COVID-19 Low-Fee Private Schools in Pakistan

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, GSF has been working to shine a light on how school closures have impacted children, teachers and parents; advocate for more support to help keep children learning; and to support non-state schools pivoting to remote methods.

In this blog, Wilson Centre Global Fellow Nadia Naviwala, previews the key insights from our new podcast and video series, which looks to explore some of the first-hand stories of how Pakistan’s low-cost private schools sector – which enrolls 40% of the country’s students– have been affected. 

In Pakistan, as in many other parts of the world, experts hypothesized that low-fee private schools would be forced to close down permanently due to COVID-19. Many low-fee private schools survive on thin profit margins, catering to families who need discounts, delayed payments, or forgiveness, and lack financial resilience even in the best of times. With many parents losing their incomes due to the lockdown, and with many schools closed anyway, it seemed inevitable that schools would suffer a loss of income. The losses would lead to lay-offs of teachers – most of whom are women – compromising the delivery of distance learning.

Low-fee private schools enroll 40 percent of students in Pakistan – the numbers have consistently mushroomed since the 1990s. There are many explanations for the choice that parents are making. One is that, in a low-fee school, parents can reliably expect that a teacher will show up and teach, whilst in parts of the state sector, government is still struggling to get teachers to teach once they have shown up to school.

Surprisingly, it is vastly cheaper to educate a child in a private school rather than a government school in Pakistan, largely because private schools pay their teachers a fourth or less than what the public sector does. Government schools have been located far away from populations of children, with dangerous routes being a common concern for parents. Low-fee private schools tend to locate themselves in the centre of villages rather than its outskirts.

In the past year, the government has intermittently ordered schools to open or close without notice. At The Citizens Foundation, a non-state school network that sustains on local philanthropy, enrollment rates have soared as they have absorbed children who were just out-of-school as private schools closed, as well as due to the impossibility of social distancing in some overcrowded government schools.

In this series, I spoke to three leaders, who shared their expert observations and direct experience, on how schools have coped. Click on the links below for the videos and my summary of the conversations.

What now?  

The interviews closed with ideas for how the government could better assist a sector that enrolls 40% of students in Pakistan. Zainab offers a plethora of recommendations based on LEAPS research since this is an area where the team has done many experiments. But above all, she points out that although the sector is best positioned to take advantage of additional resources, it has the least access to them, whether it is teacher training, ed tech, curriculum and co-curricular resources. In the context of COVID, she suggests that the government could offer private schools loans with low interest rates, grants similar to the US government to small businesses, or in kind support such as access to government teacher training institutes or technology.

Rehman questioned the government’s lack of engagement with private schools, contrasting it with the willingness of the high officials to meet with representatives from industry, trade, and business. He suggested that the sector’s educationists could provide meaningful input, especially considering that politicians in charge of education do not tend to have prior experience in the sector. Like Zainab, he pointed to the need that low-fee private schools had for financial support during crisis. He refers to the country’s “education system” as one that includes the "half" of children who are in low-fee private schools.

Roshaneh suggests that, aside from the cash transfers that the government has done, there could be conditional cash transfers that are conditioned on families sending their children back to school. This would alleviate the financial pressures that are preventing families from sending their children back to school, whether it is boys who are now working, girls who have been married or must stay at home to care for children, or families who simply can no longer afford to private tuition fees or the cost of transport to a government school.

With schools in Pakistan open again, the challenge for all schools will be recovering from the loss in learning that has happened since the pandemic started. As Roshaneh says, “It’s not a public versus private debate but how can we get quality education out to the millions that need it.” 

Nadia Naviwala is an independent researcher and analyst focused on education, development, and civil society in Pakistan. She is the author of "Why Can't Pakistani Children Read? The Inside Story on Education Reforms Gone Wrong" and " Pakistan's Education Crisis: The Real Story." Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Devex, and Dawn, and has been cited in the Economist. She also serves as a senior advisor to The Citizens Foundation (TCF) where she develops and manages global partnerships. The research and views expressed in this piece are her own and do not represent TCF, GSF, or any other institution.