – 9.8% and higher secondary – 1.9%. There are 4.826 million
children at these various levels with bulk (58.97%) going to primary.
Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been recognized in principle in formal education
policy but still require efforts to feature it in regular educational budget. There are 253,449
children going to schools as un-admitted. There are no specialized teachers available for this
level of education in the public sector, though private sector has provided greater input in
terms of school provision and training facilities and recognition for ECE teachers. The

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government needs to add ECE classes along with provision of trained teachers and teaching
resources.
Elementary education forms the bulk of educational provisions in public sector in education.
Through Elementary Education Foundation (EEF) and Frontier Education Foundation (FEF)
the government is trying to promote private participation in educational provisions along with
public private partnerships.
Gender and regional disparity is evident in enrolment patterns. Urban net enrolment was 61
percent in 2008/09, compared to 50 percent for rural net enrolment. Female net enrolment
was only 45 percent in 2008/09, compared to 56 percent for males. There are considerable
variations in the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) within the province, much as there were for the
literacy rates; in fact the trend for each district follows a very similar pattern as that of the
literacy rate. Within districts, the highest overall NER was in Abbottabad (68 percent) and the
lowest in Kohistan (37 percent). The lowest NER in the dataset was for rural females in
Kohistan, estimated at 11 percent.
The percentage of the population that has completed primary level also varies greatly by
district, the highest rate being in Abbotabad (64 percent) and the lowest in Kohistan (15
percent) as shown in the following table., the situation for females was dire in Kohistan, with
only 1 percent completing primary schooling. Primary completion rates were lower in rural
areas across the board, including the dismal low of 1 percent for female in Kohistan. A
number of districts including Buner, Tank, Shangla, and Hangu had primary completion rates
of less than 10 percent for rural female. Completion rates for rural males, even in these low
performing districts, were however greater than 40 percent in all cases except in Kohistan,
where only about a quarter of rural males finished primary school. Unlike in the case of
NERs, where the gender gap was negligible, the gap remained in evidence for primary
completion rates in urban areas. Completion rates for females in urban areas remained on an
average 23 percentage points below those for males. An average, 76 percent of children who
graduate from government primary schools move on to middle schools, and this includes 71
percent of the females who manage to complete primary education.
Average Gender Parity Indices (GPIs) for private schools ranged from 0.35 for middle
schools to 0.39 for both primary and high schools. For public schools, GPIs were higher, but
the disparity across levels was significant – GPI at the primary level was 0.72 on an average,
but declined to 0.53 at middle level and further to 0.37 at high school level. Average GPIs for
private schools ranged from 0.35 for middle schools to 0.39 for both primary and high
schools.
Tertiary education involves post-degree colleges, degree colleges and universities. There are
148 degree colleges in KP in public sectors and 21 universities both in public and private
sector. Degree colleges enroll 110888 students. The number of teachers in degree colleges is
4066.
Technical and vocational education is crucial in building skilled workforce for the country.
The government of KP created TEVTA as a prime body dealing in all technical and
vocational education affairs. There are 108 institutions enrolling 34,932 students and impart

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skills through 5,461 teachers. The sector suffers from lack of resources, low capacity and
weak training and market links.
Special Education is another neglected sector in education. The rural population is severely
disadvantaged to access these institutions. The institutions cater for various needs such as:
hearing impairment, mental retardation, visual impairment and physical handicap. A
paradigm shift is needed towards special education changing it from charity-based approach
to right-based approach. Streamlining and inclusiveness should be the aim. Regular budget
allocations are needed to enhance effectiveness of the sector.
Non formal education and adult literacy is taken care by the Elementary Education
Foundation KP. The literacy rate among 10+ years has increased from 45% in 2001-02 to
50% in 2010-11 (PSLM), with rural growth much steeper than urban. The sector suffers from
lack of funds, lack of capacity and human resource. The sector also suffers from low quality
provisions and difficulty in mainstreaming.
Against the Revised Estimates of Rs. 410.503 million for 2010-11 of the Elementary &
Secondary Education Department (Provincial Budget), an amount of Rs. 545.203 million has
been allocated in the Budget Estimates 2011-12, showing an increase of 32.81%. Figures for
district level education for the financial year 2011-12 have been projected proportionately on
the basis of previous trend (as district budget has not yet been prepared). The projected
budget for district level Elementary and Secondary Education sector for the financial year
2011-12 is Rs. 38,820.930 million. Since 2007-08, total number of schools has increased
from 26,247 to 27,419. Similarly enrolment has increased from 3.534 million to 3.597
million students.
Higher education has scaled new achievements during the year 2010-11. A number of new
Colleges were established, especially for the female and charters granted to sixteen
universities. The establishment of Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA) has
created a positive impact on the regulatory avenues for higher education in the private sector.
Liberal grants are being provided to cadet colleges and public schools. Sizeable allocation has
also been made for science laboratories and libraries.
There are 154 colleges, 100 male and 54 female, in the Province with gross enrolment of
109,952 (73,452 male and 36,500 female). Staff strength of colleges is 8,556, out of which
4,621 are teaching and 3,935 are non-teaching. An amount of Rs. 4739.891 Million has been
allocated as salary and non-salary budget during 2011-12. Per student expenditure is Rs. 4311
per annum (male Rs. 4449 and female Rs. 3971). Over all teachers student ratio is 1:24.
The 18th Amendment has introduced Article 25A which has made education compulsory for
ages 5-16 years. Further, the education sector is mostly devolved to the provincial level.
Keeping this in view some projections are made [reflected in Table No. 19 as annexure page
26] to calculate the cost of meeting the constitutional commitments which comes
approximately as Rs. 486,537 Million.