P E & F

Inclusive practices and a responsive education system is effective in generating knowledge and supporting the knowledge dissemination system extensively with a holistic approach. The performance of an inclusive and responsive education program is dependent on the skilled educators, legislative framework and support from community stakeholders. The instruction method, educational needs, structure of the education system and available facilities are responsible for contributing to the performance enhancement of inclusive programs where the responsibility depends on the ability of educators. The current study aims to analyse the project of Pakistan on strengthening the performance of inclusive and responsible education programs with the support from literature and existing findings.

Pakistan is one of the developing countries of South Asia, where the literacy rate is only 58%. As per UNESCO report, the provisions such as classroom access, use of modern technology and implementation of the responsible education system by overcoming the barriers of the traditional education system. The currently active project of ID P173399 under the leadership of Juan Baron, Manal Bakur N Quota has focused on strengthening the integration of an inclusive and responsible education system with the scope of the holistic approach and ecological learning to promote education and increase literacy rate. The project has immense value in the education system of Pakistan, while the financial value is also high, with total commitments of US$200.00 million. The project is estimated to be complete within June of 2025 with the total project cost of US$671.25 million (Worldbank.org, 2020). The environmental category is most determined; however, the sustainability effects and social responsibilities are highlighted in this project.

The project aims to strengthen the inclusive and responsive education program in Pakistan by implementing specific action plans of training, vocational skill development and education system as well as facility improvement. The project is solely supervised by the World Bank, considering financial and project progress. The current project has the scope of strengthening the education system with the support of modern technology and education system where early education and responsible teaching-learning processes are emphasised for development.

The stakeholders of the project refer to the people linked with the project throughout the progress or are responsible for the outcomes. The following table indicates the major stakeholders of the current project, which ensured project progress and tried to complete the project successfully within the estimated time.

Table 1: Project stakeholders

(Source: Worldbank.org, 2020)

The project was facilitated with the economic support from the continental and World Bank funds while the government supported the project by maintaining the political stability and local awareness programs (Worldbank.org, 2020). The local councils and education boards helped in managing the project internally by aiding with program resources and support of human resources.

Economics and feasibility analysis is a pivotal aspect to study if the project is actually worth and can provide expected outcomes suitably. As demonstrated by Muttaqi et al. (2016), and economic feasibility analysis is an advantageous approach to illustrate the anticipated benefits from a project on completion of it. In this regard, the economic, social benefits, as well as the costs, are also to be analysed for a project. There is a range of available techniques that are liable to provide a general guideline about the feasibility testing of any project. However, by implying these techniques, the feasibility of a project can be understood. Here, for analysing the possibility of the education policy in the context of Pakistan, a total of six analytical tools and techniques are to be used. The following table is representing the tools under their applicability in this project:

Table 2: Techniques that are to be used to check project feasibility

(Source: Created by researcher)

By implying all of these techniques and by procuring the management procedure in terms of the involved stakeholders in the project periphery, the successful project outcome can be measured. By cost-benefit analysis, the expected project outcome is to be analysed and presented in terms of project progress. However, this is also a specific and measurable approach to identify the stakeholder's contribution to the project progress. In this connection, it is also to be said that by emerging such analytical methods, the points of improvements can be identified. Based on this analysis the future projects can be made accordingly to ensure better success attainment.

It has been seen that the demand for education in Pakistan is high, as there are a large number of students and children in Pakistan who are deprived of elementary education. For example, 21.3% of the students in Pakistan are out of school from elementary. The percentage of students who are out of school at the middle level is 50.9%. On the other hand, 70.9% of the students are deprived and are found to be out of school from a high level of education (wenr.wes.org, 2020). The reasons for not being able to pursue education might be different, and the interests of the parents, along with children also matters. However, if the inclusive education program is undertaken effectively in the organisation, then it would help in reaching the needs of the students. Hence as far as demand of the education in elementary, middle and high level is concerned, the supply would be met effectively as well. The reasons for investing in the inclusive and responsive education program are many as the demand for education is high in Pakistan (Auclert, Bardóczy and Rognlie, 2020). Moreover, there are a large number of children as well as teenagers who are devoid of the benefits of educational programs.

