> ![](media/image1.png){width="1.34375in"
> height="1.2916666666666667in"}USAID/PAKISTAN
>
> FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
>
> Issuance Date: March 19, 2007
>
> Closing Date: May 1, 2007
>
> Closing Time: 5:00 pm local time in Islamabad

Subject: Request for Applications USAID-Pakistan- 391-07-012

Title: LINKS TO LEARNING: Education Support to Pakistan (ED-LINKS)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is
seeking applications (proposals for funding) from U.S. or non-U.S.
non-profit or for-profit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and other
qualified non-USG organizations to implement a program Links to
Learning: Education Support to Pakistan (ED-Links). Please refer to the
Program Description (RFA section C) for a complete statement of goals
and expected results. The authority for this RFA is found in the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.

Subject to the availability of funds, USAID/Pakistan plans to provide a
maximum of \$90,000,000 to be allocated over a five-year period. USAID
intends to award a single cooperative agreement as a result of this
solicitation. Cost sharing is required at 3%.

Pursuant to 22 CFR 226.81, it is USAID policy not to award profit under
assistance instruments. However, all reasonable, allocable, and
allowable expenses, both direct and indirect, which are related to the
program and are in accordance with applicable cost standards (22 CFR
226, plus OMB Circular A-122 for non-profit organizations, OMB Circular
A-21 for universities, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 31
for for-profit organizations), may be paid under the award.
USAID/Pakistan reserves the right to fund any or none of the
applications submitted.

For the purposes of this program, this RFA is being issued and consists
of this cover letter and the following:

1\. Section A - Application Format;

2\. Section B - Selection Criteria;

3\. Section C - Program Description;

4\. Section D - Certifications, Assurances, and Other Statements of
Applicant/Recipient; and

5\. Section E - Attachments

To be eligible for award, the applicant must provide all required
information in its application, including the requirements found in any
attachments to this [www.grants.gov](http://www.Grants.gov/)
opportunity. Any future amendments to this RFA can be downloaded from
[www.grants.gov](http://www.grants.gov/). It is the responsibility of
the recipient of the application document to ensure that it has been
received from [www.grants.gov](http://www.grants.gov/) in its entirety.

Any questions concerning this RFA should be submitted in writing to the
undersigned, via email to pkcontract@usaid.gov. The deadline for
submitting questions is **April 11, 2007, 8 AM** Islamabad time.

Applications and modifications thereof shall be submitted with the name
and address of the applicant and the RFA number (referenced above)
inscribed thereon, via email, to
[pkcontract@usaid.gov](mailto:pkcontracts@usaid.gov). Applicants shall
submit their applications by e-mail attachment formatted in Microsoft
Word (up to 2MB limit per email), with hard copies sent separately.
Faxed proposals are not acceptable. Applicants shall confirm with the
undersigned that their e-mail submissions were successfully received by
the required due date.

In addition to the submission of applications via email, an original and
two (2) hard copies of the technical applications, and an original and
one (1) hard copy of the cost proposals, shall be sent to:

[By Air Courier:]{.underline}

USAID/Pakistan

Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5

Islamabad, Pakistan

Tel:         92-51-2082636

If you decide to submit an application, it must be **received** by the
closing date and time indicated at the top of this cover letter at the
place designated below for receipt of applications. Email copies must
arrive by the due date and hard copies must arrive by 5:00 pm Islamabad
time Friday, May 4, 2007. Both are required. Applications will be
accepted for consideration as long as they arrive at USAID/Pakistan by
the time stipulated. See RFA Section A.1.b regarding late applications.
In the event of inconsistencies between the hard copy and email versions
of the proposal, the [email]{.underline} version shall prevail.
Applicants are requested to submit the technical and cost portions of
their applications in separate volumes and emails so that they may be
reviewed separately.

Award will be made to that responsible applicant(s) whose application(s)
best meets the requirements of this RFA and the selection criteria
contained herein. Issuance of this RFA does not constitute an award
commitment on the part of USAID, nor does it commit USAID to pay for
costs incurred in the preparation and submission of an application.
Further, USAID reserves the right to reject any or all applications
received. In addition, final award of any resultant cooperative
agreement(s) cannot be made until funds have been fully appropriated,
allocated, and committed through internal USAID procedures, and the
USAID/Pakistan Operational Plan is approved. While it is anticipated
that these procedures will be successfully completed, potential
applicants are hereby notified of these requirements and conditions for
award. Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant, and all
preparation and submission costs are at the applicant\'s expense.

In the event of any inconsistency between the sections comprising this
RFA, it shall be resolved by the following order of precedence:

\(a\) Section B - Selection Criteria;

\(b\) Section A - Grant Application Format;

\(c\) Section C - The Program Description; and

\(d\) This Cover Letter.

Applicants should take account of the expected delivery time required by
the proposal transmission methods, and are responsible to ensure that
proposals are received at USAID in Islamabad by the due date and time
specified above.

Applicants should retain for their records one copy of all enclosures
which accompany their application.

Thank you for your interest in USAID programs.

Sincerely,

![](media/image2.png){width="1.4583333333333333in" height="0.5625in"}

Karin Kolstrom

Agreement Officer

USAID /Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan

#  

# SECTION A - APPLICATION FORMAT

## 1. PREPARATION GUIDELINES

a.  All applications received by the deadline will be reviewed for
    responsiveness and programmatic merit in accordance with the
    guidelines herein. Section B addresses the evaluation procedures for
    the applications. Applications shall be submitted in two separate
    parts: (a) technical, and (b) cost or business application. An
    original and two (2) hard copies of the technical application and an
    original and one (1) hard copy of the cost application shall be
    submitted in addition to the email submission, as described in the
    cover letter of this RFA.

b.  Applications must be received no later than the date and time
    indicated on the cover page of this RFA, to the location stated in
    the cover letter accompanying this RFA. Applications which are
    received late or are incomplete run the risk of not being considered
    in the review process. Such late or incomplete applications will be
    considered in USAID\'s sole discretion depending on the status of
    USAID\'s application review process as of the time of receipt and/or
    the quality of other applications received.

c.  Technical applications should be specific, complete and presented
    concisely. A lengthy application does not in and of itself
    constitute a well thought out proposal. Applications shall
    demonstrate the applicant\'s capabilities and expertise with respect
    to achieving the goals of this program. Applications should take
    into account the evaluation criteria found in Section B.

> d\. Explanations to Prospective Recipients: Any prospective applicant
> desiring an explanation or interpretation of this RFA must request it
> in writing to the Agreement Officer at the email address set forth in
> the RFA cover letter. The questions and answers (Q&A) will be posted
> as an amendment to the RFA on
> [www.grants.gov](http://www.grants.gov/). The deadline for receipt of
> questions is April 11, 2007, 8:00 AM, Islamabad time. Oral
> explanations or instructions given before award of a Cooperative
> Agreement will not be binding. Any information given to a prospective
> recipient concerning this RFA will also be furnished to all other
> prospective recipients as an amendment to this RFA, if that
> information is necessary in submitting applications or if the lack of
> it would be prejudicial to any other prospective recipients.
>
> e\. Applicants should retain for their records one copy of the
> application and all enclosures which accompany their application.
> Erasures or other changes on hard copies must be initialed by the
> person signing the application. To facilitate the competitive review
> of the applications, applications should conform to the format
> prescribed below.
>
> f Submission of Applications by Email : Preferred software for email
> attachments: Microsoft Word (for narrative text) or Excel (for
> tables). Please convert your documents to one of these software
> programs before sending them to USAID. Zipped files cannot be accepted
> due to firewall restrictions; however, PDF files (for all files except
> budgets) are acceptable. Applicants are responsible for confirming
> that their complete applications were received electronically by
> USAID.
>
> g\. The hard copies of applications and modifications thereof shall be
> submitted in sealed envelopes or packages addressed to the office
> specified in the cover letter of this RFA, with the RFA number, the
> name and address of the applicant, and whether the contents contain
> technical and/or cost proposals noted on the outside of the
> envelopes/packages.
>
> h\. Telegraphic or fax applications will not be considered.
>
> i\. Preparation of Applications:
>
> 1\. Applicants are expected to review, understand, and comply with all
> aspects of this RFA. Failure to do so will be at the applicant\'s
> risk.
>
> 2\. Each applicant shall furnish the information required by this RFA.
> On the hard copies of applications, the applicant shall sign the
> application and certifications and print or type its name on the Cover
> Page of the technical and cost applications. Erasures or other changes
> must be initialed by the person signing the application. Applications
> signed by an agent shall be accompanied by evidence of that agent\'s
> authority, unless that evidence has been previously furnished to the
> issuing office.
>
> 3.Applicants which include data that they do not want disclosed to the
> public for any purpose or used by the U.S. Government except for
> evaluation purposes should:
>
> \(a\) Mark the title page with the following legend:
>
> \"This application includes data that shall not be disclosed outside
> the U.S. Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed -
> in whole or in part - for any purpose other than to evaluate this
> application. If, however, a grant is awarded to this applicant as a
> result of - or in connection with - the submission of this data, the
> U.S. Government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose
> the data to the extent provided in the resulting grant. This
> restriction does not limit the U.S. Government\'s right to use
> information contained in this data if it is obtained from another
> source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are
> contained in pages\_\_\_.\"; and
>
> \(b\) Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following
> legend:
>
> \"Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the
> restriction on the title page of this application.\"

## TECHNICAL APPLICATION FORMAT

The technical application shall be divided into nine sections, separated
by tabs, with the maximum number of pages given per section as shown
below.

1.  Technical approach (20 pages)

2.  Gender analysis (one page)

3.  Institutional capability ( 2 pages)

4.  CVs of key personnel (no page limit)

5.  Past performance information (one page)

6.  Management plan ( 4 pages)

7.  Implementation plan ( 5 pages)

8.  Award Monitoring Plan ( 3 pages)

9.  Annexes (no page limit)

a\. Technical Approach

The technical application must set forth in sufficient detail the
conceptual approach, methodology, and techniques for the implementation
of the three major areas of the proposed education program.

b\. Gender Analysis

It is important to note that USAID is committed to gender equality. In
one page, the application should outline the most significant gender
issues related to integrated education service provision in Pakistan by
reflecting on the following questions: (i) are men and women involved or
affected differently by the context or work to be undertaken? (ii) If
so, how will this difference be addressed through managing for
sustainable impact?

c\. Institutional Capability:

Applicants must provide evidence of their technical and managerial
resources and expertise (or their ability to obtain such) in program
management, grants management and training, as well as their experience
in managing similar programs in the past. Information in this section
should include (but is not limited to) the following:

> \(1\) Brief description of organizational history/expertise;
>
> \(2\) Past experience and examples of accomplishments in developing
> and implementing similar programs;
>
> \(3\) Relevant experience with proposed approaches;
>
> \(4\) Institutional strength as represented by breadth and depth of
> experienced personnel in project relevant disciplines/areas;
>
> \(5\) Sub-awardee or subcontractor capabilities and expertise; and
>
> \(6\) Financial controls.

d.  Past Performance:

Applicants must submit a list of the ten most recent U.S. Government
and/or privately-funded contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, etc.,
and the name, address, email address and telephone number of the Project
Officer, activity manager or other contact person.  Include the
following for each award:

> Name of awarding organization or agency;
>
> Address of awarding organization or agency;
>
> Place of performance of services or program;
>
> Award number;
>
> Amount of award;
>
> Term of award (begin and end dates of services/program);
>
> Name, current telephone number, current fax number, and email address
> (if one is available) of a responsible technical representative of
> that organization or agency; and Brief description of the program.

e.  Key Personnel:

Applicants must specify the qualifications and abilities of proposed key
personnel relevant to successful implementation of the proposed
technical approach. The Chief of Party should have a proven track record
of managing such programs. The applicant shall also include, in an
annex, resumes for all key personnel candidates. Resumes may not exceed
three pages in length and shall be in chronological order starting with
most recent experience.  Each resume shall be accompanied by a SIGNED
letter of commitment from each candidate indicating his/her: (a)
availability to serve in the stated position, in terms of days after
award; (b) intention to serve for a stated term of the service; and (c)
agreement to the compensation levels which correspond to the levels set
forth in the cost application. As references may be checked for all
proposed long-term personnel, a minimum of four references for each
proposed long-term person is required.  Applicants should provide
current phone, fax and email address for each reference contact.

f.  Management Approach:

    Applicants must submit a detailed Management Approach for USAID's
    review. Management Approaches must, as a minimum, address the
    following:

-   Placement of the program team within the larger organization(s).

