# **Detailed SUMMARY of the Article "Evidence for Policies," by Faisal Bari & Monazza Aslam, Dawn, February 14th, 2025**: The article underscores the urgent necessity of evidence-based policymaking in Pakistan, particularly in the education sector, which faces systemic inequities and external shocks. With over 26 million children out of school and a learning poverty rate of 77%, Pakistan's education system is in crisis. The devastating 2022 floods exacerbated these challenges, destroying over 30,000 schools and leaving marginalized groups—such as girls, children with disabilities, and those in underserved areas—particularly vulnerable. In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an "education emergency" in May 2024. However, despite the abundance of data collected by both public and private initiatives, including ASER and the Education Management Information Systems, these statistics are not effectively translated into policy decisions. The article highlights the need for stronger collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and academia to bridge the gap between data collection and policy implementation. The recently established Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) aims to facilitate this connection by improving data quality, synthesizing research, and fostering dialogue between stakeholders. However, challenges persist, particularly regarding political influences that often override evidence-based policymaking. The article stresses that merely producing research is not enough; it must be communicated effectively to decision-makers at the right time. Policy dialogues, institutional collaborations, and persistent advocacy for data-driven reforms are essential to ensure that Pakistan’s education sector can sustain long-term growth and reduce poverty. While some efforts have been initiated, the road ahead remains long, requiring continuous investment in research, dissemination, and policy engagement. --- # **Easy/Short SUMMARY**: Pakistan’s education system is in deep crisis, with over 26 million children out of school and many others not learning effectively. The 2022 floods destroyed thousands of schools, further worsening the situation, especially for marginalized children. In 2024, an "education emergency" was declared, but despite having a lot of data on schools, teachers, and students, this information is not being used properly in policymaking. The Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) was created to help turn research into useful policies, but political issues and lack of collaboration between researchers and the government slow progress. The article highlights the need for better communication between experts and policymakers, as well as continuous efforts to ensure education policies are based on facts and evidence. Without these improvements, Pakistan will struggle to grow and reduce poverty. --- # **SOLUTIONS of The Problem**: ## **1. Strengthening Research and Data Collection** The government must improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of education data by ensuring birth registration, tracking children with disabilities, and assessing learning outcomes regularly. Reliable data is the foundation of effective policy decisions. ## **2. Enhancing Collaboration Between Stakeholders** Stronger partnerships between researchers, policymakers, educators, and the private sector should be established. This can be done through national education forums, think tanks, and joint research projects that promote knowledge sharing. ## **3. Establishing Evidence-Based Policy Mechanisms** Education policies should be formulated based on research rather than political influence. Independent bodies should oversee the implementation of reforms to prevent policies from being driven by special interest groups. ## **4. Increasing Investment in Education** The government should allocate more resources to education, especially for rebuilding schools, providing learning materials, and training teachers in disaster-prone areas to ensure learning continues during crises. ## **5. Creating Public Awareness on Learning Crisis** Parents, teachers, and communities need to be informed about the severity of the learning crisis through media campaigns. When society understands the problem, they can push for better policies and hold authorities accountable. ## **6. Ensuring Accountability and Transparency** Regular audits and evaluations of education programs should be conducted, and the results should be made public to ensure transparency. This will help in identifying inefficiencies and areas that need urgent intervention. ## **7. Training and Capacity Building for Policymakers** Policymakers must be trained in evidence-based decision-making. They should work closely with data analysts and educational researchers to understand how to use data effectively in crafting policies. ## **8. Establishing Policy Feedback Loops** There should be continuous monitoring and updating of policies based on their effectiveness. If a policy is not achieving its intended results, modifications should be made based on new data and feedback from educators. ## **9. Addressing Political Barriers in Policymaking** Political leaders should be encouraged