Figure 1: Economic reasons for investing in inclusive as well as responsive programs

(Source: Influenced by wenr.wes.org, 2020)

Another economic reason for investing in the program is that it would help in generating employment opportunities as well as improving the educational infrastructure (Gašperová et al. 2017).

It has been seen that the project would help in generating a positive multiplier effect. It is because it would help in investment, and that would, in turn, lead to maximise the rate of employment (Bundy et al. 2018). It is because the higher the literacy rate of the people would be, the higher would be the employment rate in Pakistan which is currently low. The contribution of the educated citizen would, in turn, help in generating higher GDP and economic growth. Thus, the overall economy would be benefited. For example, the current level of literacy rate in Pakistan is low because 22.9 million children aged 5–16 years are out of school (adb.org, 2020).

Table 2: NPV, Discount rate, and CCF

(Source: Determined by Author)

Table 3: Computation of NPV, PBP and DPBP

(Source: Determined by Author)

Table 4: Net inflow of cash from the education program

(Source: Determined by Author)

Net present value has been determined to be $ 123.6 million. Therefore, it has been seen that the program would be yielding positive results from the overall investments. On the other hand, it shows that the cash outflow is higher than the cash inflow (Hopkinson, 2017).

IRR is determined to be 19%, and it shows that the project is profitable as it would help in assessing net profit and inflow would be higher than outflow.

The payback period has been determined to be 3.8 years. It means that the initial investment would be received within a period of 3 years. It has been seen that if the discounted rate is applied, then the total time taken to meet the initial investment is 3.89 years.

The three metrics based on which the product can be selected the number of students reached, improvement in literacy rate and cost-effectiveness.

Table 5: AHP

(Source: Determined by Author)

The AHP has been done on the basis of the above three metrics. It has been understood that the education program is effective enough and it would help in improving literacy rate and the costs effectiveness is also high. However, due to the loan and interests payment, the costs might be high. On the other hand, it can be said that the inclusive education program might be hampered due to the low rate of students’ participation. Hence, it can be said that the cost effectiveness and number of students accessing the program benefits is crucial. However, it has been seen that project can be selected because the demand for education is high in Pakistan. Therefore, the project should be selected as it indicates higher participation level. On an overall basis, the metrics such as costs, number of students, and the literacy rate are in favour of the project.

Inclusive practice in the context of a responsive education system is a practical approach for generating a better scope for knowledge dissemination. In this regard, the holistic approach in terms of knowledge procurement can be appreciably institutionalised with the help of trained educators, supportive communication from the end of the stakeholders and the legislative frameworks. In this regard, the specific project considered herein has been institutionalised with an aim to provide better opportunities to the Pakistani students. With an estimated cost of US$671.25 million, this project is going to be accomplished within June 2025. Incorporation of several vocational training facilities, skill development policies is incorporated into this project. These, in turn, has a potentiality to convert the best resort in context of both economic and social development of this country, from the cost-benefit analysis, it can be observed that all of the stakeholders of this project is going to get recommendable benefits, the most significant impact that is going to be generated by this project is to be associated with the ordinary people of Pakistan. These people are going to achieve a better dimension in the context of skill development and training opportunities by these approaches. This new project will provide a considerable boost to the traditional education system in this country by underpinning the goodness of technologies and digital educational systems.

Books

Hopkinson, M., 2017. Net Present value and risk modelling for projects. Abingdon: Routledge.

Journals

Auclert, A., Bardóczy, B. and Rognlie, M., 2020. MPCs, MPEs and Multipliers: A Trilemma for New Keynesian Models (No. w27486). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bundy, D.A., de Silva, N., Horton, S., Jamison, D.T. and Patton, G.C., 2018. Optimising education outcomes: High-return investments in school health for increased participation and learning. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Gašperová, L., Možuchová, L. and Rostášová, M., 2017. Economic impact and multiplier effect of university on economic development of the host region. In ICERI2017 Proceedings 10th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation. Seville: IATED Academy. ISSN (pp. 2340-1095).

Muttaqi, K.M., Le, A.D., Aghaei, J., Mahboubi-Moghaddam, E., Negnevitsky, M. and Ledwich, G., 2016. Optimizing distributed generation parameters through economic feasibility assessment. Applied energy, 165, pp.893-903.

