Practitioner Paper

Education Innovation in the Public Sector

Introduction
Pakistan’s public education sector is under pressure to tackle challenges such as low attendance rates, high drop-out
rates and poor learning outcomes, and thus enable young people to achieve their full potential and contribute to
Pakistan’s economic and social development. For those that reflect on failing systems and ineffective interventions,
innovation in education presents an opportunity to explore new approaches to education and to respond to the pressing
needs of millions of learners.

Every day in Pakistan public servants grapple with the challenge of finding more cost-effective ways to deliver better
education. This paper is intended to draw attention to their efforts and to the potential for innovation to address
longstanding challenges in the public education sector. The paper draws on four examples, one each from four provinces,
to illustrate the experience and potential for innovation in education. Information about each innovation was collected from
secondary sources and from interviews with a small number of key informants including officials from the public sector and
individuals involved in implementing the innovations.

The paper begins with a definitions of innovation and a brief explanation of the importance of innovation in the public
education sector in Pakistan. It then offers a description of each of the four examples. The paper concludes with
observations about the origins and implementation of each of the four innovations, and the factors that influenced their
success.

What is innovation?
There are many definitions of innovation. The following definition of innovation in the public sector provides a point
of reference:

In the public sector, as other fields, innovation can mean many different things. It can mean new ways of managing
organisations (such as Public Private Partnerships), new ways of rewarding people (such as performance related pay) or new
ways of communicating (for instance, through ministerial blogs). Distinctions are sometimes made between policy innovation,
service innovations and innovations in other fields…public sector innovation involves creating, developing and implementing
practical ideas that achieve a public benefit. These ideas have to be at least in part new (rather than improvements); they have
to be taken up and used (rather than simply remaining ideas); and they have to be useful. (NESTA 2014)

This definition is similar to many other definitions of innovation in that it emphasises novelty and usefulness and it
recognises that innovations may be more than a new product or ‘invention’. It also recognises innovation as a process
(‘creating, developing and implementing’) and suggests that what may be an innovation in one context is routine in
another. For example, performance related pay is not a new idea but it could be described as innovative in settings where
it has not been used before. This definition is different from other definitions in that it describes innovation in terms of
achieving ‘a public benefit’.

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Why innovation in Pakistan’s public education
sector is important
Despite the growth of low-cost private schools in recent
years, more than half of all children enrolled in school in
Pakistan are enrolled in public schools: government
primary, middle and high schools. Consequently,
innovations in the public education sector are important
because they have the potential to reach millions of
children and to create provincial if not national level impact.
Article 25-A in the Constitution requires the Government of
Pakistan to ensure that all children aged 5-16 have access
to free education but getting children to attend in greater
numbers is only half the problem. The quality of education
in the public sector is generally low and children who do go
to school are not learning. For example, only about 25%
of students in Class 5 possess the basic numeracy and
literacy skills they should have acquired in Class 2 (ITA,
2014). Innovations are important because they could help
the public education system find new, effective and more
cost-effective ways to reach more children and transform
learning outcomes for children at school and children out
of school.
Finally, innovation in the public education sector is
important because public services like health and
education are one of the strongest weapons in the fight
against inequality. Public services benefit everyone in
society, but they benefit the poorest most of all (Oxfam
2014). Consequently, innovation that improves public
sector services has the potential to improve the lives of
some of the poorest children in Pakistan.

For the public sector, scale is paradoxical: on the one hand governments are uniquely well
placed to scale ideas on up; the other hand public services are notoriously poor at adopting new
ideas even when they are supported by strong evidence. (NESTA 2014)

Examples of innovations in the public education

sector in Pakistan
This section presents four examples of innovations in the public education sector in Pakistan.
The four examples, one from each province, were selected to illustrate a range of
innovations. The introduction of a Non-Salary Budget (NSB) for schools is a policy
innovation in Punjab. The Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
is a project set up by the government to collect information from schools.
Promoting Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPRS) and the Balochistan
Education Support Programme are innovations in Sindh and Balochistan
that utilise public-private and community partnerships to improve
access to quality primary education, in particular for girls.