-   Identification of key personnel, including their technical and
    managerial roles and responsibilities

-   A clear chain of authority on the project/program team, including
    subawardee staff.

-   A clear line of communication and reporting which allows for early
    identification and proposed resolution of problems by the prime
    awardee and provision of related information to USAID.

-   A clear, regular, and concrete means of communication between
    program staff in the field and their backstop officers in the
    headquarters office that functions without creating unnecessary
    overlap.

-   A clear, regular, and concrete means of communication between the
    prime recipient and its subawardees which ensures a cohesive working
    relationship and achievement of results

-   A use of both international and Pakistani expertise, with attention
    to gender balance, and the development of indigenous Pakistani
    capacity

-   The method of identifying sub awardees, and the tasks/functions they
    will be performing.  Applicants shall state whether or not they have
    existing relationships with these other organizations and the nature
    of the relationship (e.g., subgrantee, subcontractor, partnership.
    etc) and shall discuss the technical resources and expertise of
    proposed subcontract/subrecipient organizations.

-   A regular means of informal communication with the CTO, in addition
    to the required programmatic and financial reporting.

Program organizational charts with linkages to the key staff's parent
organization are recommended.

Applicants are encouraged to describe specific instances in which the
proposed management approach has had demonstrated success.

g.  Implementation Plan

Applicants shall submit an implementation plan for the entire period of
performance which should clearly outline links between the proposed
results, conceptual approach, performance milestones, and a realistic
timeline for achieving the semi-annual, annual, and end-of-program
results. The implementation plan serves several purposes including a
guide to program implementation, a demonstration of links between
activities, strategic objectives and intended results, a basis for
budget estimates and the foundation for the monitoring and evaluation
plan.

The implementation plan, at a minimum, shall include:

-   Brief situation analysis in the context of what other donors and
    implementing partners and host-country governments are contributing;

-   Life-of-program results;

-   Milestones (or benchmarks) toward achieving those results over the
    duration of the program;

-   Partner involvement and contributions to achieving the results; and

-   Timeline

h.  Award Monitoring Plan

    As part of its application, the applicant must submit a detailed
    Award Monitoring Plan (AMP) for USAID's review. The award monitoring
    plan (AMP) must include the Applicant's complete and considered
    strategy for monitoring progress towards indicators and targets
    included in the award. The strategy constituting the AMP must
    include, as a minimum, the following:

-   Description of the contractor/grantees' established system within
    which the particular AMP operates. The system refers to:

    -   Organization-wide policies and procedures for monitoring and
        their relation to the particular AMP, including the roles of
        different implementing partners (subcontractors/subgrantees).

    -   Organizational staffing/expertise, roles, and responsibilities
        and how the staffing and expertise is to be used in the
        particular AMP.

    -   Automated and other methods to gather, store, manipulate,
        summarize, analyze, and/or report performance data.

    -   Procedures for regular communication with USAID regarding the
        status of monitoring activities, including protocol for
        notifying USAID in the event of significant obstacles or issues
        of immediate concern.

    -   Means of addressing a discovered lack of progress or success.
        Procedures should focus on learning from mistakes, analyzing
        them, and ascertaining the reasons for missteps. Some of the
        questions that may be posed follow. Was it due to the plan? Was
        it the participants' lack of understanding or ownership? Was it
        the style of management, too little or too much participation?
        Was it outside factors, opposition, the weather, bad luck, or a
        combination of these? How will the lessons learned be used and
        disseminated to support continued work under the
        project/program?

    -   Procedures for monitoring prime and subawardee compliance with
        statutory requirements implemented in the resulting award, such
        as anti-terrorism, lobbying, etc.

-   Information about all activities to be monitored under the AMP. The
    list of activities should be provided in a logical framework which:

    -   Links activities to required contract/grant results.

    -   Describes assumptions being made about the relationship of the
        activity to the award result.

    -   Identifies the indicators against which progress is to be
        measured.

    -   Describes the methods to be used for monitoring. Methods for
        monitoring vary according to what it is being monitored. Some
        activities can be observed easily and costs and outputs can be
        measured against the original targets and timetable. Other
        activities are less easy to monitor in terms of quantitative
        achievements, especially such intangible effects as awareness
        and empowerment and their direct link to program interventions.
        Indirect or proxy indicators may have to be identified, even if
        these cannot be verified. By considering these factors at the
        planning stage, expected results can be kept realistic and
        cost-effective and the recipient can recognize that not all
        available and useful indicators are \'objectively verifiable.\'

    -   Provides an illustrative schedule for discrete monitoring
        activities tied to the overall project/program implementation
        plan.

    -   Includes a mechanism for oversight and verification of
        monitoring conducted by field staff.

g\. Annexes

Applicants shall include signed "letters of commitment" from key
personnel and sub awardees in this section.

i.  Page Limitation: 

The length of each section of the technical proposal is shown above;
text is to be presented with 1.0 lines of spacing, 11 point Arial font,
and standard one inch margins. Elaborate art work, expensive paper and
bindings, and expensive visual and other presentation aids are neither
necessary nor wanted.

j.  Branding Strategy and Marking Plan:

The successful applicant will be required to submit a branding strategy
and marking plan. Agency branding and marking guidance can be found at
the following websites:

<http://www.usaid.gov/business/business_opportunities/cib/pdf/aapd05_11.pdf>
(contains instructions on how to prepare the branding strategy and
marking plan); <http://www.usaid.gov/branding/> (contains samples of the
USAID logo in various formats)

## 3. COST APPLICATION FORMAT

The Cost or Business Application is to be submitted separate from the
technical application. Certain documents are required to be submitted by
an applicant in order for the Agreement Officer to make a determination
of responsibility. However, it is USAID policy not to burden applicants
with undue reporting requirements if that information is readily
available through other sources.

The following sections describe the documentation that applicants for
Assistance award must submit to USAID prior to award. While there is no
page limit for the cost proposal, applicants are encouraged to be as
concise as possible, but still provide the necessary detail to address
the following:

A. Applicants must submit budgets using Standard Form 424 and 424A which
can be downloaded from the USAID web site,
<http://www.usaid.gov/procurement_bus_opp/procurement/forms/sf424/>. In
addition, applicants must submit an accompanying budget narrative which
provides in detail the total proposed costs for implementation of the
proposed program. The budget shall discuss and support the components of
each SF-424 budget element, such as:

a)  The breakdown of all costs according to each partner organization
    (or sub-awardee) involved in the program, in the format described
    herein;

b)  The costs associated with home office, expatriate, and local
    in-country labor, ie identification of positions, daily or hourly
    compensation, hours/days to be worked, etc

c)  A breakdown of all other direct costs to include cost elements
    (communications, office supplies, printer, vehicle, office rent,
    etc), unit of measure (monthly estimate, cost per unit), number of
    units, basis of the estimate and programmatic need for the
    expenditure. \[Note: the authorized geographic code for this award
    will be 000. Title to property shall vest in the Cooperating
    Country.\]

d)  Details of travel, per diem and other transportation expenses to
    include number of international trips, expected itineraries, cost of
    travel, number of per diem days and per diem rates.

> e\) Copies of your organization's most recent Negotiated Indirect Cost
> Rate Agreement (NICRA) issued by your organization's cognizant audit
> agency or information to support any non-direct costs recovered by a
> percentage method

B.  Development Focused Budgeting (DFB)

    In addition to providing summary cost data in the SF424A format,
    applicants are required to summarize cost data using
    development-focused budgeting (DFB) in cost applications submitted
    in response to this solicitation. DFB is a customer-based,
    performance-driven, results-oriented budget system underpinned by
    outcome management. Outcome management is a management approach that
    focuses on the development results achieved by providing a service.
    DFB involves summarizing cost data to corresponding development
    results/outcomes. Cost data must be summarized in both the SF424A
    and DFB categories. If an input serves multiple development results,
    the applicant must allocate the input across the corresponding
    results and provide a rationale in the budget narrative for the
    method used for each allocated input.

A summary budget shall be presented in the following format (vertical
columns represent development results)

  -------------- -------------- -------------- ----------------------- -------
  **Input        Improved       Improved       Improved governance and Total
  Categories**   teacher        student        strengthened public     
                 education and  learning and   sector capacity at the  
                 professional   the learning   federal, provincial,    
                 development    environment    and district levels to  
                                               sustain quality         
                                               teaching and learning   

  Labor                                                                 

  Fringe                                                                
  Benefits                                                             

  Travel                                                                

  Equipment                                                             

  Subawards                                                             

  Other Direct                                                          
  Costs                                                                

  Subtotal                                                              

  Overhead                                                              

  **Total**      ** **          ** **          ** **                    
  -------------- -------------- -------------- ----------------------- -------

In addition, applicants shall submit the following development based
budget information that is activity specific for each development
result, as shown in the example below:

1.  Development result: *Improved teacher education and professional
    development*

(note: the estimates below are NOT to be treated as Government
estimates; however applicants are instructed to separately estimate the
costs of administration as well as monitoring and evaluation)

  -------------------------------------- ------- ------------ -------------
  Activity Description                   Units   Unit Cost    Total
                                                              Estimated
                                                              Amount

  Number of districts using the new      5       \$ 5000      \$ 25000
  teacher education standards an                              
  certification system                                        

  Strengthened educational sector policy 1       \$100,000    \$ 100,000
  making and planning                                         

  Number of teachers/educators trained   1       \$12,000     \$12,000
  with USG support.                                           

  Administrative staff, facilities, etc  5       Years        \$5,000,000
  needed to achieve this result (cost of                      
  field offices, portion of home office                       
  staff and time, Islamabad office                            
  share, etc)                                                 

  Monitoring and evaluation of this      5       years        \$500,000
  development result                                          
  -------------------------------------- ------- ------------ -------------

B. Required certifications and representations (as attached below in
section D of this RFA):

C.  Cost Sharing

Applicants will be expected to cost-share 3% of the program's cost.

D.  Applicants who do not currently have a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate
    Agreement (NICRA) from their cognizant audit agency (USAID or
    another agency of the US federal government) shall also submit the
    following information:

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1.  Copies of the applicant\'s financial reports for the previous 3-year
    period, which have been audited by a certified public accountant or
    other auditor satisfactory to USAID;

2.  Projected budget, cash flow and organizational chart;

3.  A copy of the organization\'s accounting manual.

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E.  Applicants shall submit any additional evidence of responsibility
    deemed necessary for the Agreement Officer to make a determination
    of responsibility. The information submitted should substantiate
    that the Applicant:

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1.  Has adequate financial, management and personnel resources and
    systems or the ability to obtain such resources as required during
    the performance of the award.

2.  Has the ability to comply with the award conditions, taking into
    account all existing and currently prospective commitments of the
    applicant, non-governmental and governmental.

3.  Has a satisfactory record of performance. Past relevant
    unsatisfactory performance is ordinarily sufficient to justify a
    finding of non-responsibility, unless there is clear evidence of
    subsequent satisfactory performance.

4.  Has a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics; and

5.  Is otherwise qualified and eligible to receive a grant under
    applicable laws and regulations (e.g., EEO).

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F.  Applicants that have never received a grant, cooperative agreement
    or contract from the U.S. Government are required to submit a copy
    of their accounting manual, personnel policies, travel policies, and
    procurement policies, and audits received for the past three years.
    If this material has already been submitted to the U.S. Government,
    the applicant should advise which Federal Agency has a copy.

