How to sustain research?

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 research would be and what, within research funding, funding for education research must have been. Second, there are strong biases in research funding agencies, such as the Higher Education Commission, for research in science and technology as against research in the social sciences, humanities and the arts. The general thinking is that Pakistan needs engineers and technologists — and thus research in science and technology for development. Research in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts is not seen as important or needed, nor is it viewed as providing the returns that society needs.

Historically, research done on education in Pakistan was conducted either locally — with smaller budgets and samples — by academics and students in university education programmes, or by foreign academics and academics based abroad. The latter had higher budgets. A lot of the research was funded by multilateral and bilateral agencies such as the World Bank, DFID (now FCDO — the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), USAID, GIZ, etc. A lot of the local research was not published internationally, while international work did little or nothing to develop local capacity. Some good partnerships developed between local and international academics, but these were rare and tended not to last beyond the life of the project.

Education research has not been a priority area for funding.

It has been interesting to follow the Data and Research in Education — Research Consortium (DARE-RC) in this context. This FCDO-funded programme, due to end by December, tried to change the existing equilibrium. The main ingredients of change were the following: a) it encouraged local researchers to apply for competitive funding; b) it encouraged collaborations across local institutions; c) it encouraged collaborations across local and international academics and institutions as well; d) it committed to making all data public; and e) it insisted on quality outputs that should be published internationally.

More than 40 different studies were commissioned; many of them have been completed and their reports and policy briefs are available. Some of the early studies have already been slated for publication in international journals, while many are in the process of being submitted. Some will be appearing in a special issue of an international journal.

Many interesting partnerships have been created among local universities, between universities and research institutions, between local and international researchers, and between local and international universities. This has led to quite a bit of capacity building, and has provided each project with junior research assistants. Quite a few people have been trained and mentored over the last few years. There has been considerable interaction with policymakers and the wider public, with one or two DARE-RC events held every couple of weeks this year. DARE-RC has even started a yearly conference on education. The second edition is at the end of the month in Lahore.

But there are issues too. As DARE-RC winds down and the funding ends, it appears that, given the new global funding realities, FCDO is not going to support such programmes anymore. What happens to the gains made? Will the collaborations be sustained? Will someone take over the yearly conference? Will the fora created for capacity building and sharing research continue beyond DARE-RC funding? Will the sharing of data for research continue? Will cooperation between researchers and policymakers continue? Or will it lapse as it has on previous occasions? Will the government, federal or provincial education departments, or HEC take on the role of research funder? The research has been very policy-focused and has helped in critical areas such as teacher recruitment and licensing, inclusive education, improved teaching and learning in classrooms, education and support for children with disabilities, and curricula and textbook improvements. Do departments see value in such research, and will they provide support for sustaining and expanding the networks that have been created?

Research is the backbone of progress, but quality research is expensive, hard to do, and even harder to sustain. We urgently need a lot of high-quality research in education. Recent investments, through DARE-RC in particular, have provided insights and lessons on how networks capable of producing the high-quality research needed to improve education outcomes can be created. But will these gains be sustainable beyond the life of the project? What will continue and what will not? A lot depends on whether the HEC or the education departments come forward to support and expand the current networks.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2026