In the last decade, low-cost private schools have dominated the education sector. It has been a revolution of sorts, with the private sector supporting over 35 per cent of the enrolled student population in Punjab.

The Annual Status of Education Report 2011 revealed that private schools are supporting 31 per cent of the enrolled population while the government schools are educating 67 per cent, with 16 per cent still out of school.

`The biggest success of these low-cost private schools is that they increase schooling density, and the cost for girls to attend schools goes down causing enrolment to increase,` explained Tahir Andrabi, a professor of economics at Pomona College and co-founder of Centre for Economic Policy and Reseamh (CERP).

Prof Andrabi has found that the parents` understanding of whether a school is good or bad strongly depends on distance especially for girls so that increasing school density and access is a very important factor towards increasing girls` enrolment.

`We find that private schools are one of the biggest sources of employment for rural women because these schools open where there is an adequate number of qualified women to teach,` he added, `and then these schools teach more women so that more are available to teach and more schools open. And so, the cycle continues.

The other unanimous conclusion is that private schools provide a higher quality of education at lower costs: `Private schools are providing a better quality education for households at the same level of income for the same student,` explained Prof Andrabi.

This low cost private sector has adopted a unique role in the education sector today.

One of the Punjab government`s initiatives has been the Punjab Education Fund (PEF) which has developed an extensive method of selecting private schools and providing them funds for expansion, establishment and improvement of private schools.

The PEF partner private schools, who charge fees between Rs100 and Rs500, are also subject to monitoring mechanisms where monthly visits by the government education offices keep track of teacher and student presenceas well as education quality.

While the PEF initiative is fairly small at the moment, around 3,500 schools out of the 60,000 throughout Pakistan, researchers see potential in securing better quality education for many students through such partnerships.

And non-profit organisations have also picked up on the importance of the private sector. Children`s Global Network (CGN) is working with the Punjab government to help develop capacity of private schools through teacher training and building entrepreneurial and management skills.

`A better qualified and trained human capital, especially in the education sector, is the need of the hour and perhaps it is the private sector which needs to be supported by all stakeholders of education,` said Mehnaz Aziz, founding director of CGN.

But a number of limitations limit the role of private schools as alternatives for government schools.

First is the severe resource and liquidity crisis that low cost private schools suffer with. `Many work on profits as low as Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 a month,` said Prof Andrabi.

And this is in spite of that fact that private schools stay away from the poorest villages.

`We have found that the poorest villages only have government schools so we know thatprivate schools open in richer villages where they can find local women to be teachers at low incomes,` explained Prof Andrabi.

The bigger objection, however, has been by Mr Abbas Rasheed, Chief Executive SAHE. `The emerging rhetoric is that private sector is now the saviour and will serve as the lifeline but the difference in quality between private and public isn`t significant enough,` said Mr Rasheed.

`PEF works on the assumption that at a private school, a child can be educated at Rs350-400 a month instead of the Rs1200-1400 at a government school, but if the quality of education at both is basic at best, then what are you really achieving?` he added.

`Yes, we should aim higher but we have to look at what is feasible and aim for efficiency.

PEF`s broader aim is a good one but the design is debatable and can be improved upon,` countered Prof Andrabi.

Insiders in the government circles reveal that they have struggled with losing students to the private sector where they provided vouchers to support students at private schools. `But this is not bad,` pointed out Prof Andrabi. `This means you are creating competition and providing more incentive for the public schools to improve, he said.