This website is closed, but the idea of improving the quality of education in Pakistan remains relevant!

Find the latest news on the official pages:

  • School Education Department Punjab

  • Punjab Education Department (HED)

  • Punjab Education Foundation (PEF)


    • LEAPS Project - Resources

    Additional Education Reading

    Divided Into:

    • General State of Education in Pakistan

    • Gender and Education in Pakistan

    • Private Schools in Pakistan

    • Religious Schools in Pakistan


    General State of Education in Pakistan

    “National Education Policy, 1998-2010”
    Ministry of Education, 2006. Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.

    Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education, Inequality and Polarization in Pakistan
    Rahman, Tariq, 2005. Oxford University Press.

    "The implications of changing educational and family circumstances for children’s grade progression in rural Pakistan: 1997–2004"
    Lloyd, Cynthia B., Cem Mete, and Monica J. Grant, 2005. Policy Research Division Working Paper no. 209. New York: Population Council.

    “A boxful of promises”
    Abbas, Andleeb, May 28th, 2006, The Daily Dawn.

    "School quality and cognitive achievement production: A case study for rural Pakistan"
    Behrman, Jere, Shahrukh Khan, David Ross and Richard Sabot. 1997. Economics of Education Review, vol. 16(2): 127-142.

    “Policy Failure, Political Constraints and Political Resources: Basic Education in Pakistan”
    Gazdar, Haris, 2001, London School of Economics, ARC Working Papers, WP5 Asia Research Centre.

    “Report on the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey 1995-96”
    Government of Pakistan, 1997, Islamabad

    “Sixth Five-Year Plan 1983-88”
    Government of Pakistan, 1983, Planning Commission, Islamabad

    "Measuring the Determinants of School Completion in Pakistan: Analysis of Censoring and Selection Bias"
    Holmes, Jessica. 1999. Center Discussion Paper Number 794, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.

    Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan
    Hoodbhoy, Pervez. 1998. Oxford University Press, Karachi: Oxford. 

    “A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Government, NGO and Private Rural Primary Schooling in Pakistan.”
    Khan, Shahrukh, Sajid Kazmi, and Zainab Latif. 2005. The European Journal of Development Research, vol. 17(2): 199 – 223.

    “Measuring Learning Achievement at Primary Level in Pakistan” 
    Khan, Habib, Seyed Shah, Mirza Ahmad, Nasir Amin, Humala Khalid and Ahmad Malik. 1999. Pakistan Ministry of Education (Academy of Educational Planning and Management), Islamabad.

    “Working with Rural Primary Teachers: Final Report on Improving the Quality of Rural Primary School Teachers in Pakistan.”
    Kizilbash, Hamid. 1997. Ali Institute of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.

    "The Urban and Rural Fellowship School Experiments in Pakistan: Design, Evaluation and Sustainability"
    Orazem, Peter F. 2000. The World Bank. Washington, DC.

    “Household Schooling Decisions in Rural Pakistan”
    Sawada, Yasayuki and Michael Lokshin. 2001. Stanford University, Economics Department, Stanford, CA. 

    “Learning Achievement in Primary Schools of Pakistan: A Quest for Quality Education”
    UNESCO  2001. UNESCO, Islamabad, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education Curriculum Wing.

    Gender and Education in Pakistan

    Pakistan Country Gender Assessment: Bridging the Gap: Opportunities and Challenges. 2005. Environment & Social Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region, World Bank. October. 

    “The Current Challenges to Achieving Universal Primary Enrollment for Girls in Pakistan.”
    Lloyd, Cynthia B., Cem Mete, and Monica J. Grant, 2006. Center for Global Development, Washington, D.C.

    "Conditional Cash Transfers and Female Schooling: The Impact Analysis of the Girls' Stipend Program on Public School Enrollments in Punjab, Pakistan."
    Chaudhury, Nazmul and Dilip Parjuli. 2006. World Bank Working Paper No. 4102. The World Bank.

    “The Effect of Gender Differences in Primary School Access, Type, and Quality on the Decision to Enroll in Rural Pakistan”
    Lloyd, Cynthia B., Cem Mete, and Zeba A. Sathar, 2005, Economic Development and Cultural Change 53(3): 685–710.

    "Improving Gender Outcomes: The Promise for Pakistan"
    World Bank. 2005.

    “Decomposing the Gender Gap in Cognitive Skills in a Poor Rural Economy”
    Alderman, Harold, JR Behrman, DR Ross, R Sabot, 1996, The Journal of Human Resources, 31(1): 229-254.

    "Public Schooling Expenditures in Rural Pakistan: Efficiently Targeting Girls and a Lagging Region”
    Alderman, Harold, Jere Behrman, Shahrukh Khan, David Ross, and Richard Sabot. 1995.  In D. van de Walle and K. Nead, eds., Public Spending and the Poor: Theory and Evidence. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press.

