The Punjab schools reform roadmap: A medium-term evaluation

Abstract

In 2010, a whole-system reform was designed and launched in the Punjab province of Pakistan called the Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap (PSRR). This reform was a direct response to the challenges of education in the province at the time, which included scale, capacity to deliver, and political will. Further, 2010 was a time at which the political and administrative landscape of Pakistan was changing: the right to education act had just been formalized and education was simultaneously devolved from a federal matter to a provincial one. This chapter studies the outcomes of the PSRR a decade after its implementation with an emphasis on three dimensions of the reform: management capacity, teacher capacity and monitoring & information systems. Specifically, we discuss the above with reference to increasing access to and quality of education in the province while also analyzing the outcomes and sustainability of the reform 10 years from its inception.