In the examples that follow, the impetus and funding for

the four innovations has come from international
donors. However, each of them has
addressed a need identified by the
public education sector, has been
implemented in and/or by the public
education sector to achieve a public
benefit, and has had a measure of
success in relation to the problem they
were designed to address.

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Example 1:
The Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU)
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Education challenge
In Khyber Pakhtunkwa, education planning and decision
making was constrained by a lack of good quality and
timely data. Data is collected by the Education
Management Information System (EMIS) once a year
during the school census but information about student or
teacher attendance is not collected. Education planners
and decision makers at district and provincial levels did not
have access to real time and accurate data about schools
in the province or about teachers and students.
Consequently, plans and decisions had to be made based
on out of date and/or incomplete information, and it was
difficult to determine whether or not education services
were improving.
Impact
The IMU has yet to have an impact on district
management, and on the performance of schools and the
education system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the
ESED regularly reviews the data generated by IMU to
monitor improvements and identify issues that need to be
addressed e.g. schools with high rates of teacher
absenteeism, schools with missing facilities or schools that
are not functioning or closed. DEOs are learning how to
read the reports and use the data generated by the IMU.
Since the IMU started collecting data, several hundreds of
schools identified as being non-functional are now
functional and there is anecdotal evidence that teacher
absenteeism has fallen from 35% to 15%.

Without good data it is difficult to hold those responsible
for service delivery to account. For example, District
Education Offices (DEOs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not
have access to data on teacher attendance. Therefore,
the Director Elementary and Secondary Education
(ESED) could not hold DEOs to account for teacher
absenteeism, or commend them for taking action to help
ensure teachers attend school. Poorly performing
schools could not be identified and supported and
achievement was hard to recognise.
The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is continuing to
support the IMU and is looking to make the data it collects
is more accessible to a wider audience. Challenges
include sustaining the independent nature of the IMU, the
quality of data collection and aligning its function with that
of the EMIS so that the data collected by both is
complementary. There is an ongoing challenge of ensuring
that those that provide and collect good data have
continuing incentives to do so as reflected in the
responsiveness of government officials.

Innovation
To address these challenges, the Government of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa established the Independent Monitoring Unit
– a semi-autonomous institution that reports to the
Elementary and Secondary Education Department. Each
month, 475 IMU monitors visit every government school in
the province to collect data about teachers and teacher
attendance, student enrolment and student attendance,
the school buildings and facilities. During the visit to the
school, monitors enter data into a database using a mobile
application. The data is available to view on an online
interface (a ‘dashboard’). Users can also generate specific
reports according to the data they require. This system
provides information against key indicators on a monthly
basis throughout the school year.

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Example 2:
Promoting private schooling in rural Sindh
Education challenge
In rural areas of Sindh province where the Promoting
Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPRS) programme was
implemented, only 53% of boys and 43% of girls between
the ages of 5 and 9 are enrolled in primary school
(Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement
2013-14).
Innovation
The Promoting Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPRS)
programme is an initiative of the Sindh Education
Foundation (SEF) under the Public-Private Partnership
component of the Sindh Education Reform programme-II
2013-14. The programme was designed by the SEF in
collaboration with the Government of Sindh Reform
Support Unit and the World Bank. The PPRS programme
seeks to expand access to primary education in
underserved rural communities through public-private
partnerships with local entrepreneurs.
will encourage the school operators to take specific
measures that will be attractive to the parents of girls.
Impact
The programme so far has benefitted 128,191 children
who have been enrolled in 819 primary and elementary
schools established under the programme. A Randomised
Control Trial (RCT) of the programme concluded that the
presence of a PPRS school is associated with an
approximately 30 percentage points increase in enrolment
in treatment villages. It also showed programme schools to
be of higher quality, as evidenced by both test scores and
direct observation of school characteristics. However, the
RCT found no statistically significant differential impact of
the intervention on girls’ enrolment. The higher subsidy
provided to girls may not have been sufficient to overcome
the barriers to girls' enrolment in school.

