Punjab Education Foundation
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| Abbreviation | PEF |
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| Formation | 1991, Restructured in 2004 |
| Headquarters | Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan |
Region served | Punjab |
| Website | pef |
The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) was established in 1991 through an act of Provincial Assembly of the Punjab. In 2004, PEF was restructured and after restructuring, the vision of the restructured foundation is to promote quality education through Public Private Partnership (PPP), encourage and support the efforts of private sector through technical and financial assistance and innovate and develop new instruments to champion wider educational opportunities at affordable cost to the poor. The Foundation has taken many initiatives for the promotion of affordable quality education for less privileged and disenfranchised sections of society and has introduced new cost effective, economical and affordable models in Public Private Partnership. The initiatives have been widely appreciated and recognized at national and international level as well. Currently, more than 2.6 million students are getting free and quality education in 7,468 partner schools across the Punjab. Punjab Education Foundation is an autonomous, statutory body of the Punjab Government which works under the auspicious guidance of its 15-member board of directors (BOD) which is headed by the Chairman selected among the private members. The Foundation has taken many innovative interventions for promotion of affordable quality school education for the less-privileged and disenfranchised sections of the society and has introduced new cost-effective, economical and affordable models through Public Private Partnership. These initiatives have been widely appreciated and recognized at national and international level by now. PEF provides financial assistance on monthly basis to partner schools on per child enrolment basis @ rate of Rs.500/- for primary level, Rs. 600/- for elementary level, Rs. 900/- for Secondary (Arts), Rs.1100/- for Secondary (Science), Rs. 1200/- for Higher Secondary (Arts) and Rs. 1500/- for Higher Secondary (Science).
Furthermore, following initiatives are enabling the poorest of the poor and less-advantaged sections of society and providing wider quality educational opportunities at affordable costs to the deserving.
Functions
1. Foundation Assisted School (FAS): Foundation Assisted School (FAS) is the flagship program of the Punjab Education Foundation. It encourages and promotes free access to quality education through Public Private Partnership. Partner schools cannot charge any fee in whatsoever form, including, but not restricted to, fines, recreation, stationery, class/tours, admission charges, registration fees, etc. from the students studying in the school.
This initiative targets private sector institutions working in rural as well as in urban and peri-urban slums of the province. After thorough inspection of physical infrastructure against criteria set out by the Punjab Education Foundation, an assessment test (pre quality assurance test) is conducted to determine the quality of education being imparted in the school before partnership is awarded with the PEF. Now, the FAS partner schools are divided into different categories keeping in view their space and number of students.
Current number of FAS partner schools is 3,566 while the number of beneficiaries has risen to more than 18,71,889. Quality Assurance Test (QAT) results show improvement in quality of education in FAS partner schools. Financial assistance is discontinued in case of partner school fails consecutively in two Quality Assurance Tests (QATs).
At present, PEF-FAS program is working in all the 36 districts of the Punjab. Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) may carry out class-wise random inspections of the partner school to check/verify the veracity of the reported enrolment, improvements made in the infrastructure and standard of cleanliness & hygiene at any time without notice during working hours of the partner school. Students and teachers of the school being supported under the PEF-FAS program may also be interviewed and must be directly accessible to the representatives of the Punjab Education Foundation without any representative of the school administration being present during the conduct of this exercise.
2. Education Voucher Scheme (EVS): To ensure equal educational opportunities for the poor and to bridge the gap between have and have not’s PEF launched a program “Education Voucher Scheme” to provide quality education to the neglected and destitute children of age 5-17. Currently, under EVS initiative as much as 515,304 children’s are benefitting across all 36 districts of Punjab, through 1,680 partner schools. Recently, in collaboration with Special Education Department, Punjab Inclusive Education Project (PIEP) has started an initiative to enshrine educational right of the children with mild disabilities. Currently as a pilot program 371 registered schools and 2,152 students in 7 districts of Punjab are benefitting from this innovation. To ensure the standards and transparency, EVS team successfully carried out two verification nomination and voucher distribution events. It is also worth mentioning here that now we are also sponsoring educational expenses of higher secondary level students. As a cost effective inventiveness EVS have initiated Voucher Card issuance for the next academic year. An estimated half a million cards will be distributed among parents of EVS students. These cards will improve efficiency and transparency of the system saving parents and students from a lot of hassle. Based on infrastructure and pertinent indicators EVS schools considered to be categorized as per monitoring report. PEF and EVS team support and encourage partner schools to upgrade to the higher secondary level.