    “Who Gets Primary Schooling in Pakistan? Inequalities among and within families.”
    Sathar, Zeba and Cynthia Lloyd. 1994. Pakistan Development Review, vol. 33(2): 103-34.

    Private Schools in Pakistan

    “Editorial: The Commercialization of Education”
    The Bangladesh Observer, 2004, Wednesday, July 7.

    "Design, Evaluation, and Sustainability of Private Schools for the Poor: The Pakistan Urban and Rural Fellowship School Experiments"
    Alderman, Harold, Jooseop Kim, and Peter Orazem, 2003. Economics of Education Review 22(3):265-274.

    "School Quality, School Cost and the Public/Private School Choices of Low-Income Households in Pakistan,"
    Alderman, Harold, Peter Orazem, and Elizabeth Paterno, 2001. Journal of Human Resources 36(2):304-326.

    "Can Private School Subsidies Increase Schooling for the Poor? The Quetta Urban Fellowship Program,"
    Kim, Jooseop, Harold Alderman, and Peter Orazem. World Bank Economic Review 13(3):443-466. 1999

    “The Effect of Gender Differences in Primary School Access, Type, and Quality on the Decision to Enroll in Rural Pakistan"
    Lloyd, Cynthia, Cem Mete and Zeba Sathar. 2005. Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. 53(3): 685-710.

    “Educational Apartheid”
    Najam, Adil, 1998, Chowk.com, February 7.

    "Public Schooling Expenditures in Rural Pakistan: Efficiently Targeting Girls and a Lagging Region"
    Alderman, Harold, Jere R. Behrman, Shahrukh Khan, David R. Ross and Richard Sabot. 1995. Found in Public Spending and the Poor

    "The relative efficiency of private and public schools in developing countries."
    Jimenez, Emmanuel, Marlaine E Lockheed and Vicente Paqueo. 1991. World Bank Research Observer. Vol. 6, no.2, pp. 205-218.

    "Decentralized and Private Education: the Case of Pakistan"
    Jimenez, Emmanuel. and J. P. Tan, 1987, Comparative Education 23: 173-90.

    Religious Schooling in Pakistan

    “The Madrassa and the State of Pakistan: Religion, Poverty and the Potential for Violence in Pakistan.”
    Rahman, Tariq. 2004.  Himal South Asian.

    “How Many Radical Islamists? Indirect Evidence from Five Countries.”
    Berman Eli and Ara Stepanyan. 2003. University of California. San Diego. Processed.

    “The World Dollars to Help Pupils in Pakistan”
    Kraul, Chris. 14th April 2003. Los Angeles Times.

    “Ibn Khaldun's Understanding of Civilizations and the Dilemmas of Islam and the West Today.”
    Ahmad, Akbar S. 2002. The Middle East Journal 56 (1): 20-45.

    “Pakistan: Madrassahs, Extremism and the Military.”
    International Crisis Group. 2002. ICG Asia Report 36. Islamabad/Brussels.

    "Pakistan: Religious Education Institutions. An Overview."
    IPS Task Force. 2002. Institute of Policy Studies. Islamabad.

    The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change.
     Zaman, Mohammad Qasim. 2002. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    “Basic Education in Pakistan and Afghanistan: The Current Crisis and Beyond”
    Burki, Shahid Javed, 2001. Brookings Forum on Universal Education.

    “Pakistan's Madrassahs: Ensuring a System of Education not Jihad.”
    Singer, Peter W. 2001. Brookings Institutions Analysis Papers 41.Washington DC.

    “Inside Jihad University: The Education of a Holy Warrior.”
    Goldberg, Jeffrey. 2000.  New York Times Magazine June 25.

    Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.
    Rashid, Ahmed. 2000. New Haven, Conn.Yale University Press.

    “Pakistan's Jihad Culture.”
    Stern, Jessica. 2000. Foreign Affairs 79(6): 115-126.
    • 10/22/2009 Only 1.3pc children attend madressahs
      Article in Dawn on LEAPS findings
    • 12/06/2009 To defang Taliban, some look to private schools
      Article for Associated Press by Nehal Toosi
    • 12/09/2009 Not Just for the Privileged
      by Emma-Kate Kunth-Symons
    • 12/09/2009 The Madrasa Myth
      By Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das, C. Christine Fair, and Asim Ijaz Khwaja

    Recent Publications

    • Mar 2010 Private Schools, Earthquakes: What we know from Pakistan (with insights for Haiti)
      Presented at the 54th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society in Chicago, IL on March 3rd 2010
    • Nov 2009 The LEAPS Report - Executive Summary
      A thirty page summary of key findings from the LEAPS Report. (Also included in the complete LEAPS Report)
    • Nov 2009 The LEAPS Report
      The Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) Report provides an overview of the education sector based on the 2003 LEAPS Survey of schools, teachers, children, and households throughout rural Punjab.
    • Oct 2009 Do Value-Added Estimates Add Value?
      World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5066 - Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College); Jishnu Das (World Bank); Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University); Tristan Zajonc (Harvard University)