By assigning local entrepreneurs responsibility for

operating these schools, coupled with appropriate
incentives and oversight from the government, the PPRS
programme seeks to take advantage of the local
knowledge and underutilised resources within these
communities to provide viable, appropriate, and affordable
education in these remote and previously neglected areas.
Vetted and selected private entrepreneurs are granted a
per-student cash subsidy to operate co-educational
primary schools, as well as additional, non-monetary
assistance to improve the quality of the education
provided. Enrolment is open to all children in the village
between the ages of 5 and 9, with the entrepreneur directly
receiving an enrolment-based subsidy from the SEF.
Enrolment is verified through surprise visits. In addition, it
is hoped that the gender-differentiated subsidy scheme, by
providing a higher remuneration for girls relative to boys,

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Example 3:
Non salary budget Punjab
Education challenge
The chronically low domestic funding of education
combined with inefficiencies in the system that prevent
funding reaching schools are major barriers to the provision
of quality education in Pakistan (Alif Ailaan 2014). Schools
are typically resource poor, and they are unable to make the
kind of expenditures which are essential for effective
delivery of the curriculum and for maintaining a safe and
healthy environment in which students and teachers can
work. The meagre funds which are available are delivered
in a top-down and unpredictable manner, with little
involvement (or accountability) of school heads and school
councils, who are in a better position to understand and
respond to the needs of their schools.
Innovation
Against this background, and with the support of
development partners, the Government of Punjab
embarked on a series of wide-ranging educational
reforms, including the roll-out of a domestically-funded
non-salary budget (NSB) programme starting in FY
2013/14. The programme is based on an NSB formula,
which is a new way of allocating non-salary budgets by
calculating each school’s entitlement according to
equitable and needs-based criteria based on specific
school and pupil level characteristics. It is envisaged that
by giving schools adequate funding, and by making them
responsible and accountable for planning, managing and
administering these funds, it will empower and incentivise
schools to use their NSB to improve the teaching and
learning process.
Impact
Under the NSB, Punjab has transferred the non-salary
component of the education recurrent budget for primary
and elementary schools in at least nine districts to the
accounts of respective school councils within the first
month of each quarter calendar.
Not only did NSB streamline systems but it reduced
leakages of funds and created transparency. At provincial
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level, the School Education Department (SED) and
Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU)
established a number of innovative mechanisms for
ensuring transparency and accountability in the
management of NSB. At school level, 93% of schools
informed stakeholders of their spending plans, 95% of
schools reported NSB expenditure both to the district and
the School Council and 90% of schools were able to show
accounting records and receipts. 70% of schools displayed
a school report card (which shows NSB entitlements and
expenditures).
As a consequence of new NSB funding, schools spent
substantially more per student in 2013/14 compared to
2012/13 and members of school councils reported that the
NSB manual provided them with clear guidelines for
establishing school needs and setting priorities
(Cambridge Education 2014). On average schools spent
over Rs1,000 more per student, with rural primary schools
showing the largest increase. Schools were still collecting
Frogh–i-Taleem Fund (FTF) funding, but on average 80%
of schools spent some of their NSB funding on items
formerly financed from FTF. Approximately 80% of NSB
funding was being spent in ways which will assist SED in
delivering performance indicators set out in the Chief
Minister’s Roadmap.
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Example 4:
Balochistan Education Support Programme
Education challenge
Less than a quarter of Balochistan’s residents live in urban
areas. Most of the population lives in small and dispersed
rural settlements – 5% of Pakistan’s population spread
over 43% of its total land mass. As a result, access to basic
services poses a tremendous challenge, particularly in
education delivery. Less than half of children aged 5-9 are
enrolled in school, and only around 30% of girls (PSLM
2013-14).
Innovation
Between 1994 and 1999, 1,300 Community Schools were
established under the Balochistan Primary Education
Project (BPEP), with 60,000 girl students enrolled.
Community Schools were innovative in a number of ways.
For example, teachers in these schools were young
women from the community who typically had no formal
qualifications and had not passed their matriculation
exams in year 10. However, enrolment declined when the
project ended and many schools closed.
In 2006, the Government of Balochistan (GoB) launched
the Balochistan Education Support Project (BESP), with
support from the World Bank. The objective was to test
models for education delivery to remote communities in
the province. Over the past eight years the programme has
successfully tested alternative service delivery models of
Public-Private and Community Partnership (based on
learning from the BPEP). The Balochistan Education
Foundation (BEF), an autonomous body set up by the
GoB, acts as the apex body of BESP. BEF works with
implementing partners, NGOs working in the community,
to establish Community Schools in remote areas. These
formal schools are established where there is no girls’
school within two kilometres.
2014).
However, the Implementation Completion Report Review
(World Bank 2014) noted that community schools can only
continue with Government funding especially for
competitive salaries for teachers (teacher turnover was
high), and continued training and capacity building for
parent education committees. Also, while community
schools established under BESP have now been
recognised by the GoB, there were delays in GoB
recognition of community schools, rendering students
completing grade 5 unable to continue their education at
public middle schools in the absence of a completion
certificate.
Some aspects of the community school model have been
adopted by the GoB with support from the Global
Partnership for Education (GPE). The GPE-Balochistan
Education Project addresses the problems identified under
BESP in the following ways: (i) the schools established are
recognized ‘up front’ as ‘government schools’ using
successful community support mechanisms, as opposed
to being set up as ‘community schools’; and (ii) contract
teachers hired for community schools are employed using
rules and procedures applicable to regular government
teachers, ensuring they can be regularised in the GoB
payroll after the life of the Project.