G.  Certificate of Compliance: Please submit a copy of your Certificate
    of Compliance if your

> organization\'s systems have been certified by the USAID/Washington\'s
> Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA, formerly known as M/OP).

H. Unaccompanied post: At this time, Pakistan is an unaccompanied post
for US direct hire employees; for security reasons, family members of US
direct hire employees are not permitted to travel to or reside at post
with the employee at government expense.   Under the resulting
cooperative agreement, while USAID cannot expressly forbid a Recipient
employee from bringing family members to post at personal expense, it is
not encouraged or desired.  Under no circumstances will costs related to
dependents be considered allowable costs to the resulting award
including but not limited to housing, transportation, education, and per
diem.  Separate maintenance allowance (SMA) would be allowable if in
accordance with the standardized regulations and the recipient's
policies and practices.

**4. COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT AWARD**

The Government may award the resulting cooperative agreement on the
basis of initial applications received, without discussions or
negotiations. Therefore, each initial application should contain the
applicant\'s best terms from a cost and technical standpoint. As part of
its evaluation process, however, USAID may elect to discuss technical,
cost or other pre-award issues with one or more applicants.
Alternatively, USAID may proceed with award selection based on its
evaluation of initial applications received and/or commence negotiations
solely with one applicant.

A written award mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful
applicant(s) within the time for acceptance specified either in the
application(s) or in this RFA (whichever is later) shall result in a
binding cooperative agreement without further action by either party.
Before the application\'s specified expiration time, if any, the
Government may accept an application, whether or not there are
negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is
received before award. Negotiations or discussions conducted after
receipt of an application do not constitute a rejection or counteroffer
by the Government.

Neither financial data submitted with an application nor representations
concerning facilities or financing, will form a part of the resulting
cooperative agreement unless explicitly stated otherwise in the
agreement.

To be eligible for award of a cooperative agreement, in addition to
other conditions of this RFA, organizations must have a politically
neutral humanitarian mandate, a commitment to non-discrimination with
respect to beneficiaries and adherence to equal opportunity employment
practices. Non-discrimination includes equal treatment without regard to
race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and political affiliation.

Applicants are reminded that U.S. Executive Orders and U.S. law
prohibits transactions with, and the provision of resources and support
to, individuals and organizations associated with terrorism. It is the
legal responsibility of the recipient to ensure compliance with these
Executive Orders and laws. This provision must be included in all
subcontracts/subawards issued under this contract/agreement.

**5. AUTHORITY TO OBLIGATE THE GOVERNMENT**

The Agreement Officer is the only individual who may legally commit the
Government to the expenditure of public funds. No costs chargeable to
the proposed agreement may be incurred before receipt of either a fully
executed Agreement or a specific written authorization from the
Agreement Officer.

**SECTION B - SELECTION CRITERIA**

The criteria presented below have been tailored to the requirements of
this RFA.  The Applicant should note that these criteria serve to
identify the significant issues that Applicants should address in their
applications, and to set standards against which all applications will
be evaluated.  To facilitate the review of applications, Applicants are
requested to organize the narrative sections of technical proposals
according to the evaluation criteria set forth below.

Applications will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation
criteria set forth below:

• Technical merits of the applications,

• Cost effectiveness and cost realism of the application,

• Past performance of the applicant

**[Technical Evaluation Criteria -- Total 100 points]{.underline}**

**Technical Approach 40 points**

The technical approach will be evaluated based on 1) the extent to which
the application sets forth a clear, justifiable, and technically sound
course of action to achieve the program objectives and anticipated
results (15 points); 2) originality and creativity in proposing how to
implement the activities described, which will facilitate achievement of
program objectives (15 points); 3) the "fit" or complementarity of the
proposed program design and activities with existing interventions
already on the ground in Pakistan, whether financed by USAID or other
partners (10 points);

**Award Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMP) 10 points**

The AMP will be evaluated based upon the following:

-   A clear description of the Recipient's established system within
    which the particular AMP operates including:

    -   The organization-wide policy and procedures for monitoring and
        evaluation.

    -   Roles and responsibilities of sub-cooperating agencies in
        monitoring and evaluation

    -   A description of the system which will address lack of progress
        or success.

-   Information on activities to be monitored under the AMP including:

    -   How activities are linked to achieving required Agreement
        results.

    -   Assumptions being made about the relationship of the activity to
        the Agreement results

    -   Proposed indicators which track progress over the life of the
        activity with annual targets for each indicator

    -   Methods to be used for monitoring activities and collecting
        indicators results

    -   An illustrative schedule for monitoring activities

    -   A mechanism for oversight and verification of monitoring
        conducted by field staff

-   Procedures for monitoring prime and sub-awardee compliance with
    statutory requirements implemented in the resulting award, such as
    anti-terrorism, etc.

Proposed monitoring methods for each activity must fit the activity to
be monitored and demonstrate cost-effectiveness and efficiency
considering the nature and scope of the program, including the level of
risk and the impact of failure. The AMP must be written in a manner that
those involved in monitoring can understand and without lengthy
theoretical discussions or jargon. It should not be merely boiler plate
statements or generalities about the Recipient's organizational
performance monitoring practices.

**Gender Analysis 5 points**

Gender issues are identified and appropriate interventions developed to
address these issues throughout all activities.

**Key Personnel 25 points:**

Key personnel will be evaluated based on their relevant prior experience
directly related to the proposed work, including technical
qualifications, professional competence, relevant academic background,
and demonstrated experience. Key personnel will also be evaluated on
their professional references. The Chief of Party will be scored at 15
points, while the remaining key personnel positions will have a maximum
score of 10 points. **USAID reserves the right to obtain work
performance information from other sources beyond those named in the
proposal.**

**Management Approach 10 points**

Management Approaches will be evaluated based upon the following:

-   Strength of composition and organizational structure of the entire
    implementation team:

    -   Home Office

    -   In-country office

    -   Sub-cooperating agencie(s.).

-   Communication procedures:

    -   Among the implementation team members above.

    -   With USAID.

-   Clear articulation of roles, responsibility and authority:

    -   Among the implementation team members above.

    -   To USAID.

-   Strong problem-resolution strategies:

    -   Among the implementation team members above.

    -   Between the COP and the CTO.

    -   Between the Home Office and the CTO

-   A use of both international and Pakistani expertise, with attention
    to gender balance, and the development of indigenous Pakistani
    capacity

**Institutional Capability and Partnerships and Past Performance 10
points**

Applicant's institutional capability and their proposed partners will be
evaluated based on 1) the Applicant's demonstrated capability to plan,
implement and monitor similar projects in similar settings (5 points)
and 2) the demonstrated capability of any proposed sub-cooperating
agencies to plan, implement and monitor projects in similar settings (5
points). USAID reserves the right to obtain past performance information
from other sources beyond those named in the proposal.

**Total (technical evaluation criteria): 100 points**

**COST EVALUATION:**

Cost has not been assigned a score but will be evaluated for cost
reasonableness, allocability, allowability, cost effectiveness and
realism, adequacy of budget detail and financial feasibility and cost
sharing. While cost may be a determining factor in the final award(s)
decision, especially between closely ranked applicants, the technical
merit of applications is substantially more important under this RFA.
The percentage of funds spent on programming versus administrative costs
will be taken into consideration, i.e. the cost of staff salaries,
equipment, and facilities vs. costs of field activities and
interventions that directly impact the target beneficiaries.

Cost sharing is required at 3%, which represents the portion of the
activity USAID deems critical to continue after USAID assistance ends.
Applicants that do not meet this requirement will not be considered for
this award.

**SECTION C -- PROGRAM DESCRIPTION**

**I. Objective**

The objective of the Links to Learning Program (ED-LINKS) activity is to
improve the quality and sustainability of teacher education and student
performance in the targeted geographical areas of Sindh, Balochistan,
Islamabad Capital Territory, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA). USAID has learned through its past and current programs that
there is need to link the teaching and learning processes to improve
quality outcomes in education particularly at the provincial and
district levels. USAID's comparative advantage with this program is its
approach to linking these core elements of the public education system
together. Rather than focus on vertical aspects of the system, as the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) does with decentralization, and the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) does with training mass
numbers of teachers and refurbishing training institutions or how the
World Bank and the Department for International Development (DfID)
contribute to the development of budgetary support mechanisms, USAID's
support can serve as a catalyst to help bring these areas of development
together through the strengthening of systems, institutional and
management capacity support, and the linkage of teaching and learning
support functions. This will not only be at the policy level but also at
the school level so that the improved educational development of
children is achieved. The Applicant will be required to help USAID
quantify the overall objective through an achievable program
implementation and monitoring plan.

[This activity has three goals:]{.underline}

1\) to improve teacher education and professional development through
providing institutional and academic support that is centered on student
achievement and learning outcomes.

2\) to improve student learning and the learning environment through
developing systems for gauging student learning and achievement,
strengthening of assessment cells at the district and provincial levels
and by providing learning tools and classroom inputs aimed at improving
student achievement.

3\) to support governance reforms and strengthen public sector capacity
at the federal, provincial and district levels to sustain quality
teaching and learning.

This RFA will be followed by the announcement of a second activity that
USAID will support. The second program entitled "Partnerships for Better
Schools" program will sponsor a number of school improvement initiatives
that would complement the ED-LINKS program in the same geographical
areas. Together, the ED-LINKS focus on teaching and learning and the
Partnerships for Better Schools focus on school improvement will support
the government's emerging policy framework to address linked,
sector-wide development (see Figure 1) to ensure integration of the
three key areas of education.

**[Figure 1: USAID Support to Education Reform in
Pakistan]{.underline}**

II. **BACKGROUND**

One of the most pressing problems that plague public sector education in
Pakistan is the perpetuation of outdated methods of teaching and
learning. The effects of a poor system of teaching and learning in
Pakistan are students who leave the system with no capacity for critical
thinking, or much worse, are illiterate (literacy rates in Pakistan are
53% overall and as low as 18% for females in rural areas). Low student
achievement and poor completion rates jeopardize Pakistan's human
resource base for economic growth. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
are in danger of remaining trapped in a quagmire of poverty and
deprivation despite going to school, because they are educated under
conditions that are not conducive to developing the life skills required
to improve the quality of their lives. Measures for improving teaching
and learning are therefore critical.

The quality of education provided by the public sector in Pakistan has
been poor due to low levels of teacher competence, lack of
classroom-based support for teachers, poor quality of textbooks and
learning materials, lack of systems to assess student-learning outcomes,
uneven supervision, insufficient resources for critical teaching and
learning materials, and weak sector governance and management[^1].
Research indicates that teacher quality, and supportive school
organization and management, significantly influence school improvement,
and eventually pupil learning. Literature also suggests that the quality
of a teacher is generally dependent on the quality of his/her education,
training, and availability of post-training support[^2].

See Annex A "2006 Report Card Summary on Education in Pakistan" for a
summary of related education indicators.

Unless otherwise indicated, the data below is from the following studies
conducted through USAID programs:

-   Academy for Educational Development (2006). *Performance Gap
    Analysis and Training Needs Assessment of Teacher Training
    Institutions*. USAID/Pakistan Teacher Education and Professional
    Development Project.

-   Academy for Educational Development (2005). *Directory of Teacher
    Education/Training Institutes in Pakistan.* USAID/Pakistan Teacher
    Education and Professional Development Project.

-   UNESCO (2006) *Strategic Framework for Teacher Education and
    Professional Development: Pakistan.* USAID/Teacher Education and
    Professional Development Project.

-   UNESCO (2006) *Situational Analysis of Teacher Education and
    Professional Development: Pakistan*. USAID/Teacher Education and
    Professional Development Project.