Websites

Education policies are responsible to provide better access to common people. Education can make both economic and social infrastructure evaluation to a significant extent. This in turn is a reliable approach to make a nation growth. This account has an approach to provide an understandable account in terms of an education policy intending to incorporate inclusive and responsive education programs in Pakistan. In this regard, by considering several literary resources, this account has provided an understandable guideline to evaluate the impact of these policies on social and economic constricts. By evaluating the cultural obscurities and social taboos in education system, this account has shed light on the policy. The process by which it can be strengthen to extract the most powerful impact on completion of it has been estimated and analysed here.

Keywords 

Education, education policies, social strata, economic influence, productivity, boosters of richness, multiculturalism, cultural diversity, inclusion.

With the transformation in the global scenario, the importance of education program implementation for each person is attaining a higher dimension. Inclusive education programs are now influencing students with disabilities to take admission in specific schools where they can receive individual guidance based on their needs. A responsive educational program is an influencer to such students with disabilities to attain classes cordially and to gain success. This account has an aim to shed light on concepts of inclusive and responsive education practices in the context of Pakistan. For this purpose, effects generated by several economic factors and social factors are to be analysed within this study.

The economic growth of any country depends on the ability of countrymen to attain success in financial terms. A better and improved responsive education program can be beneficial for making economic prosperity of any country to a significant extent. Impacts of an inclusive and responsive education program on Pakistani society in terms of economic growth can be illustrated in the following way:

Education as a booster of productivity 

A suitable educational program is vital to create urgent development and to understand the importance of such programs in human life. According to Biggins et al. (2017), a suitable educational system can direct people toward success by making them prone to grasp new concepts. When it is about rural areas, concentration on several technical education programs can provide better growth to the financial system of this territory. In the context of this, education can be considered as a booster of productivity. By means of interactive and inclusive education policies, a range of vocational training and other technical guidelines can be provided to persons with disability or some incapabilities.

It is necessary to create economic importance of disable person in society. Farhang (2017) has considered this path as one of the most realistic ones to increase the acceptability of such persons in the community. Pakistani society is not that much prone to economic development, and in this situation, availability of physical disability is making the situation worse in some cases. Thus, if it becomes possible for those incapable persons to contribute something by depending on educational guidance received by such participative programs, it can contribute towards family well being.

A nation is a collective form of families. Hence, if well being of families can be secured by creating better financial growth in them by implementing such educational policies, then it must contribute to national excellence attainment.

Education, income, human capital, trade 

Being influenced or by achieving impacts of such educational policies, people in Pakistan can gain a better prospect in the present competitive world to ensure at least some specific income for family well being. In this regard, the opinion given by Joselo Jimmy Albán Obando (2018) can be taken under consideration. As per this opinion, though there are so many capitals required for a business, however, human capital is the most essential and elemental component. Education can increase capability, decision-making ability and other potentiality of a person which can ensure better management of trading operations. Hence, with such policies and interactive and inclusive educational processes, well-educated society can be established. Then it must contribute towards the nation's economic growth.

This is because of their growth potential to manage and maintain several sources of income. These sources are not only applicable to make associated families prosper in global scenarios, but also to make the country financially stable and independent. As demonstrated by Torani (2019), the world is full of competitions, and these are demanding an inexplicable contribution and mixture of technical, educational potentiality, skill level and knowledge accumulation. All of this is possible only by underpinning suitable educational policies that can provide a better scope to countrymen to attain financial stability and freedom.

Inclusive education process allows identifying individual needs within a student with disabilities. A wide range of inclusive education supporters is now raising their voice to provide a better scope to such peoples to provide the best opportunity for them regarding educational training. For this purpose, the importance of constructing a specific and particular infrastructure with inclusive and responsive education programs in Pakistan. As explained by Vosniadou (2020), a well educated society can be the backbone of a developed country and can provide a better scope for that country to attain excellence. There are so many social effects of inclusive and responsive educational programs in the context of contemporary situations in Pakistan. Some of its social impacts are analysed and illustrated below:

Education security 

The world is progressing with higher acceleration, and this is demanding for a well educated social infrastructure. According to Hamdan and Hamdan (2020), human development is an essential key to prosper any society with several benefits and well beings. For example, when a community is educated well, then it possesses a potentiality to drive the entire country towards excellence confrontation and its attainment. As demonstrated by Mishra (2016), education within any social institution provides help to constitute its people base with significant knowledge level, an idea about basic facts, plenty of admirable job skills and others. In this aspect, it is also an essential turning point to make society acceptable to cultural diversities present in a country.

