When young students hailing from government and low-cost trust schools achieve global recognition in learning competitions and demand machine learning/ AI course options, we must celebrate and uphold their dreams. On the 77th Independence Day of Pakistan, what are the trends in education promoting hope and well-being? Cognizant of the complex problems of too many out of school children (26.8 million) and runaway population growth rate, low allocations, chronic poverty, learning challenges at foundational level and recurrent climate change emergencies, there is a recent groundswell of positive responses at the system, collective and institutional levels that merits attention. Education for purpose and social justice for all are essential values of a progressive democratic nation.

There has been mounting evidence over time (ASER Pakistan surveys 2010-2023) on the crisis of foundational learning for children in Grades 3-5 unable to read a basic paragraph in Urdu/ Sindhi with understanding or solve a simple two-digit division. Global pledges made at the UN Transforming Education Summit in 2022 endorsed a call to action for foundational learning (FL) to offset Covid-19 learning losses. The federation, overwhelmed with large multi-dimensional problems in education, galvanised for getting the foundations right. The Actions to Strengthen Performance for Inclusive and Responsive Education (ASPIRE) – a $200 million World Bank and government of Pakistan national programme – was recalibrated in December 2022 to include FL challenges for each province and area, backed by policy and action plan. FL has fired the imagination of civil servants and political leaders to pivot education planning and reforms from projectised approaches to system-based programmes.

Governments, development-, civil society- and learning solution industry- partners have mobilised for implementation at scale. There has been a continuity of focus in sector plans without any disruptions due to political transitions, emergencies/ floods and summer vacations, optimised by summer learning camps at national and provincial levels. Two foundational learning hubs/ units (federal/ Pakistan and Sindh) are working to crowdsource policies, knowledge and best practices with evidence on improved learning outcomes through traditional learning routines, teaching at the right level (TARL) and/ or digital learning solutions and assessments (learning packs, telephone based, SMS/ WhatsApp, tablets, apps), reading hour and libraries together with play and social emotional learning. The FL focus has also triggered ambitious system actions for Early Childhood Education as a spectrum to address equity and quality at the outset. Multiple non-state actors are working alongside government through public-private partnerships for scaling up FL as public goods for the children of Pakistan. PPPs in Pakistan are recognised as global public good, with well-aligned procurement backed by laws, financing and monitoring. These shifts and innovations are here to stay and build upon.

Targeting girls and the most vulnerable/ fragile groups has become a grounded norm in all programmes of the government and through civil society initiatives to bridge gender gaps for both in-school and out of school children/ adolescents. Trends in government administrative data and ASER surveys over time reveal rising demand for education by households, narrowing of gender gaps in Pakistan and gender parity index (GPI) at each successive level of education from ECE to secondary education, skilling and higher education. It must make the needle move for women’s presence in the labour market beyond the current 25 percent mark in the labour force surveys. Efforts are vigorously under way to nurture, support and monetise women’s contribution in traditional and new professions making the invisible visible enabled by financial inclusion, innovations, start-up social enterprises in mainstream education-business solutions. Acceleration of multi-sectoral approaches straddling education, health, population, social protection and economic opportunities is a compelling need. We still lag in gender-balanced content, visualisation in textbooks and pedagogical practices needing urgent solutions. Visible programmes like the recycled Pink Buses in ICT for safe transport of rural students/ teachers to access urban colleges/ tertiary facilities, girls on motorbikes and in STEM, sports and enterprise from the Karakoram/ Himalayas and Hingol Ranges to the deserts of Thar and Cholistan are gaining ground.

Twenty-first Century-learning possibilities through technology and AI across education have accelerated as part of the Covid-19 dividend. Advances in technology and communication are gaining ground with mobile and digital coverage to transform Pakistan’s education framework. The opportunity through formal public-private partnerships to catalyse change for distant/ marginalised communities/ schools and for children with disabilities through assistive devices are bridging the digital divide. Partnerships for digital learning across the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, PTCL/ U-fone and Classera/ HP Classeasy technologies were witnessed at the recent 6th InnoXera Digital Summit (August 2024), a hope at scale for transformative impact with vibrant players for the Ministry’s e-Taleem nationwide platform. The summit showcased cutting edge models of EdTech and AI to spur smart learning solutions for Pakistan in workforce development, accessible personalised learning for students, teachers and families. Scaling up recent successful innovations of tech coaches in schools to support technology, AI, robotics and enterprise development in GB and ICT is a step forward. South-South/ South-North partnerships with Saudi, US/ UK companies and Pakistan’s public sector entities opens cost effective pathways for learning in Pakistan. As digital solutions are growing, the challenges of gender inequity in access to cell phones in households, low and unequal internet coverage, 40 percent one- and two-teacher schools (primary), low cost primary school coverage, and 40 percent children living with stunting, require urgent adoption of multi-sectoral collaboration in public sector planning and resourcing.

Scaling up health and nutrition for children in schools is a rapidly growing phenomenon supported by deworming and meals in government schools through partnerships with service providers, government departments and the World Food Programme. Addressing health, nutrition, education, social protection and poverty reduction through a multi-clustered approach is breaking traditional silos for SDGs 2030. The global Schools Meals Coalition triggered by Covid-19 and the Learning Generation Initiative (LGI) are engaged actively in Sustainable Financing Initiative for Schools Health and Nutrition options for governments. The governments must be active partners of the coalition to sustain the movement.

The prime minister’s call for the National Education Emergency (May 8, 2024), has galvanised ministers and secretaries of education to support innovative large-scale programmes through collaboration. With a reformist mindset, they are open to bold, well-designed, evidence-based reforms with outcomes. In Sindh, MPAs are being urged to take ownership of the manifesto promises by oversight of at least three schools in their constituency for improvements and promoting life skills in curriculum. At the federal level, institutionally driven reforms and implementation are making a marked difference in 500 institutions.

These actions are taking place in a volatile environment of institutional decentralisation-centralisation; lack of effective local governments; climate change crises; taxing the taxed and spiraling utility bills. These are trying times for households where learning matters. Without discrimination, the fundamental constitutional right to education should open up possibilities for the empowerment of all.