Policy regarding girl’s right of education can broadly be divided into two

approaches. First one is an outward approach focusing mainly on working with

private sector organizations and NGOs to enhance the capacity of education
department for girls1. Private sector, although efficient raises concerns of
profit-centred motivation. They might lack motivation to go to rural area,
where their facilities are needed most. The second approach focuses inwards
on improving capacity through effective monitoring mechanism 2. Its objective
is to make education more accessible to girls by ensuring things such
availability of transport or building schools within close proximity. This
approach calls for a more decentralized system of education to speed-up the
decision making process and leave less room for corruption.

The second approach is preferred because it tries to enhance capacity by

bringing change within the organization and management of the existing
education departments, and therefore requires fewer funds. More than 60
percent of girls are not going to school because of long distance, particularly in
the middle and high schools; similar problems are also reported by female
teachers3. Moreover close monitoring of institutions is key considering the
rapid increase in corruption and the rise in the phenomena of 'ghost schools’ 4

Policy makers are increasing realising that, while dealing with the rural areas of
the country, it is important to understand the geographic, demographic, and
economic status of the community in order to successfully address the
pressing issues in this region5. The policy paper 'The importance of educating
girls in the Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) of KP, Pakistan' states that their
goal can be only reached if all education planning is based on real-time data,
and keep in view the needs of local community and the realities on the ground
for each district in the NMDs, because each district is unique in terms of
terrain, demographic characteristics, and the perception of residents about

1
Alford, J., & O'Flynn, J. (2012). Rethinking public service delivery (1st ed.). Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
2
Farrulsaqlain,M. 'Improving Girl Education in Pakistan'
3
Naveed,S. (2018). Echidna Global Scholars Program Policy Paper: ‘The importance of educating girls
in the Newly Merged Districts of KP, Pakistan'
4
Stuteville,S, (2009). GlobalPost, The ghost schools of Pakistan
5
Naveed,S. (2018). Echidna Global Scholars Program Policy Paper: ‘The importance of educating girls
in the Newly Merged Districts of KP, Pakistan'.
girls’ education6. The policy paper further calls for redefining education in
terms of 21st century skills that go beyond literacy, numeracy, and vocational
knowledge. Equipped with such skills, girls will become find more
opportunities to become valuable citizens and parents would be more
motivated to send girls to school.

ICG Pakistan's policy recommends a voucher system in order to increase the

number of girls being sent to schools. They suggest that instead of subsidizing
schools, vouchers should be given to parents, who can choose between both
public and private schools. Such a system does not discriminate between
public and private schools and ensures payments to the school for every child
attending7.What such a system will essentially do is bring an element of market
competitiveness amongst schools to maintain quality.
In Pakistan, there have often been policy recommendations of enforcing
compulsory education for children; however such a policy will be difficult to
implement without first addressing the core issues in our education system
and understanding why parents are reluctant to send their daughters to school
in the first place.

6
, A., & Jones, M. (2018). Why context matters: a comparative perspective on education reform and
policy implementation. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 17(3), 195–207. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10671-018-9231-9#citeas
7
Andrabi & Khwaja, (2010). IGC International Growth Centre – Pakistan. Education Policy in Pakistan:
A Framework for Reform.