3. New School Program (NSP): This Program was launched in 2008 to support private sector entrepreneurs to set up new schools in remote and under-served areas of Punjab under the Public Private Partnership model. New Schools are opened at the sites not having any formal Government or a PEF partner school within 1 km radius and having population of approximately 350 people. Presently, 254,602 students are being imparted free and quality education in 2,222 schools across 36 Districts of the province as 75% of the schools in partnership with NSP are serving in Southern Punjab, 16% schools operate in Central Punjab and 9% schools are functional in the North of Punjab.
4. Continuous Professional Development Program (CPDP): Continuous Professional Development Program (CPDP) was established to contribute towards the aim of PEF to promote quality education by providing technical assistance in the form of trainings to PEF partner schools. Keeping in view the importance of professional development of teachers it was launched for the training of primary school teachers of PEF Partner schools. Under this program two new models are envisioned to meet the needs of the growing numbers of PEF partner schools. Two types of trainings shall be imparted by CPDP Department: 1. School Leadership Program (SLP) for training of PEF School Head Teachers 2. Teacher Development Program (TDP) for training of PEF School Teachers
5. Academic Development Unit (ADU): The department of Academic Development Unit (ADU) was established to plan and conduct Quality Assurance Test (QAT) on annual basis of all PEF partner schools to assess their students’ learning outcomes. The results consequently determine continuation of partnership with schools. It consists of a core team of Subject Specialists of English, Mathematics, Urdu, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science. This team is continuously engaged in developing item types based on National Curriculum. Subject Specialists develop question banks based on Bloom’s Taxonomy for each class and each subject. They develop a variety of QAT papers for each class in each subject on which QAT is conducted. In this way ADU department has essential role because it upholds the vision and strategy of the organization through standardized Quality Assurance Tests (QATs) and promotes quality education in public private partnership. ADU has come up as a respectable entity but it has to meet many challenges keeping in view the rigorous expansion of the programs in recent years.
6. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Department carries out its school monitoring through its fleet of Monitoring & Evaluation officers (MEOs). PEF M&E department carried out two monitoring cycles in 2017 in which it monitored over 11,000 schools in each cycle. A total 158 MEOs are currently working in districts to monitor all program schools. These MEOs are responsible to carry out field visits and undertake assignments accorded to them even other than monitoring. A special software “Digimon” has been developed by PEF for data collection on the partner schools. Monitors are equipped with tablets and with the help of Digimon, data collection has become a lot easier and less time consuming. Officials at M&E department are responsible for the formulation and execution of monitoring plan. The real success of monitoring lies in the proper execution of these plans. Checks are applied to reports to eliminate errors and omissions. It is by the efforts put in by M&E officials that PEF is able to have an oversight and mutually beneficial relationship with the partner schools. Monitoring & Evaluation is one of the basic element through which the performance is measured and function of control is implemented. Children, parents, school partners in particular and community in general are important stake holders of all PEF activities and initiatives. PEF ensures that all its activities are carried out in transparent manner and rights of no party are violated, for this purpose the Centralizes Complaint Cell (CCC), established in 2016, also works under the umbrella of M&E department for efficient and effective grievances redressal of all stake holders. M&E covers every monitoring based activity carried out at PEF. These include but are not limited to:
1. Monitoring of School Selection Process including Sites Verifications
2. Monitoring of Preliminary as well as Regular QATs
3. Monitoring of Schools under FAS, NSP and EVS
4. Monitoring of Trainings Conducted by CPDP
5. EVS Vouchers & Nomination Verifications
6. Books distribution
7. Redressel of grievances
Members
Mr. Tariq Mahmood (Managing Director)
Board of Directors
Director: Dr. Munawar S. Mirza (Former Vice Chancellor, University of EDucation, Lahore )
Director: Mr. Rana Muhammad Afzal (Minister of State Finance)
Director: Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qureshi (Lahore University of Management Sciences)
Director: Professor Dr. Abdul Rauf Shakoori (Former Director, School of Biological Sciences, University of Punjab)
Director: Prof. Dr. Khalid Hameed Sheikh (Former Vice Chancellor, University of the Punjab)
Director: Dr. Prof. Mira Phailbus (Former Principal, Kinnaird College, Lahore)
Director: Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Finance Department
Director: Secretary to the Government of the Punjab,School Education Department
Director: Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Literacy and non Formal Basic Education Department
Director: Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Social Welfare Dpartment
Director: Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Planning and Development Department
Director: Vice Chancellor, University of Education
Secretary to the Board: Mr. Tariq Mahmood, Managing Director-PEF