Priority area: Education
Duration: 1980s to today Despite progress in certain areas, the public education sector in Pakistan is one of the least developed in the world. Only just over half of all five- to nine-year-old boys and girls go to school. Those who do can expect to find inadequately trained teachers and outdated schoolbooks. There are not enough training vacancies for the youth of Pakistan. Few in Pakistan have undergone formal vocational training and many are not sufficiently qualified to meet the needs of business. Pakistan-German cooperation in the field of education aims to improve the institutional environment in the education sector and to increase the quality of education in the long term. |
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Results achieved so far – examples:
- Noteworthy achievements include the development and adoption of a new national education policy and support provided in reforming curricula. As a result, curricula now meet the most modern educational requirements.
- New curricula are being introduced on the basis of a new textbook policy promoted by Germany: more than 100 new schoolbooks have so far been produced. In addition, 44 textbooks are being developed for teaching staff. Other material is in production. More than 1,500 authors and publishers of textbooks across the whole of Pakistan are taking part in training courses on developing modern materials for pupils and teachers.
- Germany has been involved in several regions in Pakistan in establishing an advanced teacher training system. As a result, a total of more than 290,000 elementary school teachers and more than 60,000 elementary and secondary school head teachers have attended training courses to date.
- A mentoring system for teachers was developed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with German support. It incorporates 4,485 mentors in 22,466 schools. In Punjab, for instance, 3,900 trainers underwent training in pupil-centred teaching methods and the use of curricula.
- 4,900 classrooms were built or renovated as part of a basic education programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa funded by Germany.
- Debt swap programmes worth a total of EUR 76 million mean investments can be made in school buildings and providing more teachers and teaching materials.
- A number of German development projects have over the years promoted the establishment of administrative structures, technical training centres and institutions that give training and advanced training to trainers. All these institutions are still up and running and form the backbone of the formal vocational training system.
- Germany has become the driving force behind donor harmonisation in the education sector. German development cooperation advises our Pakistani partners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, together with international donors, and coordinates composite financing mechanisms.
