Pakistan: U.S. Should Improve Funding of Pakistani Education Sector

At the Center for Global Development’s “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance” blog, senior policy analyst Molly Kinder focuses on U.S. funding for the Pakistani education system. The quality of that system, she points out, will “profoundly impact the country’s internal stability, security, and prosperity.” Kinder asserts that although Washington has promised $335 million in aid to support education (making USAID’s education program in Pakistan its largest worldwide), “money alone is not the solution to Pakistan’s underperforming education system.” Rather, the issue is how that money is spent. Aid should be used to support “innovation, transparency, and accountability” in the education sector, she writes.

In a recent open letter from the Center for Global Development’s president Nancy Birdsall to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Birdsall recommends that policymakers from both the U.S. and Pakistan set benchmarks to measure success, provide better information to parents about educational options for their children, and increase investments in science and technology education.