These reports, in their entirety, can be found on the USAID Pakistan
website at: [http://dec.usaid.gov](http://dec.usaid.gov/)

**[Teacher Education and Professional Development]{.underline}**

It is widely acknowledged that the quality and performance of teachers
in Pakistan has been poor. This shortcoming was highlighted as far back
as 1959 by the Report of the National Commission on Education,
Government of Pakistan. However, challenges persist and issues have
worsened over the years. The teacher education programs currently being
run by the government institutes[^3] are not of the caliber to
significantly raise the level of knowledge and skills of teachers to
have any measurable impact on the students learning. The curriculum of
these programs fails to develop in teachers the required pedagogical
skills, subject knowledge, classroom delivery and questioning skills
that would make these courses/programs worthwhile.

The various government organizations providing teacher education if not
defunct are independently commencing their restructured mandates. With
minimal coordination and supervision, they follow their own agendas and
objectives. This has created non-standardized and deficient teaching
programs. These institutions fail to provide acceptable levels of
teacher education, and have refrained from any direct collaborations and
linkages in academics and teaching methods for the good part of their
existence. There is no single ruling authority to properly provide
guidance and direction to these institutions to maximize their
efficiency, outputs and to monitor their product quality.

Various studies and reports have already been undertaken to look into
teacher professional development in Pakistan. All of them have cited
that teacher performance and quality is most notably affected by:
educational qualification of teachers; recruitment on merit; adequate
teacher performance monitoring system; incentives; refresher programs to
continually improve teacher skills; and career development
opportunities[^4]. With the issues being identified both at the macro
and micro level and solutions also proposed, what remains to be done is
the implementation of these corrective actions, which will ultimately
raise the quality of the teachers. Policy guidelines are needed that
adequately interpret the problems and laws are needed to bring about the
necessary changes that successfully and effectively implement the
changes (See Annex B for a detailed brief on the teacher workforce in
Pakistan).

*[Key Issues & Problems Related to Quality of Teacher
Education]{.underline}*

***Teacher Quality:*** Two challenges have been underscored regarding
teacher quality. First, it is apparent that student outcomes are more
closely related to the level of general education of the teacher rather
than professional qualifications/in-service training. Some programs like
the European Commission's-Northern Pakistan Education Program encourage
teachers to enhance their academic qualifications through provision of
scholarships. However, only a small number of teachers are able to avail
this facility, and training programs have still to adequately address
the dilemma of weak content knowledge. Second, available institutional
mechanisms to ensure teacher training of quality on any significant
scale, or any significant cumulative impact over time, are lacking. The
majority of donor-funded programs despite small increases in duration
like the 300-hour teacher-training program under the Education Sector
Reform Assistance (ESRA) Project still appear to be insufficient[^5].
GTZ's model of teacher capacity building, given its relatively modest
funding, has been pointed out as being able to make a significant impact
at the lower end of the quality spectrum

***Curriculum:*** The current curricula being taught does not focus on
nurturing a creative learning environment involving questioning and
problem solving. Subject matter is not regularly updated to keep pace
with recent subject advances. There is no attempt to integrate subject
knowledge with pedagogical skills. For most programs, teacher trainees
employ rote learning to pass the examinations. Not enough emphasis is
given to learning practical teaching skills; instead the emphasis
remains on theory. Also, there is hardly any focus on making teachers
efficient in improvising and creating low cost learning aids.
Familiarity with use of modern information and communication
technologies is also not given due importance.

***Teacher Educators:*** The various levels of teacher educators
themselves are caught in the same cycle of poor teacher quality and
delivery. They administer their classes in the traditional teaching
style of lecture giving, dictation and notes. Trainers fail to cultivate
any creative thinking, inquiry and problem solving among their trainees.
Most of them are not aware of how to improve their own knowledge and
skills or to bring themselves up to date with modern advances in teacher
training. An endless cycle of these ritualistic and poor teaching
methods thus affects the teacher education system. Also, teacher
educators refrain from group work and interactive learning techniques
because they have concern it spoils class discipline. This is indeed one
of the major reasons that Pakistan has not been able to bring up its
educational level and standard.

***Pre-Service Programs:*** According to two independent research
studies, the content knowledge of pre-service and in-service teachers in
Pakistan is low. When teachers with or without pre-service training were
tested on content knowledge, there was negligible difference between
their performance. This tentatively indicates that the pre-service
programs have added little value to teachers and directly reflects on
the poor level of instruction and curriculum of the pre-service
programs. Approximately 75 percent of teachers are provided outdated and
irrelevant training through the Primary Teaching Certificate or
Certificate in Teaching[^6].

***In-Service Programs:*** Courses are not designed according to the
requirements of in-service teachers. No effort is made to modify and
tailor the syllabus as per the requirements of the class/trainees.
Subject knowledge is not integrated with teaching skills. Training
programs for various levels of teachers are not properly assessed and
lack adequate materials and delivery aids. Training specialists and
master trainers often themselves are not qualified, competent or
motivated enough to make much difference in improving the knowledge and
capabilities of the trainees. Many master trainers are usually ex-heads
of high schools who have been transferred and other teacher educators as
a sort of punishment. Therefore, they are less serious towards their
jobs and their chief priority is to finish their tenure so that they can
eventually return as administrative heads of a school.

While it is recommended that teachers receive in-service training every
three to five years, on average a primary teacher receives in-service
training after thirteen years, a middle school teacher after seven to
eight years and a high school teacher after sixteen years. Rural
teachers and females, who have the greatest challenges in the form of
access and mobility, are able to benefit the least (UNESCO and USAID
2005). Primary teachers rarely benefit from in-service training that can
be utilized in the course of their work, often attending half-heartedly,
their attention more on travel and other daily allowances that are due
to them (Khan 2004).

***Support System and School Management:*** Teachers require a strong
support structure within their schools to cater to their needs and
professional development. A healthy and facilitative teaching
environment, encouragement from peers and administration, efficient
internal processes, easily available teaching aids and mentoring by
senior faculty all add up in helping the teacher grow and focus on his
job. A supportive school organization typically is not present in
Pakistani schools, where internal politics, lack of resources,
disinterest in pupil learning and school improvement by management
result in de-motivating and ignoring the teachers. Such a culture also
inhibits teachers from taking the initiative to introduce new techniques
in teaching and apply whatever new skills they learned in their
training. There is no central or provincial database to keep track of
the number of teachers being trained, the courses attended by them,
current enrollments and school contribution.

***Monitoring and Evaluation:*** Almost all training programs lack a
systematic follow up to gauge the performance of their trained teachers.
Since evaluation is not as exciting as the training component of the
program and is more time consuming, little attention is paid to this
aspect of the teacher training. With little guidance, monitoring and
follow up, teachers suffer from a lack of feedback, which eventually
causes them to continue inferior teaching practices. Moreover, the
performance appraisal system of teachers known as the Annual
Confidential Reports (ACRs) is merely a formality. It fails to provide
any useful feedback or insights to a teacher's performance.

**[Student Learning and Achievement]{.underline}**[^7]

Low quality of education in public schools is reflected by poor levels
of learning achievements. A National Education Assessment Study (NEAS)
was carried out by the Ministry of Education (2005) to determine
learning achievements at primary level of education. Data were collected
on tests of 4887 class IV students and 347 teachers of 270 primary
schools located in 32 districts of Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier
Province (NWFP), Balochistan, FATA, Federally Administered Northern
Areas (FANA), and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK). The head teachers of these
schools also furnished information about their school in response to a
structured questionnaire. Competency tests revealed:

-   Only 2% of students in the country are 'learning' almost all of the
    curriculum;

-   At a national level, 40% of students have \'learned\' only
    one-fourth of the competencies (or between 1 and 9 out of 36
    competencies).About 42% of students in the country are \'learning\'
    one-half of the curriculum (or between 10 and 18 of the 36
    competencies). In overall terms, proportionately more girls are
    \'learning\' more competencies than boys.

-   \'Learning\' of competencies is proportionately lowest in numeracy
    and highest in the life skills domain.

-   Students of FATA and FANA are acquiring the lowest number of
    competencies in the numeracy and life skills domains.

-   The results showed that NEAS achievement test scores were very low
    and well below international averages. On a scale of 1-1,000 for
    instance, class IV students in Pakistan scored an average of 421 in
    mathematics and 369 in Urdu, both below the mean of 500.

The analysis of background and context variables in relation to
achievement scores revealed that several variables related to student
home background, teaching-learning processes, and teaching practices
were important in determining students' achievements positively and
negatively. These variables will be important to address in the ED-LINKS
initiative.

In Pakistan, most of the assessment activities in the past have been
initiated on an ad hoc basis through projects rather than through a
national systematic approach. There is little institutional base either
at the federal or provincial levels to sustain assessment activities
beyond the "project" timelines. Neither the traditional school
examinations nor the external public examinations administered for
certification purposes, nor the selection tests for admission to
institutions of higher education, sufficiently fulfil the criteria of
standardization and comparability required for a monitoring indicator.

The NEAS and its associated centres in the Provinces: Provincial
Education Assessment Centres (PEACs) and Area Education Assessment
Centres (AREAC) have been established as a priority program under the
Ministry of Education (MOE) Education Sector Reform Action Plan. A key
priority of the reform initiative was to "build assessment capacity at
the school, provincial and federal levels to better measure learning
outcomes and improve the quality and effectiveness of program
interventions." Central to a current NEAS is the development of the
institutional capacity of MOE at the federal level and in the
Departments of Education at the provincial and area levels to monitor
standards of education nationally. Institutional capacity building is a
need that the GOP has requested further support. Currently, the NEAS
Program, PEACs and AREAC are understaffed and these institutions will
need to recruit and train professionals on a permanent basis.

USAID is currently supporting the Aga Khan University Examination Board
which has developed a state of the art examination system for the
private sector. This activity is an important development that will
certainly inform the ED-LINKS initiative in its support to the MOE
including the Federal Board of Examination.

At the district and school level, minimal support is provided to
teachers in terms of mentoring and academic support. In the past
education department staff such as the ADO or learning coordinator are
assigned to provide academic support to help teachers improve their
techniques and to facilitate a conducive learning environment. However,
these officials generally serve an inspector role of insuring student
and teacher attendance. Often what students are learning in terms of the
curriculum is disconnected from what teachers are being taught in
pre-service and in-service courses and the government officials tasked
with providing academic support are not involved with the pre-service
and in-service programs. Through disconnected government services,
learners and the learning process all too often are ignored.

**[Governance of Teaching and Learning: Institutional
Context]{.underline}**

The Government of Pakistan is committed to improving the
[quality]{.underline} of education along with its efforts to increase
enrolment and access. This commitment is reflected in the government's
policy documents (National Education Policy 1998-2010, Education Sector
Reforms and the President's Education Sector Reforms-See MOE website
[www.moe.gov.pk](http://www.moe.gov.pk/)) and its endorsement at
international fora to include quality outcomes as performance monitoring
indicators such as those related to student learning and teacher
performance.

Despite these reforms and the generous level of donor funding to support
the sector, there is little institutional base at the federal,
provincial and district levels to sustain quality improvements
particularly in the areas of teaching and learning. Historically, reform
support initiatives have tended to focus on symptoms of a failed
education system through externally supported teacher training programs.
While these deficiencies are logically important to address, the root
cause of these problems, weak governance, has been left unchecked.

The government over the years has struggled to cater to one of the
largest cadre of employees in the country[^8]. Coupled with the
proliferation of teacher training institutions in the last decade (over
200) that have also been observed to be ineffective, service delivery
appears to be currently hampered. Some attempts have been made at
improving the professional development institutions such as the Asian
Development Bank program in the mid 1990's that supported the
establishment of the Provincial Institutes of Teacher Education (PITEs)
and other outposts of training. However, these programs resulted more in
the instalment of infrastructure than improvement of quality education.
The majority of projects and programs implemented over the years have
more or less circumvented existing institutions by developing "crash" or
one-off training programs facilitated by external teacher educators to
fill a backlog of untrained teachers. Unfortunately, these training
modules developed under donor-driven projects are not necessarily
adopted and used by teacher training institutes in continuing education
programs.

