IN terms of urgent and important problems requiring resolution, Pakistan’s education sector is the real frontier. With some 26 million five- to 16-year-olds out of school, a lack of universal enrolment, high dropout rates, and the poor quality of education provided to most of those lucky enough to be enrolled, could any issue be more important? Pakistan has a very young population; we are still growing at 2.4 per cent every year. This means that approximately 6m children are added to the population annually. In more developed societies, the frontiers are about ageing populations and health. In Pakistan, they are about children, their schooling and health; young people and their education and skills; and early employment opportunities.

All this implies that Pakistan provides a research frontier for those interested in education. And we need a lot of research. We face big questions and need good answers: how can we provide education to millions; how do we improve the quality of education; how do we manage private versus public schools; how do we recruit, train, and support teachers; how do we govern and manage schools and systems better; how do we ensure good curricula, books, assessments, teaching, etc? The list is long; we need good research to answer all these questions and more.

But, historically — and even today — education research has not been a priority area for funding. First, the education sector, as a whole, has always been underfunded. Even in better days, the state never spent more than 2pc of GDP on education; currently, we are at less than 1pc. Within this, one can imagine what funding for........

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