Better education can not only bring improvements in the personal lives of people but also can help society to prosper with smoother moves with an evaluation of cultural norms and its beliefs. The most important consequence of having an educated society is associated with the poverty eradication process. As observed by Cabauatan and Manalo (2018), education can make a person sensible to others and can improve his or her thinking perspectives towards society. This, in turn, can provide a better score to the organisation to prosper with each of its living constituents. When it comes to the factors disabilities in Pakistan, there is a lack of potential institutions that can provide justifiable scopes to these persons to enrol themselves under elementary and higher educations.

Education is nothing but the backbone of society as well as the nation, as Pakistan is a developing country, and in this perspective, its basics are now established. In this scenario, with potentiality and capability of the central government and provincial governments, if it becomes possible to bring each Pakistani under the light of education, it can help it to overcome its underdeveloped constraints. According to Isiaka and Egerue (2019), social taboos, immature thinking, rituals, and perspective play a role as social hindrances whenever society tries to prosper with its constituents. Persons with a disability can receive a better scope to influence their capability to become a creative and innovative person.

In this regard, some vocational education such as training on creative things, and others can provide better scopes to such disabled persons to find a new way to lead life. From the study of Marquez-Ramos et al. (2019), contemporary situations and whereabouts about Pakistani society can be acknowledged. From this study, it can be assessed that betterment of human life and its clarity is needed to bring culture out of dark things and taboos. Education can also play a significant role in this aspect. With a lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and significantly limited per capita income, this country is filled with poverty. In this situation, the light of education can only mitigate darkness.

An excellent education can make disable persons equal to other people in society, and this respect moral life value also increases for those. As a developing country, there are so many boundaries in society, and a lower per capita income is making parents unable to take special care of their disabled children. This, in turn, is making these children mentally disable also. According to SHAO et al. (2019), with interactive teaching and necessary special care, lives of those persons with disabilities and specifically such children can be made an improved one. For this aspect, social prosperity can also be maintained from this educational process in Pakistan.

Cultural diversity and education 

Cultural diversity is somewhat responsible for making it difficult for people of a country to have the best available opportunities. The world and its states are nothing but a mixture of several cultural components that are making them a diverse field. Pakistan is not an exception to this, and with a vast population, it consists of a higher degree of multiculturalism. As observed by Tian-Tian et al. (2018), multi ethnic societies and culturally influenced thinking perspectives are ring hindrances towards proper implication of education policies in this country. Hence, only by leveraging an extra effort on cultural diversity maintenance in educational institutions as well as in society, betterment can be done in this country.

With developing and underdeveloped countries, a specific trend towards girl education and women literacy can be found. As described by Zhang (2018), in most cases, education attainment by girls or women are facing hindrances from several taboos. This is doing nothing but creating a massive barrier towards nation's accelerations. When it comes about consideration in Pakistan, a cultural taboo is there, which is making hindrances towards the girl's education system. Disability has no concern against the gender of countrymen, and thus it affects women also. As in several cases, women are being considered within comparatively lower strata in a society, with this disability are making the situation more miserable.

Thus, with such an interactive and inclusive measure in the context of educational policies and programs, the situation of girl children in Pakistan can be improved significantly. Education has a great potentiality to socialize an individual and to bring sensibility within himself to accept other cultures significantly. As demonstrated by Zhou and Luo (2018), with better educational growth, a person can promote and transmit components of a specific religion to other cultures. This, in turn, is responsible for making and maintaining more homogeneity within social aspects. With better and improved education policies within inclusive properties, cultural components in this country can be preserved.

As countries are a mixture of several specific cultures and distinct differences in them, it is necessary to present each of them to make the country prosper. For this purpose, with sustainable education policy, disable persons in Pakistan can get a range of benefits in terms of cultural preservation. As per program specifications illustrated by the World Bank, this program is going to provide an improved and systematic mechanism to inclusive students in regards to their learning pace. From this aspect, it can be assessed that this program is going to include this one from each cultural background.