Impact
As of 2014 (when support from the World Bank ended),
25,973 students were enrolled in 633 schools, 42% of
them girls. Teacher and student attendance rates were
95% and 85% respectively (higher than in public schools)
and students in grade 5 scored better than their
counterparts in public schools in an early grade reading
assessment, although results were still low (World Bank

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The development of innovative approaches in
the public education sector
Barriers to innovation in the public sector typically include:
n Lack of funds, dedicated budgets, teams, processes and
Innovation often begins with a prompt or
skills
trigger which makes it either possible or
n Concerns about the best use of limited public funds
necessary. Sometimes innovation is forced
n Discouraging reward and incentive systems – by a crisis, cost pressures, or political
n Risk aversion demands. Sometimes it is catalysed by a
n The absence of sustained leadership of an innovation new technology. (NESTA 2014)
n Absence of sufficient rigorous evidence that the
innovation has an impact

The origins and development of the four innovations described above suggest that there is no single process or pathway
to overcoming these barriers: what worked for one innovation might not work for another. However, there were certain
conditions common to all four innovations that contributed to their success.

The challenge and the need to address the
challenge was recognised by each of the four
provincial governments
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the absence of data was
hindering planning and decision making; in Sindh and
Balochistan, provincial governments recognised the
importance of increasing access to quality education; and
in Punjab, schools needed more resources.
All four innovations were in line with the larger policy focus
of the province. For example, in Punjab the introduction of
the NSB is in line with a province-wide shift to decentralising
public finances and in Balochistan the Education Sector
Plan for 2013-17 includes the ‘expansion of the school
system in settlements that do not have a school following
the community schools model’. Their inclusion in a broader
programme of reform led by government helped ensure
leadership and ownership for each of the four innovations.
Support from international donors helped
reduce several barriers to innovation in the
public sector
Financial support helped ensure sufficient dedicated
funds for the innovation (at least for the design and initial
implementation) and reduced the risk to public funds. If
the innovation had not been successful, no Pakistani
public funds would have been wasted.
Technical assistance supplemented capacity in
government, especially in designing the innovation and
monitoring and evaluating its impact. For example, the
formula for NSB upon which the distribution of funds was
based was developed by the Government of Punjab with
technical assistance through the World Bank and at the
end of the FY 2013/14 support from the donor enabled the
Schools Education Department to commission an
independent review of the NSB scheme. Technical
assistance teams typically included advisers with
experience working in government so they were able to
guide the innovation through government systems.
Support from international donors is likely to have increased
the level of scrutiny over each of the innovations given their
requirements to systematically measure and report on
progress. In the case of the BEF initiative to establish
Community Schools, funds were released based on the
achievement of targets and progress made – thus creating an
incentive to effectively monitor and report on the innovation
(with donor support) and an incentive to make progress.
Innovations travelled from other provinces
and developed over time based on lessons
learned from earlier interventions
Although the IMU in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is unique to the
province, it has some origins in Punjab. The Punjab
Education Reform Roadmap requires regular and accurate
data to measure and drive progress. The Programme
Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) working with
the Punjab Information Technology Board responded by
designing a system that provides free and open access to
real-time data about school education across Punjab. This
experience in Punjab informed the development of the IMU
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Balochistan, the Community
School Project in the 1990s demonstrated the potential for
community schools to have an impact on access to quality
education and this paved the way (albeit with a break of
several years) for the programme implemented by BEF.
This programme in turn informed the design of the
GPE-BEP.

