government of punjab education department performance evaluation report

• About IDEAS
• Board of Directors
• All Research
• Human Development
• Governance and Political Economy
• Fiscal Federalism and Public Finance
• Social Exclusion And Marginalization
• All Publications
• Journal Articles
• Working Papers
• Policy Briefs
• Book Chapters

Home » Publications » Final Evaluation Report: Review of Education Sector Performance (PESP 2)

Final Evaluation Report: Review of Education Sector Performance (PESP 2)

This report is the Final Evaluation Report of the Performance Evaluation of the Punjab Education Sector Programme Phase 2 (PESP2), which has been the UK’s largest bilateral programme to support education.

PESP2 (taking account of extensions up to the time of writing) has been implemented from January 2013 to July 2021. Under the programme, the UK has allocated £426.5 million to support the Government of Punjab (GoPb) to reform and transform the delivery of education in Punjab. The programme built on the UK’s previous support to education in Punjab and was designed to support Punjab Education Reform Roadmap. PESP2 aimed to achieve the impact of ‘more educated people in Punjab making a social and economic contribution’, with the intended outcome being to ensure that ‘more children are in school, staying longer and learning more’.

PESP2 has provided a combination of sector budget support (SBS), targeted financial support, and technical assistance (TA). Specific programme components have focused on support to public–private partnerships (PPPs) through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) programmes with low-cost private schools; support for the rehabilitation of school infrastructure; scholarship programmes; support to special and inclusive education; and support for adolescent girls who are out of school.

• Education Policy
• Learning Outcomes
• Policy Reform
• Programme Evaluation
• Student Achivement
• Student Learning Outcomes

Cite this publication

e-Pact Consortium. (2021). Performance Evaluation of the Punjab Education Sector Programme (PESP2): Review of Education Sector Performance (Final Evaluation Report). Oxford Policy Management. Retreived from: https://www.opml.co.uk/sites/default/files/migrated_bolt_files/a2107-final-report.pdf

Registrations for the #Path2Dev Conference are closed

Evaluating Punjab Education Sector Programme

We led the performance evaluation of the Punjab Education Sector Programme to assess improvements made and identify lessons for future programmes in education system performance.

Project team members

Stephen Jones , Anam Bashir , Tanya Lone , Michele Binci , Maheen Shakeel , Jana Harb , Zara Durrani , Maham Farhat , Faisal Rashid , Maimoona Junaid , Rabiya Salman

• Date August 2017 - March 2021
• Areas of expertise Education   , Governance   , Poverty and social protection (PSP)   , Research and Evidence (R&E)   , Cross-cutting themes
• Country Pakistan
• Keywords Gender, equality, and social inclusion   , Adaptive management   , Data collection   , Diagnostics   , Impact evaluation   , Inequality   , Policy implementation   , Policy options   , Quantitative methods   , Research uptake   , Technical assistance   , Value for Money [VFM]   , Early childhood development [ECD]   , Education financing   , Education monitoring and evaluation   , Inclusive education   , Girls' education   , Primary education   , Secondary education   , Violence Against Women & girls [VAWG]   , Public Financial Management [PFM]   , Budgeting   , Economic policy   , Fiscal decentralisation   , Nutrition   , Social protection systems strengthening   , Poverty   , Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning [MEL]   , Government Statistics   , Qualitative Data Collection   , Survey   , Third-Party Monitoring [TPM]
• Office OPM Pakistan

£ 1.49 million

• Anam Bashir, Assistant consultant

In partnership with Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) and Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR), we are leading the multi-year performance evaluation of DFID’s Punjab Education Sector Programme (PESP2). 

Under the programme, DFID allocated £420.5 million to support the Government of Punjab to reform and transform delivery of education. The programme builds on DFID’s previous support to the Government of Punjab and complemented the UK-supported Punjab Education Reform Roadmap. PESP2 aims to achieve the impact of “more educated people in Punjab making a social and economic contribution” with the intended outcome to ensure that “more children are in school, staying longer and learning more".

PESP2 has provided a combination of Sector Budget Support (SBS), targeted financial support, and technical assistance (TA). Specific programme components have focused on support to public private partnerships through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) programmes with low cost private schools, support for rehabilitation of school infrastructure, scholarship programmes, support to special and inclusive education, and for adolescent girls who are out of school.

The challenge

The fact that the evaluation began more than four years into implementation of the programme limited the extent to which baseline information could be collected as a basis for comparison, or the design of programme components could be influenced in a way that improved evaluability.

Our approach

The objectives of performance evaluation have been:

• To assess what progress has been made in improving the performance of education in Punjab over the period of the PESP2 programme (with a particular focus on gender, disability, social exclusion and poverty), and what factors explain the performance observed;
• To identify, measure (where possible) and explain, the contributions that the PESP2 programme has made to the progress achieved, including the contributions of the PESP2 components, individually and collectively;
• To identify lessons for future programmes and for enhanced improvements in Punjab’s education system performance; and
• To provide interim reports that may assist in course corrections during the remainder of programme implementation, as well as to inform the final evaluation report.

The evaluation is based on a conceptual framework derived from World Development Report 2018. This framework identifies four key school-level ingredients for learning: prepared learners, effective teaching, learning-focused inputs, and skilled management and governance. It incorporates accountability relationships and conditions for coherence and alignment around certain policy goals.

Two levels of Evaluation Questions (EQs) have been defined for performance evaluation:

Level One EQs relate to understanding the performance of the education system in Punjab over the period of the PESP2 programme, and the factors that have determined this performance.

Level Two EQs relate to understanding the contribution of the PESP2 project components to the progress tracked and analysed by the Level One EQs.

Outcomes and wider impacts

The findings from the first interim evaluation report in 2018, and the acceptance by DFID of the recommendations made, had a significant impact on the implementation of the remainder of the programme. In particular, they strongly influenced the approach and focus of technical assistance. Findings from the evaluation have also influenced DFID/FCDO’s thinking about future engagement on education in Punjab and Pakistan. To date there is less evidence of the evaluation influencing Government of Punjab decisions, though there was active engagement from a wide range of stakeholders in the education sector in Punjab in discussion of the evaluation results.

We would like to thank IDEAS team, CDPR team, and external consultants including Dr. Monazza Aslam, Usman Khan, Neelgoon Safdar, Maheen Zahra, and Fatima Aftab.

Areas of expertise