Pakistan has no overarching policy framework, which specifically
addresses Teacher Professional Development (TPD). Instead, TPD issues
are covered in various education policies. While the primary focus of
the education policies has naturally remained on enhancing access to
education, TPD has been covered in most of the policy pronouncements.
Broadly, the policy statements are contained in various Commission and
'Conference' reports, Five Year Plans, National Education Policies,
other nationally applicable reform documents, and provincial level
policy pronouncements. The latest national education policy, 1998-2010
was a major step forward as far as according importance to TPD issues is
concerned. TPD was tackled in great detail, with a self-critique of the
existing system and clear implementation plans including provisions to
improve governance related issues. The Policy was categorical in
acknowledging a disconnect between various implementation mechanisms
used in the past and their desired impact. The Policy highlighted
politicisation of appointments, the acute lack of supervision of TPD,
the absence of any single policy framework to guide TPD, and the like.
The policy also provided detailed implementation mechanisms, including
formation of National Institute of Teacher Education (NITE) to train
teacher trainers based in teacher training institutions, and incentives
in terms of stipends for teachers to work in rural areas (MOE "National
Education Policy 1998-2010" 1998). However, again there was no mention
of how NITE would be governed and how its own capacity will be
generated. Moreover, the implementation plan left out solutions to the
major governance related problems it raised. Like previous policies, the
1998-2010 policy also stressed upon the need to keep teacher unions
depoliticised (MOE "National Education Policy 1998-2010" 1998).

The Education Sector Reforms 2002-2006 were introduced to devise an
implementation mechanism for the National Education Policy 1998-2010's
recommendations. The ESR action plan provides specific sets of actions
to upgrade teacher qualifications, implementation of the NEAS, and the
setting up of Tehsil/Teacher Resource Centers (TRCs)[^9]. The latter
were designed to provide decentralized in-service training to teachers
and were to be managed by a board of selected professionals. Moreover,
the plan provisioned for Rs.2500 million for setting up 500 TRCs, but
the source of their recurrent expenditures was not provided (Jamil
2004).

In 2001, the Federal Government promulgated the Local Government
Ordinance (LGO), which introduced a detailed mechanism to devolve powers
from the federal and provincial governments to the newly established
district authorities across sectors, including education. The devolution
plan provides a detailed plan, delineating responsibilities to various
actors relevant to the TPD framework. The LGO now guides the
relationship between various tiers of government across sectors and
sub-sectors, including TPD. Under the plan, the federal government
maintains the overall policy formulation role, the responsibility for
devising curricula, setting teacher pay scales, defining requirements of
teacher credentials and providing the broad vision for TPD. The
provincial government is actually in charge of teacher education and
professional development activities and ensuring quality of education,
including qualification criteria of teachers. Teacher management issues
and service delivery has been devolved to the district level (GOP,
"Local Government Ordinance" 2001). USAID is currently sponsoring a
program with UNESCO to develop a national framework for TPD and USAID's
new program will link to this work which is situated in the Federal
Directorate of Education.

*[Key Issues & Problems Related to Governance of Teacher
Education]{.underline}*

***Lack of Policy & Standards:*** To date, all teacher-training programs
are operating without a viable policy framework. The Federal Ministry of
Education is aware of this vacuum and has begun a dialogue through its
Inter Provincial Ministerial Forums to review its policy on teacher
education. This has led teaching institutions to develop and implement
teacher education programs at their discretion leading to uneven and
sometimes poor quality curriculum, teaching methods and practices.
Hence, lack of standards and accreditation has led to varied and
substandard training programs.

***Institutional Clutter:*** The numerous government teacher training
institutions at the provincial levels: Bureaus of Curriculum (BoC),
Provincial Institute's of Teacher Education (PITE), Department for Staff
Development (DSD), University of Education (UoE), and Department of
Curriculum and Teacher Education (DCTE) have unclear mandates. An
overlap between their roles and responsibilities also exists. Except for
Punjab, which has just recently divided the roles of providing
pre-service and in-service training between its two apex organizations:
UoE and DSD respectively, the other provinces still suffer from
institutional clutter. There is no overarching body to regulate and
guide these institutions particularly in terms of academic leadership
within provincial departments of education.

***Linkage between the Institutions or Lack of:*** There exists a wide
communication and collaboration gap between the provincial training
institutes. Instead of working towards sharing good practices, research
and experiences, they have more or less worked in isolation. The BoC,
PITE, DSD, UoE have not built critical partnerships so as to improve
their course content, methodology and pedagogical skills. Similarly weak
institutional arrangements between the provincial and district
institutes also contribute to the complexities in teacher education
curriculum and conduct. The management of the system is uncoordinated
with different institutions responsible for staffing, curricula,
examinations and textbooks (UNESCO and USAID 2005).

***Recruitment:*** Not selecting teachers on merit, lack of proper
screening and relaxing of qualification requirements have jeopardized
the end objective of providing quality education. Job descriptions and
performance appraisals are lacking. Research has shown that the
performance of students who had teachers with 12 years of formal
schooling was better than students whose teachers had only eight years
of education[^10]. This leads to the conclusion that student performance
and understanding is directly related to the years of formal education
of teachers. Hence, by compromising on the competency of the educator
itself means a compromise on the standard of education.

***Incentives and Career Path:*** Promotion is currently based on
seniority rather than performance. Low salaries characterize the
profession. There is a dire need for recognition of performance.
Moreover, no further consideration is given to additional
qualifications. There is a lack of a well-defined career structure for
teacher educators; chronic shortage of specialist teacher educators; and
most staff lack experience in teaching in schools for which they prepare
trainees (for instance secondary level subject specialists preparing
primary teachers).

***High Per Capita Cost for Low Grade Teachers:*** "Increase of
non-salary budget for provision of improved educational environment and
learning materials" is one of the measures in the Education Sector
Reform (ESR) Action Plan for the improvement of quality in education."
According to a study conducted by the Academy of Educational Development
(AED), the unit cost[^11] of teaching a Primary Teaching Certificate
(PTC) and Certificate of Teaching (CT) candidate ranges between Rs.
15,000 to Rs. 110,000 (See Table 1). Between 60-99 percent of the budget
allocation is spent on staff salaries. The non-salary allocation in the
budget ranges from a maximum of 40 percent to a minimum of one percent.
The cost of conventional TPD globally is on average 7.6 times the cost
of training a secondary school student. In Pakistan, the cost is 25.5
times higher. Producing low-grade teachers at such a high cost is a
matter of concern[^12].

![](media/image3.wmf)

# *Cost Effectiveness of Existing Pre-Service TPD Programs:* The existing pre-service TPD institutions appear to be severely under utilized. The Government is spending approximately Rs. 100,000 per trainee raising questions about the relevance of the courses organized by these institutes. In terms of cost effectiveness, there is also a need to examine the advantages of providing pre-service teacher training through separate public institutions as opposed to the inclusion of such courses as regular subjects for study in colleges or as an optional subject at the graduate level, especially since these certificates can also be acquired from private training institutions. 

# *Low Understanding of Budgeting for TPD:* In a meeting organized by MOE in 2004, financing for improved resource allocation for TPD was identified as a weak area where skills for planning and budgeting, costing and financial reporting are significantly lacking. Regular annual planning in public sector institutions is remiss of effective costing strategies. There is no institutionalized approach to financing TPD as part of an embedded costing mechanism to meet the needs of upgrading human resources and quality assurance. In addition, budgetary constraints and conventions of low or ad hoc budgetary provision for TPD have constrained provincial and district governments in planning for regular in-service training of teachers as part of non-salary recurrent budgets. These budgets could be costed on a per-student or even per school/institution basis (Jamil 2004). The ratio of salary non-salary budgets shows a lack of skills in planning and management of TPD. The high unit costs are due to an imbalance in the teacher-pupil ratio, while budgetary allocation for the availability of teaching aids, technology, supplementary reading and reference material, maintenance and monitoring are neglected. The education departments should also be provided a recurring budget to facilitate filling up training vacancies through their heads of education institutes so that teachers are allowed to avail training opportunities (Frontier Education Foundation 2006). 

***Allocations and Utilization:*** Data on national and provincial
budgets show that about 8 percent of the national budget is spent on
education. Provincial allocations are higher ranging from an average of
19 percent in Sindh to 26 percent in Punjab over the period of 1998-99
to 2003-04. A significant share of the education budget is allocated
towards recurrent activities and evidence from all provinces depicts
that recurrent funds are utilized primarily on salaries. Recurrent
allocations have ranged from 75 to 96 percent of total allocations in
the four provinces. With the exception of NWFP, the provinces witnessed
a large fall in the education budget in 2004-05. This is because while
provincial budget allocations in 2004-05 include transfers to newly
devolved district government budgets, the final share of those transfers
to be devoted to education is to be determined by the district
governments themselves. Therefore, it is not possible to present
comprehensive data on education, and TPD, allocations for both
provincial and district governments for 2004-05 from provincial budget
information alone. Capacities and systems at the district government do
not presently allow education budget allocations to de clearly
determined from district budget information either.

###  {#section-1 .Numbered3}

### From 1998-99 to 2001-02, expenditure as a proportion of the provincial budgets has been 71, 89, 82 and 92 percent on average for Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan respectively[^13]. Within theses figures, utilization rates for recurrent allocations have been relatively high and utilization rates for the salary component higher still. Thus, low utilization rates impact mainly on the non-salary component of recurrent expenditure and on development expenditures[^14].  {#from-1998-99-to-2001-02-expenditure-as-a-proportion-of-the-provincial-budgets-has-been-71-89-82-and-92-percent-on-average-for-punjab-sindh-nwfp-and-balochistan-respectively.-within-theses-figures-utilization-rates-for-recurrent-allocations-have-been-relatively-high-and-utilization-rates-for-the-salary-component-higher-still.-thus-low-utilization-rates-impact-mainly-on-the-non-salary-component-of-recurrent-expenditure-and-on-development-expenditures. .Numbered3}

III. **DONOR AND MULTILATERAL SUPPORT**

USAID is coordinating its activities with the World Bank (WB), Asian
Development Bank (ADB), Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), Department for International Development (DfID), UNESCO and
UNICEF, who are all supporting reforms to strengthen the educational
sector at all tiers of government. Provincial Departments of Education
and donors have developed education sector plans for Punjab, Sindh and
NWFP Provinces. Given that provincial governments have primary authority
for education provision yet historically have never developed education
strategies, these plans are an important first step for education
reform. USAID's new programs will be coordinated with the federal and
provincial education departments to ensure a coherent fit with current
government reform activities.

The WB supports national and provincial education reform to increase
primary enrolment and bridge the primary and secondary gap. ADB runs a
large Decentralized Education program for primary students in Sindh.
CIDA is providing tremendous support in strengthening teacher training
in all four provinces. DfID and the World Bank are supporting the NWFP
government's new education sector plan. The Japanese Government is
building schools in the FATA supporting secondary education in
Balochistan and literacy in Punjab. (Additional details of donor
activities in basic education are provided in Annex C.)

IV. **USAID/PAKISTAN'S EDUCATION SUPPORT STRATEGY**

In August 2002, the U.S. Government (USG), through USAID, signed a
five-year \$100 million agreement with the GOP to support its Education
Sector Reform initiative. In 2005, additional funds were allocated to
the education portfolio as part of President Bush's Fiscal Year (FY)
2005 to FY 2009 \$300 million a year economic assistance commitment.
Recognizing Pakistan as a strategic partner in the war on terror, USG
support to education is paramount as evidenced through the marked
expansion of the program since 2002 from \$20 million to approximately
\$60 million annually.

USAID's existing education strategy includes support to basic education
and higher education. It has supported the Government of Pakistan's
education reform strategy in the following areas: improving education
policies and administrative and management capacity; providing support
to teacher education and professional development; improving access to
education facilities and also addressing special needs in the FATA and
the earthquake-affected areas. In terms of higher education, the current
program fosters greater access by providing needs based/merit based
scholarships to Pakistani students and by supporting the world's largest
Fulbright scholarship program. 

