Remarks made at a seminar on Putting the
Private Sector at the Core of Sustainable Development Goals in
Pakistan, organized by the FPCCI Standing Committee on Research
and Development, December 20, 2017
During the last quarter century or so, the private sector became
a substantial provider of education services in Pakistan. Data
from various sources show the total number of private schools
(at all levels, pre-primary, primary, higher secondary,
technical and vocational and deeni madaris) began rising sharply
in the early 1990s, reached around 36000 in 1999-2000, and
around 80000 by 2010 and are currently at around 112000. By
contrast, the total number of public schools reached 153000 in
1999-2000 and currently stand at 190000. Roughly speaking, since
2000, the number of private schools has been growing at the rate
of more than 10% per annum while the number of public schools
has been growing at only about 1.5 % per annum.
Similar trends apply with respect to the number of students
enrolled. Private schools increased enrolment from around 6
million students in 1999-2000 to about 20 million currently
while public school enrolment rose from around 17 million in
1999-2000 to about 28 million currently.
Moreover, these changes have happened at a faster rate in the
rural areas and in small towns than in the urban areas and big
cities.
Clearly, the private sector has been expanding access to
schooling at a much faster rate than the public sector in recent
years. The available evidence suggests the private sector will
continue to provide the bulk of incremental enrolment and access
to basic education in Pakistan in the coming years.
How has this come about? And are there any downsides to this
phenomenon of private-sector led educational development in the
country?
The main reason why private education supply has mushroomed in
Pakistan in the last quarter century is the growth in
availability of cheap female labor for teaching and
administrative jobs, especially in small towns and rural areas.
This labor force is available at such low wages that it makes
economic sense for private schools to supply education at a cost
low enough to attract low-income students. Where previously it
was not possible for the private sector to provide education
services profitably, the availability of pools of female labor
in geographically segmented markets has made it possible to do
so. Female labor remains cheap because females are, by local
custom, confined to look for jobs within the villages and small
towns where they live. They cannot and do not migrate freely to
where the jobs pay better wages.
There is a downside to this market made possible by
minimally-trained and low wage female labor and that shows up in
the quality of their output. The quality provided by low-fee
private schools is poor. However, these schools can survive in a
low-quality competitive equilibrium because government schools,
while free to attend, are no better and possibly worse in
quality. Public schools are plagued by teacher absenteeism and a
lack of equipment and facilities to support decent education. So
low-income parents do not mind switching their kids to a low
quality private school because the alternative is worse.
Regarding education quality among public and private schools,
earlier studies for Pakistan had shown unclear results with some
showing private schools to have superior quality results but
others showing only marginal differences. More recent data,
especially that produced by the ASER organization, show a
distinctive quality advantage among private schools. Private
schools show better results than public counterparts for
English, Mathematics and local language comprehension among
Grade 5 students. Where private schools have been growing,
quality outcomes are also improving.
The promising potential seen for the private sector in basic
education in Pakistan cannot, however, be extended to the
segment of higher education. Very briefly, while private
universities have been growing in number, the vast majority of
them are associated with low quality output. The Pakistan
Education Statistics issue for 2015-16 show 163 universities in
total, broadly balanced among 91 public and 72 private units.
However, enrolment is heavily skewed in favor of public
universities with 1.14 million students in the public sector and
only 214000 in the private sector. And teaching resources are
similarly skewed with 67000 teachers in the public sector and
only 17000 in private universities.
All this is consistent with a model of higher education where
the private sector only goes into selected disciplines, such as
business and IT education, and avoids spending the large outlays
required for the establishment of science and engineering
universities or general-purpose universities with multiple
departments and degree programs. Higher education is not yet
privately profitable in those types of higher education
institutions.
References
Andrabi, T. et. Al., 2008, A Dime a Day: The Possibilities
and Limits of Private Education in Pakistan, in Comparative
Education Review, 52:3, 329-55.
Institute of Social and Policy Sciences, 2010, Private Sector
Education in Pakistan: Mapping and Musing
Zubeida Mustafa, "What Aser Says", in Dawn, August 4,
2017