Equal Education for Everyone An Evaluation Report of National Plan of ActionICT

Abstract

In order to attain the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of education by 2015/16, the Government of Pakistan had designed a National Plan of Action (NPA). The rationale behind the NPA was to increase and fasten the progress towards achieving education MDG till 2016. The NPA specifically aimed at achieving maximum enrolment of children in primary classes, in-school retention of the enrolled children, so that they may complete their primary education, and improved quality of primary education. The present study aims at evaluating the NPA of Islamabad on the basis of five evaluation standards set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) including relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability. The results show that the plan has been comprehensive enough to comply with all the basic international standards of evaluation. The plan had been implemented in compliance with the socio-cultural setting of Islamabad, and had the capability to meet the issues defined. An important recommendation based on the report is the inclusion of special needs and incentives for the minorities of Pakistan, and keeping a proper check on the curriculum designing of deeni madaris, as they serve as a very basic building block for the character of children.