Abstract
Governments are the largest providers of education in the Global South. Slow progress on improving the standards of education in developing countries raises serious questions about the performance of public-sector-run education systems and the institutions they contain. There are still significant access and quality challenges in South Asian countries like Pakistan and India and significant challenges in ensuring completion rates at the high-school level, with acute gender disparities and learning poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and even the Middle East. Therefore, it is relevant to critically look at the processes of policy making and implementation with a particular focus on the performance of key institutions responsible for delivering policy. Even more important is the question that in what ways key actors like politicians, bureaucrats and policy experts who run these Government institutions track progress of their policy goals and how can they reform public sector institutions in the long run.
This doctoral research investigates the role of actors in shaping long-term public-sector change in the context of the education sector in the post-colonial state structure of Punjab, Pakistan. As such, this work, is relevant for South Asia and, more widely, for the post-colonial states of the Global South. Taking the case of Education sector in Punjab province of Pakistan with a population of 110 million people at the time, this thesis provides a detailed account of reforms in 54,000 schools at the system level and examines micro case studies of key education sector agencies and services (like examinations, education provision through public private partnerships [PPP], male/female teachers training and data usage and reform management bodies) by focussing on the role of key political, bureaucratic and policy actors. Deploying an actor- centred historical institutionalism lens from a critical realist standpoint, the study establishes that key actors can sustain political will and exploit a ‘critical juncture’ for better policy outcomes by exerting their agency, influenced in turn by their worldviews and ideology. However, actors’ ability to influence the pace and the extent of reforms in the critical juncture period is dependent upon the quality and readiness of the doorstep conditions exist in the sector at the time. Working through various case studies in a ten-year reform programme, the study shows that the long-term change is made possible when actors follow a more strategic approach in terms of implementing foundational changes in laws, policies, budgets, procedures and manner of delivering key services in a key set of target institutions hosting the policy and improving their overall functional capabilities and building a sustainable system for the future.
The thesis concludes by offering a long-term institutional change model, as well as a reform sequencing and management strategies, in the context of education in low-capacity public sector systems of the Global South. It also provides key policy insights in core education policy areas such as reform of the low fee private sector, teacher training, examination systems, as well as data and reform management at the system level.
| Date of Award | 28 Mar 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Nick Pearce (Supervisor), Hugh Lauder (Supervisor) & Muhammad Arif Naveed (Supervisor) |