Hence, from this perspective, this aspect must be considered as one of the measurable constraints to provide better living standards and social elements to Pakistani's. It can be expected that with a successful completion of this project, the entire society will become able to feel light of education irrespective of their cultural background and disabilities.

This account has an aim to provide a detailed understanding regarding impacts of concerned projects taken by the World Bank to make the education system prosper in Pakistan in terms of social and economic prospects. From economic prospect analysis, it can be assessed that such an improved education policy can provide a broader scope to Pakistanis to attain light and goodness of education. In this regard, cultural impact evaluation shows that it possesses a specific potentiality to increase aesthetic sensibility with an educated people. However, in terms of the project management process, continuation and infrastructure of the entire project are to be managed and monitored within proper aspects.

Furthermore, by providing a better and broader scope to countrymen to achieve financial stability and freedom with this country and its outside also, such an inclusive and participative education policy is making it justifiable. On completion of the entire discussion, it can be concluded that with such a considerate aspect of education policy, contemporary society tradition and its situation can be influenced intrinsically. Moreover, on completion of this project successfully, a measurable improvement will be observed in the Pakistani society in terms of education, economic, cultural and social prosperity.

Biggins, D., Holley, D. and Zezulkova, M. 2017, "Digital Competence and Capability Frameworks in Higher Education: Importance of Life-long Learning, Self-Development and Well-being", EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning, vol. 4, no. 13.

Cabauatan, R.R. and Manalo, R.A. 2018, "A Comparative Analysis on Selected Issues on Economics of Education in ASEAN Countries", Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, vol. 7, pp. 68-78.

Farhang, M. 2017, "OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS: FUTURE PROSPECTS, ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING", Majallah-i Amuzih-i Muhandisi-i Iran, vol. 19, no. 74, pp. 1-9,3A.

Hamdan, A. and Hamdan, R. 2020, "THE MEDIATING ROLE OF OIL RETURNS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE EVIDENCE FROM SAUDI ARABIA", Economics and Sociology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 116-131.

Isiaka, M.A. and Egerue, C.J. 2019, "ACCELERATING ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH ADEQUATE FUNDING OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA", International Journal of Information, Business and Management, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 34-49.

Joselo Jimmy Albán Obando, Gina Esmeralda Beltrán Baquerizo, Ingrid Yolanda, Z.V., Narcisa Dolores, P.B., Xavier Eduardo Franco Chóez and Figueroa Silva, M.F. 2018, "Student motivation in Higher Education; the importance of studying it nowadays", Dilemas Contemporáneos : Educación, Política y Valore, vol. I.

Marquez-Ramos, L. and Mourelle, E. 2019, "Education and economic growth: an empirical analysis of nonlinearities", Applied Economic Analysis, vol. 27, no. 79, pp. 21-45.

Mishra, S. 2016, "Role of Education in Growth and Development of the Society: A Quarterly Peer Reviewed Multi-Disciplinary International Journal", Splint International Journal of Professionals, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 84-91.

SHAO, Y., LIU, W. and JI, M. 2019, "Education Equity in Special Education Transfer Payments to Low-income Groups", Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, vol. 65, pp. 163-186.

Tian-Tian, Z., Hua-Rong, P. and Yue-Jun, Z. 2018, "The Influence of Higher Education Development on Economic Growth: Evidence from Central China", Higher Education Policy, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 139-157.

Torani, S., Majd, P., Maroufi, S., Dowlati, M. and Sheikhi, R. 2019, "The importance of education on disasters and emergencies: A review article", Journal of Education and Health Promotion, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 85.

Vosniadou, S. 2020, "Bridging Secondary and Higher Education. The Importance of Self-regulated Learning", European Review, vol. 28, pp. S94-S103.

Zhang, J. 2018, "Research on the Correlation between Regional Economy and Educational Investment Based on Coordinated Development Theory", Kuram ve Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 2547-2553.

Zhou, G. and Luo, S. 2018, "Higher Education Input, Technological Innovation, and Economic Growth in China", Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 2615.