to prioritize national interests over short-term political gains. Independent educational commissions should be formed to ensure policy decisions are not influenced by political pressures. ## **10. Utilizing Technology for Better Data Collection and Communication** The use of digital tools and artificial intelligence in education management can help improve data collection, tracking student progress, and identifying learning gaps more efficiently. --- # **IMPORTANT Facts and Figures Given in the Article**: - **26 million** children aged 5-16 are out of school in Pakistan. - **30,000+ schools** were destroyed or damaged in the 2022 floods. - **77%** of 10-year-olds in Pakistan cannot read age-appropriate text (learning poverty). - Only **55%** of Grade 5 students can read a simple Urdu story. - Only **48%** of Grade 5 students can solve a basic two-digit division problem. - Pakistan is ranked **8th most vulnerable** country to climate change. - The **Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE)** was established to improve research-based policymaking. --- # **MCQs from the Article**: ### 1. **How many school-aged children are out of school in Pakistan?** A. 15 million B. 20 million **C. 26 million** D. 33 million ### 2. **What percentage of 10-year-olds in Pakistan cannot read age-appropriate text?** A. 50% B. 65% **C. 77%** D. 85% ### 3. **What major climate disaster severely impacted Pakistan’s education system in 2022?** A. Earthquake B. Drought C. Cyclone **D. Floods** ### 4. **What initiative aims to improve research-based education policymaking in Pakistan?** A. National Education Authority **B. Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE)** C. Federal Education Bureau D. Learning Poverty Reduction Program ### 5. **What percentage of Grade 5 students can solve a basic two-digit division problem?** A. 60% B. 55% C. 50% **D. 48%** --- # **VOCABULARY**: 1. **VULNERABLE** (نازک / غیر محفوظ) – At risk of harm or damage. 2. **CATASTROPHIC** (تباہ کن) – Involving great damage or suffering. 3. **MARGINALIZED** (پس ماندہ) – Treated as insignificant or pushed to the side. 4. **INEQUITIES** (ناانصافیاں) – Lack of fairness or justice. 5. **SYNTHESIZE** (مرکب بنانا) – To combine different elements into a whole. 6. **FACILITATE** (آسان بنانا) – To make a process easier. 7. **ENTRENCHED** (مضبوطی سے جمایا ہوا) – Deeply established and difficult to change. 8. **DISSEMINATION** (پھیلاؤ) – The act of spreading something widely. 9. **COLLABORATION** (تعاون) – Working together towards a common goal. 10. **MONITORING** (نگرانی) – Observing and checking progress over time. 11. **RESEARCH-BASED** (تحقیقی بنیاد پر) – Supported by studies and data. 12. **INTERVENTION** (مداخلت) – Taking action to improve a situation. 13. **ACCOUNTABILITY** (جوابدہی) – Responsibility for actions and decisions. 14. **EXTERNAL SHOCKS** (بیرونی جھٹکے) – Sudden events that disrupt a system. 15. **CAPACITY BUILDING** (صلاحیت سازی) – Developing skills and knowledge. --- 📢 **Attention Please!** We appreciate your commitment to acquiring knowledge through our summaries. Please do not remove the attribution label from this article. Acknowledging sources and efforts is crucial. Unauthorized distribution is discouraged. Thank you for your cooperation! 🔍 💡 **Join our WhatsApp Channel for more educational summaries and updates:** 🔗 [Dawn Article Summaries](https://cssmcqs.com/dawn-editorials-articles-summary-for-students-pdf-download/) WhatsApp Channel Link: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va7tT3o35fLnJeFbpS2y dawn.com Evidence for policies Faisal Bari, Monazza Aslam 7–8 minutes NEVER before has there been such an urgent need for evidence and for that evidence to be meaningfully translated into effective policy. There are more than 26 million five- to 16-year-old children who are out of school in Pakistan, which ranks as the eighth most vulnerable country to the impact of climate change. In 2022, Pakistan endured one of the most devastating climate disasters in its history: catastrophic floods that submerged a third of the country, directly affecting over 33m people, including 16m children. Over 30,000 schools were damaged or destroyed, halting education continuity and leaving marginalised children — especially girls, those with disabilities, and those from underserved regions like rural Balochistan and Sindh — disproportionately vulnerable. This tragedy following very soon after the Covid-19 pandemic, exposed the fragility of Pakistan’s education system, highlighting its inability to withstand systemic inequities and external shocks. In May 2024, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an “education emergency” across Pakistan. This declaration came at a telling moment — in 2023, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) revealed that only 55 per cent of Grade 5 students could read a simple Urdu story, and just 48pc could solve a basic two-digit division problem. Simply put, across the country, roughly half the children in Grade 5 cannot read a simple Urdu story and cannot solve simple math problems. The World Bank puts the learning poverty figure for Pakistan at around 77pc, ie, 77pc of 10-year-olds are not proficient in reading text that is appropriate for their