Measuring the Education Gap in Primary and Secondary Schooling inPakistan

The investment in primary and secondary education is afundamental premise for achieving social and economic development, forincreasing labour productivity and for facilitating expansion in highereducation. Ensuring that new generations of children receive at leastprimary education and that substantial proportions continue up tosecondary levels of schooling, an accurate monitoring of the educationalchange becomes essential for assessing past progress and planning thefuture course of educational development. This paper is an attempt inthis direction to examine the existing differentials and gaps inenrolment, educational retention and capacity utilisation at primary andsecondary levels of schooling in Pakistan with special attention givento the impact of educational plans and policies on these trends. Thestudy is based on both enrolment statistics and data on educationalinstitutions during the seventies and mid-eighties. The enrolmentstatistics permit calculation of enrolment and continuation ratios formeasuring the magnitude of non-participation of children in schools,while information on number of schools provides the possibility ofassessing the extent of utilisation of educational facilities andmeasuring the gaps between existing and needed facilities for schools.We have focused on primary and secondary schooling with a view torecognise and address the basic issue concerning the development ofschool education in Pakistan.