Pakistan Education Deep Dive with DIT, FCDO & British Council

Join us for a deep dive into the education opportunities in Pakistan led by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the Department for International Trade and British Council. Representatives from each respective organisation will provide us with an insight into the key education priorities and opportunities for British providers looking to do business in Pakistan.  

Context:

Pakistan holds the position of an emerging economy with a young and growing population of 200 million. It is the second-largest economy in South Asia following India (World Bank). However, Pakistan has witnessed a series of challenging events and crises from the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather and natural disasters, and outbreaks of conflict. These events have affected millions of Pakistanis in all aspects of their lives and livelihoods, with the education sector and Pakistan’s students taking a major hit. Pakistan’s economic growth and modernisation largely depends on successfully education and upskilling their surging youth population.

Education context + opportunities:

Despite tremendous efforts to support the country and its students in re-entering education following school closures and increasing access to online learning, it is argued that there is more still to be done. According to UNICEF, an estimated 22.8 million children between 5-16 years-old are out-of-school, the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC).

There exist huge disparities in Pakistan based on socio-economic status, geography, and gender, with boys outnumbering girls at every stage of education. UNICEF highlights the limitations of the education system in Pakistan from the inadequate financing of education to their insufficient policy enforcement.

The gendered experience of exclusion and inequalities in education in Pakistan is particularly prevalent with 53.6% of women in Pakistan deprived of education, training and employment in Pakistan compared to 7.4% of men (UN Women). Girls in education face inadequate (and oftentimes a lack of) sanitation facilities which impacts their retention rates, social norms, attitudes and poor economic conditions of families resulting in girls remaining at home to support with income-generating or household chores, issues of safety when walking to school in rural areas, as well as inaccessible schooling for girls from poor rural communities.  

There is also need for investment in high quality early learning education, particularly for children in disadvantaged households, so as to encourage the continuation of their learning post primary education.

The opportunities for UK-based education providers in Pakistan are numerous, ranging from teacher-training programmes, technical and vocational education, digital education, girls’ education, and transnational education. Join us on 13th December where representatives from FCDO, DIT and British Council will go into detail about the opportunities available and the pipeline going forward.

Agenda:

• Introduction & welcome
• FCDO Pakistan: overview on the development agenda for education and briefing on bilateral programme for girls’ education (15 mins)
• DIT     Pakistan: Overview on education, skills and training priorities in the     market (8     mins)
• British Council Pakistan: overview of their work in Pakistan and opportunities (8 mins)
• Discussion and Q&A