age. These sobering figures highlight a persistent learning crisis and entrenched inequities and inefficiencies in Pakistan’s education system. The crisis we face — systemic inequities and vulnerability to shocks — underscores an urgent need for transformative, evidence-based reforms that ensure access to meaningful learning opportunities for all children. But this raises further questions: firstly, do the data and evidence exist for policymakers to make critical decisions on how best to spend their limited resources? Secondly, if the evidence is there, why isn’t it being used to support key policy decisions in the education sector? The World Bank puts the learning poverty figure for Pakistan at around 77pc. On the first question — Pakistan has made great strides in generating high quality data through government and non-government initiatives. These include private sector-led large-scale initiatives like ASER but the biggest strides have been made in the public sector. The Education Management Information Systems give a lot of data on infrastructure and facilities, teacher availability and student numbers. Monitoring data generated by monitors in almost all provinces gives information on the state of facilities and usage, class attendance, and teacher attendance. The monitors generate some learning data too but provinces have large-scale tests that give learning data too. This data is not perfect, we need significant improvements in what we collect as many important variables are missing (we do not have birth registration for every child, data on children with disabilities is usually not collected, etc). We also need to improve the quality of some of the data, especially that related to learning outcomes, but much more is available than ever before. There is, however, an even greater need for data to be effectively translated into actionable policy. This requires genuine collaborations and capacity strengthening across a number of sectors and players. Academia and research institutions need access to data the government collects. Researchers need access to policymakers to share their research and policy recommendations. Policymakers need access to experts and researchers to raise questions and concerns, which might be important for them. All this requires significant collaborations across multiple players and institutions. The federal government recently created the Pakistan Institute of Education by merging a co­u­­­ple of institutions for this very purpose. The PIE has started efforts to reach out to academic and research organisations to form collaborations. Some of these efforts are funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office research programme, to build the capacity of and strengthen the PIE to improve the effectiveness of existing data. This includes evaluating and synthesising exis­ting data and evidence and identifying key gaps. There is also a need to facilitate the production of and then effectively communicate the research to policymakers for action. These efforts to forge collaborations, generate the capacity for res­earch and communication, facilitate the use of data and cr­­eate a feedback loop that goes from evi­d­ence-based policy to improvements in data collection and usage will take time to establish/ dee­p­en and would have to be nourished for quite some time. Focusing on the second question of why available evidence is not used in education policymaking req­uires further thought. The production of evide­nce is not enough; feeding this into the government machinery at the right time is also crucial. Engag­ing with decision-makers and aligning rese­arch with government priorities is also key. This can be achieved through policy dialogues and other efforts. There might be political issues too that need sorting. Policymaking might be aimed at appeasing strong interest groups, instead of doing only what the data and evidence suggests. But even here, producing data-backed evidence is the first requirement. Once the evidence is available, there should be pressure on the policymakers to do what is needed, instead of appeasing interest groups. This part might not be easy for experts and academics to do, but we cannot even make it to this point without good research and evidence-based analyses. We still need a lot of work in the generation of evidence and its effective dissemination. Too many children are out of schools and too many who are in school are not learning enough. This must change if Pakistan is to have sustained decent growth and sustained poverty reduction. But for it to happen, we not only need to generate quality data, we also need the capacity for evidence-based research and analysis and then dissemination of that research to policymakers through the engagement of all relevant stakeholders. We can see some beginnings of this in education, but there’s still a long way to go. Dr Faisal Bari is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and an associate professor of economics at Lums. Dr Monazza Aslam is a managing partner of the UK-based education think tank OPERA, and research director of the FCDO-funded Data and Research in Education Research Consortium in Pakistan. Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2025