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Public Private Partnerships and autonomous or
semi-autonomous institutions set up by government
have a role to play in education innovation Three of the
examples of innovation were implemented in partnership
with private sector organisations or by autonomous or
semi-autonomous institutions set up by government. In
each case, this allowed the government to leverage the
management capacity and technical expertise of the
private sector, to spread the risk between government
and the private partner (or autonomous institution) and
perhaps to design and implement the innovation more
effectively and efficiently than if it had done so on its own.
However, in each case there was framework in place that
allowed the government to monitor progress and to
maintain a degree of control over the innovation.

Conclusion
As is evident from the examples in this paper, there are some government officials who are attempting to adopt innovative
approaches to improving the public education system. They are prepared to think beyond just sustaining the existing
school system and to push beyond current comfort zones to accept some of the greater risks and fears of failure inherent
in innovation. They know that success in finding new solutions has potential benefit for millions of children.

As we have seen, a systemic approach to innovation to embrace new ways of working means a democratising of
education with acceptance of new partnerships with the private sector and civil society; a broadening of leadership
support that welcomes fresh thinking and diversity; and financing mechanisms that can absorb new funding streams and
channel cash to schools.

The few examples of innovation above provide just a snapshot of the creativity within the education system. There are
many ideas being tested at the school and community level that can also make lasting positive change to the teaching
and learning that takes place in Pakistan’s schools. However, it is only with an acceptance of innovation at the sector level
that the much needed widespread transformation of education can take place. That said, it is important to acknowledge
that systems cannot and should not be required to, absorb too much change and innovation. This can lead to stress on
systems and resources (including personnel) and uneven performance.

Ilm Ideas 2 programme aims to help demonstrate the potential large scale impact of innovation in education and to create
an environment in which education innovation will thrive. Ilm Ideas 2 seeks to promote the efforts and experience of
innovators (including businesses and social enterprises), help develop and test their ideas, and share learning from their
innovation journey to inform future developments. Ultimately, Ilm Ideas 2 seeks adoption and wider diffusion in the public
sector where innovation in education can touch the lives of most of Pakistan’s children. Government is regarded as an
essential partner at all stages of innovation and further thinking and dialogue around innovation in education is welcomed.

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ASER Pakistan (2015) Annual Status of Education Report http://www.aserpakistan.org/document/aser/2015/reports/national/ASER_National_Report_2015.pdf

Barrera-Osorio, F., Blakeslee, D., Hoover, M., Linden, L., Raju, D., Ryan, S. (2013) Leveraging the Private Sector to Improve Primary School Enrolment: Evidence from a

Randomized Controlled Trial in Pakistan http://dosen.narotama.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Leveraging-the-Private-Sector-to-Improve-Primary-School-Enrolment-

Evidence-from-a-Randomized-Controlled-Trial-in-Pakistan1.pdf

Cambridge Education (2014) Non Salary Budget Expenditure Review, Punjab, Pakistan.

NESTA (2014) Innovation in the Public Sector http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/innovation-public-sector

Oxfam (2014) Working for the Many: Public Services Fight Inequality https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp182-public-services-fight-inequality-030414-en.pdf

Pakistan Bureau of Education (2015) Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files//pslm/publications/pslm2013_14/A%20report%2013-14%28%2012-05-15%29_FInal_1.pdf

Sindh Education Foundation (2014) Promoting Private Schools in Rural Sindh (PPRS) Programme http://www.sef.org.pk/pprs.php

World Bank (2014) Global Partnership for Education, Balochistan Education Project

http://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/2014-gpe-program-document-balochistan.pdf

World Bank (2015) ICR Review http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/09/02/090224b0830b14b2/1_0/Rendered/PDF

/Pakistan000Bal0tion0Support0Project.pdf

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