USAID's new foreign assistance framework places education under the
objective of "Investing in People." Within the context of the framework,
the mandate is to *"Encourage the adoption of conducive social policies
and deepen the capabilities of key social institutions, which includes
establishing the relative roles of public and private sector in service
delivery".*

**[USAID/Pakistan Strategic Objective (SO) Framework]{.underline}**

USAID/Pakistan's overall goal under the Interim Strategy (2003-2006;
extended through September 2007) is, "Promote Equality, Stability,
Economic Growth, and Improved Well Being of Pakistani Families." The
Education SO for fiscal years 2002-2007 is stated as "Increased
knowledge, training and infrastructure to improve the quality of
education for females and males throughout Pakistan." Under the overall
objective, USAID has defined the following intermediate results (IRs):

-   IR 3.1: Strengthened educational sector policy making and planning.

-   IR 3.2: Improved capacity of teachers and education administrators.

-   IR 3.3: Improved literacy in over-15 age group.

-   IR 3.4: Improved access and delivery of education services

-   IR 3.5: Increased access to higher education

The ED-LINKS initiative will support IR 3.1, IR 3.2 and IR 3.4.

USAID Pakistan's current basic education programs focus on improving
learning environments, improving school administration, and
strengthening community involvement in schools. The current basic
education portfolio is focused on Sindh, Balochistan, FATA, and the
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Initiatives include:

*Education Sector Reform Assistance Program (ESRA):* This is USAID's
current flagship education program. This activity has been supporting IR
3.1, IR 3.2, IR 3.3, and IR 3.4 since 2002 in Sindh, Balochistan and
more recently ICT. The program concludes in September 2007.
(Implementing Partner -- Research Triangle Institute)

*Interactive Teaching and Learning Program:* This program introduces
child centered practices in the classrooms of government and private
schools, from grade Kindergarten-8. The activity also involves family
members in the life of the school community. Activities take place in
ICT, Karachi, and Rawalpindi. (Implementing Partner -- Children's
Resources International, Pakistan)

*FATA School Construction and Rehabilitation Project:* This program
supports the construction and furnishing of 65 schools in the FATA.
Twelve schools have been completed and 40 more are under construction.
(Implementing Partner -- Associates in Development)

*Aga Khan University Examination Board:* This activity aims to improve
the quality of education by developing quality examination systems for
secondary school certificates (SSC) and higher school certificates
(HSC). (Implementing Partner -- Aga Khan University Examination Board)

*Teacher Education and Professional Development:* This program is
formulating a strategic framework for teachers' accreditation,
certification and management with a view to revamping the teacher
education sub-sector. (Implementing Partner -- United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

*FATA Water and Environmental Sanitation:* This program is providing
drinking water and sanitation facilities, along with hygiene promotion
activities, in 190 girls' primary schools. (Implementing Partner --
United Nations Children's Fund)

**V. SCOPE**

Pakistan has made enormous headway in responding to the critical needs
facing primary school. There is significant donor and government
engagement in this area and primary enrolments have increased by 47.8%
since 2000 according to government sources. This is not the case in
middle and secondary schools which face low enrolments and high dropout
rates of both girls and boys.

The new program will support basic education reform at large, but
USAID's comparative advantage is to focus its interventions on middle
and secondary school given that a majority of donor initiatives
recognized above focus on primary teachers and children of primary
grades. This focus is also validated through requests made by the MOE
for new programming (See Annex D).

ED-LINKS will focus on three objectives:

-   improved teacher education and professional development;

-   improved student learning and the learning environment; and

-   improved governance and strengthened public sector capacity at the
    federal, provincial and district levels to sustain quality teaching
    and learning.

It should be noted that the first two objectives of the program are not
strictly bound by the districts cited below. Expansion into other
districts is possible but subject to availability of funding and in
agreement with the USAID Congnizant Technical Officer (CTO). Portions of
the third objective are national in scope. ED-LINKS will require
engagement with all tiers of government in the concerned districts,
provinces and territories.

The ED-LINKS program builds conceptually upon formal discussions during
the U.S.-Pakistan Education Dialogue which took place November 29-30,
2006. (See Annex D for an MOE list of proposals for USG engagement). In
addition, initial consultations with the Ministry of Education and
provincial departments of education have been taken to ensure USG's
programs are responsive to the GOP/MOE's needs.

The Federal Ministry has launched a number of reform initiatives in
education such as the National Education Policy Review, the development
of a new scheme of studies, and publication of the new school census
data. USAID's new programming will need to establish linkages with these
reforms.  Each of the program objectives is to be undertaken with a
focus on the institutionalization of reforms through cooperative
implementation with the MOE and provincial education offices rather than
through the development of parallel systems and institutions.

Pakistan's Minister of Education has undertaken an innovative curriculum
reform, focusing on middle and secondary school, and which was ratified
and notified with effect from 2007 which includes: a) the introduction
of English as the medium of instruction for Science, Mathematics and
Computer Science; b) Islamiyat and Pakistan Studies in Urdu in all
schools; c) Social Studies for Classes VI-VIII will be bifurcated into
History and Geography, and these will be compulsory subjects. [While
USAID policy does not permit direct support to curriculum development in
Pakistan, the new program should be linked with the MOE's need to
develop teacher education and learning frameworks that support the new
scheme]{.underline}.

**[Program Beneficiaries]{.underline}**

The ED-LINKS program targets the following beneficiaries:

1.  Students enrolled in public primary and secondary schools are the
    most important beneficiaries. They will benefit from all aspects of
    this program, including a quality learning environment as a result
    of improved teaching and learning environment, school facilities,
    laboratories, and adequate equipment.

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1.  Teachers, principals, and administrators will benefit from the
    improved learning environment, equipment and supplies, and the
    opportunities to complement school activities.

2.  Ministry officials will increase their capacity to design and
    implement national policies throughout the country.

**[Collaboration with Existing Partners and other USAID
programs]{.underline}**

The ED-LINKS program is expected to commence prior to the close out of
USAID's current flagship program: Education Sector Reform Assistance
Program (ESRA) being implemented by RTI and partners concludes September
2007. Applicants will need to demonstrate a clear understanding of this
program in terms of lessons learned, results, and relationships that it
has established with all tiers of government. For further information on
this program, Applicants should consult the USAID funded program
website: <http://esra.rti.org/>

The Urban Institute (UI) is the implementer for the USAID/Pakistan
Districts That Work (DTW) activity. The DTW activity is providing skills
and necessary tools for effective governance to nine selected districts
in the four provinces of Pakistan in order to promote and support
USAID/Pakistan objectives in governance, health, education, and economic
growth. Since the Districts' primary areas of responsibility include
health and education, the DTW activity's objectives to improve
management and governance in the districts will also improve service
delivery in these two sectors. ED-LINKS should forge a relationship with
this program in the area of teacher education e.g. finance budgeting,
teacher service rules and other policy areas as discussed at length in
other parts of this program description. DTW also provides small grants
mechanism for which ED-LINKS partners would be eligible to apply.

**[Target Service Delivery Areas]{.underline}**

ED-LINKS will target priority districts in two provinces of greatest
need: Sindh (Hyderabad

Matiari, Tando Moh'd Khan, Tando Alla Yar, Sukkar, Thatta, and Khairpur)
and Balochistan (Chaghi, Noshki, Zhob, Quila Abdullah, Pishin, Killa
Saifullah, Kech, and Gwadar). The program will also target the Islamabad
Capital Territory and FATA. Gains in education have been made in Sindh
and Balochistan, but both provinces are in dire need of basic education,
primarily in middle and secondary school and there is a desperate need
to improve the teaching and learning environment, particularly in rural,
poor areas.

Figure 2 below depicts the districts that are currently being supported
under USAID's ESRA program and those supported under USAID's Districts
That Work (DTW) initiative. Other districts have been designated for
programming as well. These districts would comprise the start-up
districts under new programming. Maintaining continuity in districts
that USAID is currently supporting is an important consideration.

> **[FIGURE 2: USAID'S Program Areas under ESRA and DTW]{.underline}**

+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| **ESRA Districts**     | **Districts That  | **Other**              |
|                        | Work**            |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| **BALOCHISHTAN**       |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| > Chaghi               | > Lasbella        | > Zhob                 |
| >                      |                   | >                      |
| > Noshki               |                   | > Quila Abdullah       |
| >                      |                   | > Pishin               |
| > Killa Saifullah      |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Kech                 |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Gwadar               |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| **SINDH**              |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| > Hyderabad            | > Sukkur          |                        |
| >                      | >                 |                        |
| > Matiari              | > Dadu            |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Tando Moh'd Khan     |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Tando Alla Yar       |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Sukkur               |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Thatta               |                   |                        |
| >                      |                   |                        |
| > Khairpur             |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| **OTHER AREAS**        |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| > FATA Agencies        |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| > Islamabad Capital    |                   |                        |
| > Territory (ICT)      |                   |                        |
+------------------------+-------------------+------------------------+

While the focus of this new phase of education funding in Pakistan will
be on these two provinces and FATA, select support will be provided for
demonstration programs and other activities in the Islamabad Capital
Territory.

**VI. OBJECTIVES AND ANTICIPATED Activities**

The ED-LINKS Program aims to achieve the following objectives:

-   improved teacher education and professional development;

-   improved student learning and the learning environment;

-   improved governance and strengthened public sector capacity at the
    Federal, provincial and district levels to sustain quality teaching
    and learning.

Each of these areas, while listed separately, is an integral piece of
the activity; if linked together they should create functional
integration of teaching and learning. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation
should be integrated throughout the scope of the program and ensure a
cohesive platform from which implementation activities can be
objectively evaluated. Below are the expected activities by the three
activity areas; however, USAID challenges applicants to provide other
innovative activities within the proposed program areas. Each area has a
percentage assigned to it. This value represents the section's
importance, and is indicative of the budgeting that should be allotted
for each area.

***[A Improved teacher education and professional
development:]{.underline}***

Program emphasis: 40%

**A.1 Activities**

Since 2002, USAID has supported several teacher training projects which
have engaged in-depth research and analytical studies on teacher
training in Pakistan. ED-LINKS builds upon the lessons learned of these
programs and findings of pre-existing research, which suggests that more
individualized support to government teaching institutions to
institutionalize teacher education reforms is required. It is
anticipated that ED-LINKS will help facilitate nationwide and subsequent
provincial standards for primary and secondary teacher education that
conform to the guidelines for the GOP's new curriculum with particular
focus on science, math, and computer subject areas. The standards should
inculcate best practices for encouraging learning outcomes and fostering
a positive learning environment. The current teacher education
curriculum fails to develop in teachers the required pedagogical skills,
subject knowledge, classroom delivery, creativity, improvisation, and
questioning skills that would enhance the value of education. The
ED-LINKS program shall focus on the following aspects of teacher
training for all grade levels except university.

a)  Support the government in the development of a national teacher
    accreditation system for teacher certification and competency
    assessment. (This activity will support the Government of Pakistan's
    fulfilment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) goal which is
    embedded in pillar #3).

b)  Support provincial governments in strengthening the roles and
    capacity of teacher training institutions such as Provincial
    Institutes of Teacher Education (PITEs), Bureaus of Curriculum
    (BoCs), and Government Colleges of Elementary Teaching (GCETs) to
    develop a career track for teachers as well as, licensing and
    continuing education requirements.

