Equity and quality in an education public-private partnership: a study of the World Bank-supported PPP in Punjab, Pakistan

This study seeks to understand the impact of the Punjab PPP initiative (public-private partnerships) on key dimensions of equity, education quality, and democratic and social accountability. It was conducted over a period of two months, through field visits in a sample of 31 schools across five districts of Punjab province (in both rural and urban/slum areas) and all four PEF programs. It employs in-depth semi-structured interviews with school principals and owners in the sample, supplemented by focus group discussions with teachers, field observations of sampled schools, and interviews with key stakeholders. Qualitative by design, the study seeks to go beyond macro-level enrollment and test score data to provide a picture of the school-level dynamics of the PPP program, and to contextualize and interpret the existing data.