Islamabad: The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) convened a policy seminar to examine Pakistan's transition to a Student Learning Outcomes (SLO)-based curriculum and assessment system, focusing on how national education policies are being implemented in classrooms across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The seminar discussed why outcome-based reforms, despite being fully operational in board examinations, continue to face serious challenges at the teaching and learning level. The session was moderated by Dr. Faheem Jehangir, Dean (Policy), PIDE/PD and RASTA, who highlighted the broader policy relevance of education reforms for human capital development and long-term economic growth.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Aliya Khalid, Senior Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford and Principal Investigator of a multi-year research project on SLO implementation in Pakistan, said that SLO-based reforms are part of a global shift away from rote memorization toward conceptual understanding, skills development, and application of knowledge. She stressed that such reforms can only succeed when curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher support are properly aligned.
Tracing Pakistan's reform journey, Dr. Khalid noted that SLOs were first introduced through the National Curriculum 2006 and mandated under the National Education Policy 2009, with provinces assuming ownership after the 18th Constitutional Amendment. She said KP emerged early as a reform leader by redesigning teacher training around outcome-based pedagogy, while the Single National Curriculum later extended SLOs nationwide. According to her, the most significant shift occurred between 2023 and 2025, when examination boards moved decisively toward fully SLO-based, textbook-independent assessments.
Presenting preliminary findings from fieldwork, Dr. Khalid highlighted a persistent policy-to-practice gap. While exams have rapidly transitioned to concept-based testing, many teachers-particularly in resource-constrained schools-continue to struggle with teaching without prescriptive textbooks and with limited training in formative assessment. This mismatch, she said, has contributed to declining pass rates in Grades 9 and 10 in several government schools, raising concerns about equity, student overload, and long-term participation in education.
She emphasized that the findings point to cumulative learning gaps from earlier grades rather than sudden failures at the secondary level, calling for earlier introduction of outcome-based learning, realistic curriculum depth, continuous teacher support, and feedback mechanisms grounded in classroom realities.
Vice Chancellor PIDE, Dr. Nadeem Javaid, said education reforms must be rooted in Pakistan's social and institutional context rather than imported frameworks. He pointed to teaching culture, parental expectations, language policy, and power dynamics as key factors shaping classroom practice. He also noted that Pakistan lacks clarity on what its education system ultimately aims to produce, urging alignment of curriculum reforms with future workforce needs, especially in the context of digitization and artificial intelligence.
The seminar also highlighted strong policy engagement by the research team, including collaboration with education departments, contributions to national media, and development of practical teacher training resources. Structured SLO training modules for Grades 9 and 10 are being integrated into provincial learning management systems, featuring instructional videos, assessments, and certification.
The discussion was led by Dr. Ahsan Ul Haq Satti, Associate Professor and Director at PIDE's Center for Economic Modeling and Data Analytics (CEMDA), who stressed that with SLOs now fully embedded in board examinations, identifying constraints in pedagogy, sequencing, and institutional support is critical. He noted that many challenges stem from system-level pressures such as overloaded syllabi and high-stakes exams rather than teacher resistance.
The seminar concluded with consensus that while outcome-based education is complex and demanding, it remains central to improving learning quality, equity, and workforce readiness in Pakistan, provided reforms are carefully sequenced and supported.