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c)  Facilitate provincial coordination of teacher professional
    associations to educate, inform and encourage members about teaching
    standards, the profession and career track, etc. Foster the creation
    of an association publication which disseminates information,
    advocates for teachers, and is both fun and academically useful.
    Published twice yearly, in Urdu and English, the publication could
    also recognize teachers' outstanding performance, and include tips
    for improvisation, child psychology, dealing with administrators,
    bureaucracy, provides career track information, as well as include a
    classified ad section for jobs, etc. (The AKU-Institute for
    Educational Development in Karachi has initiated such an effort for
    Sindh and could be a model for the ED-LINKS initiative.)

d)  Facilitate government operations to establish and/or improve their
    EMIS/database tracking systems at the federal, provincial, and
    district government levels to keep track of teachers, their
    training, and to measure their performance. (EMIS data to be
    collected include teacher credentials, pre-service, record of
    training and ties training to promotion) for primary and secondary
    school teachers.

e)  Promote the adoption of and build on previously USAID funded
    AED/ESRA teacher training packages/modules within teacher education
    institutions where appropriate and in consultation with the
    provincial governments.

f)  Develop systems to connect pre-service and in-service teacher
    education through a continuing education program linked to
    promotions and pay increases and the revision of the Annual
    Confidential Report (ACR), the system for monitoring the performance
    of teachers. Support the government departments in operationalizing
    these new systems at the Provincial and District levels.

g)  Ensure that the GOP is fair to women and that training opportunities
    for women mirror the percentage of women in the overall teacher
    workforce, by level. (Females account for 36.12% of the total
    teaching force at the primary level. The percentage is 47.94 % for
    the middle school level, 32.5 % for the high school level, and 39.07
    % for the higher-secondary level).

h)  Develop systems to better gauge and evaluate teacher performance
    both within the teacher training institutions and classroom
    environment.

i)  Develop the capacity of Assistant District Officers and learning
    coordinators to become mentors, and not merely inspectors by being
    involved in in-service educational programs. Systems need to be put
    into place for teacher (in-class) evaluations and feedback programs.
    Design processes for better observation and coaching of young
    teachers in the classroom environment.

j)  Work with Assistant District Officers and learning coordinators to
    implement in-service trainings for primary and secondary school
    teachers. (The recipient shall utilize modules and learning
    frameworks developed through USAID's AED and Research Triangle
    Institute (RTI) programs, and enhance as needed, rather than
    inventing new material.)

k)  Work with provincial department of education to improve coordination
    between the provincial and district level institutions governing
    teacher education and academic support;

l)  Devise and implement annual in-service and pre-service schedules
    with BoC's, PITEs and GCETs which is responsive to a need/demand
    focus as well as inclusive of balanced theoretical training and
    practical application.

m)  Identify methods to ensure that training is appropriate for the
    teachers. In addition conduct student surveys to use as baseline
    data for understanding student's attitudes towards science and
    mathematics.

n)  Initiate three years of a 4-6 week professional teacher development
    program in which faculty from Pakistani schools will be sent to the
    U.S. to observe and practice in U.S. schools and institutions. Two
    cohorts of teachers inclusive of one teacher and one head teacher
    teams from each of the 18 districts. Selection will be based on
    merit and scholarly potential. Half of the faculty selected should
    be women.

**A.2 Indicators**

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| > **[INDICATORS]{.underline}**                                        |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.1 Strengthened educational sector policy making and             |
| planning]{.underline}                                                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of districts using the new teacher education standards and |
|     certification system                                              |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of institutions using improved systems to gauge and        |
|     evaluate teacher performance within the teacher training          |
|     institutions and classroom environment (teacher training plus     |
|     classroom practicum)                                              |
|                                                                       |
| -   Numbers of districts/provinces implementing the new systems       |
|     created by ED-LINKS at the end of program or making progress      |
|     towards implementing them in each year of ED-LINKS performance    |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.2 Improved Capacity of Teachers and Education                   |
| Administrators]{.underline}                                           |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of teachers/educators trained with USG support             |
|                                                                       |
| -   Percent of teachers trained with USG funds are practicing         |
|     improved learning methods in science, math and English classes    |
|                                                                       |
| -   Percent of teacher educators able to train teachers on            |
|     development and use of improvised teaching aids and lab equipment |
|     for science and math. Increased use of locally constructed        |
|     teaching aids and lab equipment for science and math              |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of teachers participating in US and Pakistan based short   |
|     term professional teacher development programs with half support  |
|     provided to women                                                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of pre- and in-service teacher educators, education        |
|     officials, and administrators trained with at least half being    |
|     women                                                             |
|                                                                       |
| -   Percent of classroom monitors (Assistant District Officers and    |
|     Learning Coordinators/Mentors) utilizing supportive teaching      |
|     techniques                                                        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

***[B. Improved student learning and the learning
environment:]{.underline}***

Program emphasis: 30%

The government's recent study (2005) on student assessment shows very
low (national) scores in math, and languages. English skills required
for learning math, science and other subjects is one area that needs
attention. However, a concerted focus on supporting the student as a
learner is the fundamental aim.

This activity will focus on middle and secondary schools only, and
improve student learning in the areas of science, mathematics, computer
science and English, which are emphasized in the new GOP school
curriculum.

**B.1 Activities**

a)  Analyze and develop system for gauging student achievement in the
    classroom and adopt provisions that improve teacher training and
    improved learning tools. Conduct baseline and continually monitor
    learning in targeted areas (testing) and provide support to
    government in further developing testing and measurement techniques;

> b\) Improve information flow between governing bodies and the schools
> (academics vs head teachers) in the area of student assessment on
> learning objectives and outcomes. Tests need to be changed to test
> critical thinking. Building on USAID supported AKU-Examination Board
> model, ED-LINKS will support the MOE and the Federal Board of
> Examination develop a state of the art examination system for the
> public sector;

c)  Support provincial and national training institutions in order to
    link government's monitoring and supervision system with what
    students are learning in the classroom

d)  Map the capacity within Provincial Education Assessment Cells and
    the National Education Assessment Centres and the EMIS at the
    district levels and provide appropriate training;

e)  USAID wants to maximize its support to the cohorts of children
    targeted by this program. Offerors shall propose a plan to implement
    changes as described below for teaching students**:**

-   Develop modules for delivering more effective lessons in math,
    science, and English;

-   Host science and math and computer camps;

-   Provide teacher education in English Language courses;

-   Supply of classroom equipment, books, and laboratory supplies;

-   Support the Ministry of Education Reform efforts to provide English
    medium language instruction in the early grades;

-   Strengthen science education centers in each province by providing
    learning tools and classroom inputs aimed at improving student
    achievement and learning.

> After year two of the program, student achievement in the targeted
> schools should be improved.
>
> f\) Provide model Secondary School Science Education labs in each
> province by providing learning tools and classroom inputs aimed at
> improving student achievement and learning**.** Create "Laboratories
> of Success" in a secondary school in each of the 18 districts
> targeted. (It should be kept in mind that the Ministry of Education
> has specified secondary schools for science improvements). In this
> model there would be the provision of desks, textbooks, and science
> and lab equipment. Need to provide materials, equipment and supplies.
> It could also include the provision of computers and access to science
> information via the Internet where appropriate (digital library
> possibility plus computers).

**B.2. Indicators**

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| > **[INDICATORS]{.underline}**                                        |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.1 Strengthened educational sector policy making and             |
| planning]{.underline}                                                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Systems established to gauge and to continually evaluate student  |
|     performance                                                       |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.4 Improved Access to and delivery of education                  |
| services]{.underline}                                                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of learning materials provided                             |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of modules developed for delivering effective lessons in   |
|     math and science implemented in 18 districts                      |
|                                                                       |
| -   Provincial Science Education Centers strengthened and equipped    |
|     with student friendly classroom materials and equipment           |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of schools that utilize the support service of the NEAC,   |
|     PEAC and AEAC agencies to fill critical learning gaps             |
|                                                                       |
| -   Improved access to the data collected on student learning to      |
|     improve education course development                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

***[C. Improved governance and strengthened public sector capacity at
the federal, provincial, and district levels to sustain quality teaching
and learning.]{.underline}***

Program emphasis: 30%

Pakistan has had a range of educational policy statements through
National and Provincial Policies, five year plans, Commission Reports,
and the devolution plan. There is still no comprehensive vision or
single policy on teacher professional development (TPD) which approaches
the issue holistically. While TPD issues have been discussed in almost
all National Policies, much of the governance related pronouncements
either focus on broad and largely vague statements with no management
mechanism provided.

