Implementation of Education Policy in Pakistan: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT

This systematic literature review aims to develop a systematic literature review, with an intention to identify the main themes in research so far envisaging the causes and barriers to efficient implementation of education policies in Pakistan. To achieve this end, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) has been employed to set guidelines for data collection. Data (92 research articles) from research studies over the period 2017-2024 on topics related to education policy implementation in Pakistan have been extracted from the databases like Google Scholar, Pub Med, JSTOR and PDR etc. This review extends a well-researched critique of Pakistan’s educational policies, offering valuable insights into the historical and contemporary challenges faced by the sector. A study offering a succinct review on various elements identified in the extant research attributing towards the poor implementation of education policies in Pakistan is non-existent. This study bridges this gap. This systematic literature review aims to highlight the variables and factors offering friction to the smooth sail of the efficient implementation of education policies. Findings from the extant literature have been clubbed into major themes and subthemes, indicating various inherent drawbacks in policies and multiple barriers offering friction to implementation of these policies. Some overlapping themes have been delineated for conceptual boundaries to ensure theoretical clarity. Many themes can help in informed decision-making. For instance, one major finding of this SLR posits that ineffective implementation of education policies in Pakistan is the product of ineffective policy making and governance mechanisms.

INTRODUCTION

Since 1947, various educational policies have been devised and revised during the civil and military regimes in Pakistan. Yet, educational policies have not produced the desired educational outcomes and goals to achieve quality, equity, accessibility and many others so far. Multiple successive educational policies have been introduced to improve the educational indicators in Pakistan. However, the implementation of education policies must confront significant hurdles, showing retarded progress. One major cause attributed to this failure can be the fact that the policy-making in the education sector in Pakistan has been plagued by overwhelming unrealistic goals that seem too good to be achieved. Lessons learnt from the past failures, estimations from the real time data, and evidencebased policy-making have never been the part of the policy-making in the education sector in Pakistan. Admittedly, policies in black and white seem appealing and promising. However, the gap between policy making and its implementation in the education sector springs out because of the poor planning, lack of accountability mechanisms, underfunding, political interference, nepotism, corruption and ignoring the contextual demands etc. For instance, the current 62.3 percent literacy rate shows that Pakistan still lags decades to achieve 100 percent literacy rate to achieve the target of compulsory primary education for its children, even after more than 75 years. These statistics depict the inherent weaknesses in education policies, resulting in ineffective implementation frameworks. Likewise, the global perspective of education is to develop a knowledge economy to have a competitive advantage (OECD, 1996). The investment by governments in education reflects the degree of importance a country gives to its education sector by investing to develop its human capital (Dissou, Didic, & Yakautsava, 2016). In Pakistan, the education budget allocations have not been up to the recommended international benchmarks (4-6 percent of GDP). This underfunding affects the construction and maintenance of infrastructures and provisions adversely, deteriorating the overall quality of education. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s score on the Human Development Index (HDI) with the value of 0.540 shows its global ranking of 164 out of 193 countries. Its HDI ranking has deteriorated over time. Extant literature undertaking the analysis of education policy documents, plans, reforms, projects and programmes shows various caveats failing the education sector of Pakistan to prioritise its human resources development to ensure a productive labor force in Pakistan. This systematic literature review (hereafter SLR) unveils the inherent weaknesses in the policy making process vis-a-vis various challenges and obstacles hindering the effective implementation of educational policies in Pakistan. Extant literature confirms that previously the centralised policy making process, ignoring the contextual factors, causes impediments at grassroots level. Likewise, not only has the poor and inadequate resource allocation been a retarding factor for the effective implementation of the education policies, but at times the allocated resources have not even been utilised fully and efficiently. Similarly, political and bureaucratic interferences and unrest, Economic instability, inadequate institutions, lack of qualified staff, institutional inefficiencies, poor governance mechanism, and non-uniform medium of instruction policies are some other factors extracted through this SLR, responsible for the failure of optimal implementation of the educational policies. Though extant literature is replete with research on various aspects of education policies and their relationship with the educational outcome indicators. Yet, no study has been conducted to present a succinct review on various elements identified in the extant research attributing towards the poor implementation of education policies in Pakistan. This study bridges this gap. This systematic literature review aims to highlight the variables and factors offering friction to the smooth sail of the efficient implementation of education policies. To achieve this end, a systematic literature review using the PRISMA framework has been carried out on 92 research articles, published during 2017 to 2024.