**C.1. Activities**

a)  [Institutional Coordination]{.underline}. ED-LINKS will lead
    provincial governments in a review of the existing functions of
    teacher education institutions, i.e. PITEs, GCETs and BoCs. The
    program will help to revitalize these institutions (not through
    refurbishment) but through human resource and leadership
    development.(e.g. trainings and through recommendations of staff for
    Fulbright and other Higher Education Commission (HEC) opportunities
    also being sponsored by USAID) One idea as noted in the Education
    White Paper would be to revitalize PITEs, for example, through a
    transformation of a potential new function geared toward leadership
    and educational management \[like the National Institute of Public
    Administration (NIPAs) throughout Pakistan\] while the bureaus of
    curriculum could remain and be supported as the central agencies for
    in-service teacher education. Support will be provided to the
    Federal Directorate of Education which is the governing body for the
    schools in the ICT and with FATA secretariat officials in linking
    their accredited teaching institutions to US based accreditation
    bodies and teaching centers or institutions.

```{=html}
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```
b)  [Reforms to Financing of Teacher Education]{.underline}: The teacher
    training budget, which historically has been heavily donor financed,
    arrives at the provincial departments of finance. There is weak
    coordination between the provincial finance departments and
    provincial departments of education such that budget decisions are
    not made consultatively and based on actual need. ED-LINKS will
    assist the two departments to develop annual development programs
    that are coordinated. Budget lines need to be developed specifically
    earmarked for teacher education and 'un-bundled' from teacher
    salaries. The Awardee will need to coordinate with the Districts
    that Work activity to begin working in pilot districts where DTW is
    currently working. Better budget coordination should result in
    annually planned teacher training programs that are financed, and
    not ad hoc financed as per donor interest. It is hoped that these
    efforts would lead to the eventuality that the provincial
    governments will self-finance its teacher education budget.

> c\) [Policy and Planning for Teacher Education and Student
> Learning]{.underline}
>
> ED-LINKS program will share with provincial and federal authorities
> its plans and results and play an advocacy role on teaching and
> learning matters through forums such as the coordinated
> inter-provincial ministerial meetings \[periodic meetings of all
> provincial ministers of education\]. ED-LINKS will provide advocacy
> support similarly to the MOE appointed technical committee on teacher
> education \[sponsored by the Federal MOE with provincial
> representation). ED-LINKS would be informing these groups, providing
> results of the program, giving training, and pressing these bodies to
> coordinate standards for teacher education and professional
> development, and to assist in coordinating budgets that cover the
> entire annual teacher education cycle. The direct district and school
> based work proposed in the other two objective areas (above sections A
> & B) would need to be monitored to inform new generation of policies.
>
> d\) [Continue Support to Education management information system
> EMIS]{.underline}
>
> ED-LINKS will continue to build capacity of the federal, provincial,
> and district governments to use EMIS. EMIS is currently running at the
> Federal and provincial levels and in some districts, and was developed
> by RTI under USAID sponsored ESRA. ED-LINKS will support the training
> of cadres of federal, provincial, and district staff to collect, enter
> and analyze data and initiate implementation of EMIS support in all 18
> districts and in ICT and FATA.
>
> The new program will need to articulate data entry and data capture
> definitions that help enumerate the teaching and learning gaps. And
> will require the use of locally appropriate technology including
> hardware and software to expand into all targeted areas.
>
> e\) [Capacity building]{.underline}
>
> The ED-LINKS program will take a pro-active role in working with the
> MOE to analyze its capacity gaps in education planning and management
> at the federal, provincial, and district levels. The program will
> identify a cadre of potential educational leaders and sponsor higher
> education/participant training in fields of policy, planning, and
> administration. The program will also identify candidates for
> Fulbright and HEC scholarship nominations. A condition of the training
> will be for scholarship recipients to return to government service.
>
> Applicants are expected to find other practical and innovative
> solutions to governance problems prohibiting teaching and learning
> processes.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| > **[INDICATORS]{.underline}**                                        |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.1 Strengthened educational sector policy making and             |
| planning]{.underline}                                                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of laws, policies, regulations or guidelines developed or  |
|     modified to improve equitable access to or the quality of         |
|     education services                                                |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of policies related to clarifying institutional roles and  |
|     jurisdiction introduced and adopted in the targeted provinces     |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of policies related to budgeting and finance for recurrent |
|     teacher education introduced and adopted in the targeted          |
|     provinces                                                         |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of administrators and officials trained with women         |
|     receiving priority training                                       |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of coordinated decisions that involve cross-functional     |
|     education departments                                             |
|                                                                       |
| -   Percent increase in MOE's expenditure on the capacity building of |
|     teachers at the federal, provincial and district level            |
|                                                                       |
| [IR 3.2 Improved Capacity of Teachers and Education                   |
| Administrators]{.underline}                                           |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of administrators and officials trained (with women        |
|     receiving priority training)                                      |
|                                                                       |
| -   Frequency of EMIS reports referenced for teacher planning and     |
|     development                                                       |
|                                                                       |
| -   Number of institution vacancies filled by women                   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

All the listed indicators in the three program areas must be reported on
and disaggregated by gender. Additional indicators may be proposed to
ensure adequate performance management of the ED-LINKS program.

**[VII. MONITORING AND INDICATORS]{.underline}**

In the newly developed USAID global element framework, the education
sector will "Invest in People."  Specifically, USAID strives "To help
nations achieve sustainable improvement in the well-being of their
populations through effective and accountable investments in education,
health, and other social services."  The Recipient shall submit a
monitoring plan, which collects data on the indicators given in the
program description as well as other proposed by the recipient. The
Recipient will be required to report on these indicators quarterly.

Applicants are encouraged to propose additional indicators by which to
monitor the inputs, process, outputs, and outcomes of the program.

**[VIII. CROSS CUTTING ISSUES]{.underline}**

*[Monitoring and Evaluation:]{.underline}* Identifying program
strengths, weaknesses, successes, and obstacles through monitoring and
evaluation of program activities. Monitoring and evaluation is a
critical piece of this agreement. Monitoring, especially in the current
education planning context, is critical to identify gaps, weaknesses,
and successes of project interventions. Recipients should be clearly
monitoring the activities and initiatives contained in this Agreement so
as to allow quarterly desk evaluations of their results. Formal mid-term
and end-point evaluations will be financed and implemented by USAID. The
Recipient's monitoring system will be crucial in conducting the mid-term
evaluation that will be undertaken and by which USAID will base its
programming decisions for the final two years of activity.

The Recipient shall produce the following metrics:

-   Quantitative baseline and end-point surveys in all districts, ICT
    and FATA

-   [Mapping of donor and grantee initiatives in education in the
    targeted program areas]{.underline}

*[Cultural and Geographic Considerations]{.underline}:* Pakistan is a
complex and culturally rich country, all of which can impact the
successful implementation of programs. The Recipient is expected to
demonstrate sensitivity and flexibility when taking into account the
different provinces and their cultures, population size, geographical
makeup and general ways of doing business. Activities and approaches
must be properly tailored to meet the cultural and geographic
challenges.

*[Partnering, Linkages, and Coordination:]{.underline}* Fostering
collaborative linkages and partnerships among USAID-funded implementing
partners and within the wider education sector community, especially
with the Pakistan MOE will be an important principle throughout the
award period. Support and commitment from the GOP is essential to the
success of this program and the Recipient shall develop and maintain
collaborative relationships to ensure ownership and support throughout
all phases of program planning, implementation and monitoring and
evaluation. Effective linkages/partnerships leading to closer
coordination and collaboration among parties working in community
education in Pakistan are intended to avoid duplication of efforts, and
to increase and improve the government's ownership and accountability.
Carefully planned and soundly designed program activities which foster
linkages/partnerships are intended to lead to long term programmatic
sustainability of education.

*[Building Human Resources and Sustainability:]{.underline}* The
Recipient shall implement measures to develop competencies for
decision-making among an increased number of Pakistani counterparts at
all levels to develop long-term sustainability. The Recipient shall
ensure that counterparts will increasingly be in a position to take
senior management and technical roles, authorities and responsibilities
in the area of education. The Recipient's own human resource base,
particularly Pakistani, at senior, middle and entry level should be
developed through specific planning and professional development
activities.

*[Gender:]{.underline}* Gender differences and discrimination play a
significant role in determining the education status of women and girls
in Pakistan. The Grantee shall take into consideration the impact of
gender and ensure that equity concerns will be an integral element of
all program activities. Appropriate internal and external management
structures and personnel processes are required to demonstrate that
issues of gender are incorporated into all program interventions.

**[IX. KEY PERSONNEL]{.underline}**

The Proposal must specify the composition and organizational structure
of the implementing team (including home office support), particularly
those considered to be Key Personnel, and describe each staff member's
role, technical qualifications/expertise and estimated amount of time
each will devote to the program. It is expected that each critical area
of program focus will be represented by relevant technical expertise.
There should also be discussion on how these Key Personnel and other
relevant technical staff will effectively contribute to the implementing
team. It should indicate the names, positions, titles and provide full
resumes of important managerial and technical personnel who will be
involved in program activity. CV's for key personnel should contain
contact information (e-mail and phone number) of supervisors for the
four most recent positions the candidate has held. Each CV must be
limited to two pages with an additional page granted for supervisory
contacts. Key personnel should be in-country within 20 working days of
the signing of the agreement. Applicants should consider a mix of
Pakistani/expatriates for key personnel positions; no additional points
will be given based on the nationality of proposed key personnel.

Please note that according to the Department of State, Pakistan is an
unaccompanied post. Family members of US direct hire employees are not
permitted to travel to or reside at post with the employee at government
expense.   Under the resulting contract, while USAID cannot expressly
forbid a Recipient employee from bringing family members to post at
personal expense, it is not encouraged or desired.  Under no
circumstances will costs related to dependents be considered allowable
costs to this contract including transportation, education, and per
diem.  Separate Maintenance Allowance (SMA) is authorized for US Direct
hires, and is authorized for Recipient employees if permitted by the
Recipient's policies and practices.  If a Recipient employee brings
family members to post, he or she is not eligible to receive SMA.  
Housing for employees shall be based on the space needs of an individual
without family.

The Key Personnel positions under this program shall include the
following: Chief of Party, Director of Administration and Financial
Management; Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor and two Senior Program
Advisors with experience and expertise in teacher education and
governance of teacher education and the other in learning achievement.
Key personnel can be expatriates, Pakistani citizens or some combination
of the two. USAID must approve all Key Personnel.

Required qualifications and functions for Key Personnel include the
following:

*[Chief of Party:]{.underline}* The Chief of Party shall be responsible
for the overall management and implementation of the program and report
directly to the designated USAID Cognizant Technical Officer (CTO). S/he
shall supervise project implementation, serve as the principle
interlocutor with USAID and the GOP and ensure the program meets stated
goals and reporting requirements. The Chief of Party shall have an
advanced degree (master's degree or equivalent) in a relevant field from
an accredited university. The Chief of Party shall have at least 10
years of experience in managing and implementing education programs in
developing countries and specifically in the areas outlined above. S/he
shall have demonstrated exemplary diplomatic and interpersonal skills to
ensure internal coherence amongst diverse team members as well as
relations with the GOP, donors and the international community. The
Chief of Party shall possess excellent English writing skills.

The Chief of Party serves as the representative of the Program including
any sub-Grantees, if any, and will be the point of contact in Pakistan
for all purposes of this project, unless delegations of authority are
presented to and agreed by the Mission CTO.

*[Director of Administration and Financial Management:]{.underline}* The
Director of Administration and Financial Management shall be responsible
for overseeing the administrative and financial management and
accountability requirements of the program. S/he shall have an earned
graduate degree in accounting or business administration from an
accredited university and at least five years experience in project
administration.

#### *[Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor]{.underline}*: The Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor shall be responsible for coordinating the development of a performance management plan for the project, including performance monitoring criteria. The Advisor is required to hold an earned degree from an accredited university in a relevant field. S/he shall have at least five years of relevant experience working in developing country settings. S/he shall have excellent writing skills in English. 

*[Program Advisors (2):]{.underline}* The technical team shall be
composed of two experienced and well-qualified Education advisors with
at least five years of demonstrated expertise in their particular fields
in a developing country. Special focus shall be given to teacher
education and professional development; governance; and student learning
and achievement. All technical team members shall have excellent writing
skills in English.

**[X. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS]{.underline}**

## *\*\* Applicants are advised that periodic performance reports will be required under the resulting Cooperative Agreement. Requirements for periodic performance reports are contained below and supplement the requirements of 22 CFR 226.51. After award, the exact format for preparation of and timing for submission of all reports shall be proposed by the Recipient and concurred by the CTO. Applicants are reminded to budget prudent and adequate resources for completing the required reporting.* 

### *[A. Annual Implementation Plan (1 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline}*

Implementation plans shall be submitted on a schedule established by the
CTO. The first annual implementation plan will cover the 12 month period
following mobilization. The first annual implementation plan is due
within 50 working days of the signing of the agreement.

The implementation plan serves several purposes including a guide to
program implementation, a demonstration of links between activities,
strategic objectives and intended results, a basis for budget estimates
and the foundation for the monitoring and evaluation plan.

Implementation plans shall be organized to clearly link activities to
the expected results. The implementation plans shall approved by the CTO
in consultation with the GOP. Additionally, the implementation plan
budget shall delineate an overall budget and the budget per activity
showing fully loaded costs.

The implementation plan, at a minimum, shall include:

-   Brief situation analysis in the context of what other donors and
    implementing partners and host-country governments are contributing;

-   Life-of-program results;

-   Milestones (or benchmarks) toward achieving those results over the
    duration of the program;

-   Partner involvement and contributions to achieving the results;

-   Budget; and,

-   Timeline.

### 

### *[B. Award Monitoring Plan (AMP) (1 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline}* 

Four months after award, the Recipient, in consultation with
implementation partners and USAID, shall finalize the Award Monitoring
Plan (AMP) for the project, including final selection of indicators,
baseline data needs and establishment of program targets. In addition to
internal project impact and monitoring indicators for the Recipient's
use, USAID may require the collection of data on a set of core
indicators to be finalized during AMP development. Please note that a
the initial monitoring and evaluation plan should be submitted with the
Application.

### *[C. Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (1 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline}* 

### Quarterly performance monitoring reports shall be submitted to the CTO, in coordination with Mission internal reviews. Reports should [briefly]{.underline} document actual accomplishments toward the program objectives, intermediate results and milestones, including conformance with environmental guidelines. The last performance monitoring report of the fiscal year shall be a summation of the results and progress toward results made during that year. Key indicators shall be tracked and graphed against pre-defined targets as agreed upon by the CTO. The report shall be presented in the following format and shall not exceed 30 pages:

Executive Summary -- This section is a narrative summary of overall
achievements against planned achievements and a brief description of any
realized or potential performance challenges[^15]. Achievements should
be quantified against both principal and collateral award
targets/indicators wherever possible, leaving detailed analysis for
later sections.

Summary Table - The Executive Summary should be followed by a table
which identifies all results and their corresponding targets/indicators.
Overall grant goals for each target and indicator shall be identified as
well as planned and actual goals for the reporting period. In addition,
costs inccurred by result or group of results should be identified as
well as planned and actual expenditures for the reporting period. This
table is intended to serve as an at-a-glance data summary. An
illustration is provided below:

+---------------+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+--------+
| **Development | **Indicator**     | **Ta   | *   | **Bu   | **     |
| Result**      |                   | rget** | *Ac | dgeted | Actual |
|               |                   |        | tua | Unit   | Unit   |
|               |                   |        | l** | Cost** | Cost** |
+---------------+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+--------+
| #1:           | Number of         |        |     |        |        |
|               | districts using   |        |     |        |        |
| Education     | the new teacher   |        |     |        |        |
| standards and | education         |        |     |        |        |
| certification | standards and     |        |     |        |        |
|               | certification     |        |     |        |        |
+---------------+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+--------+
| #2:           | Number of         |        |     |        |        |
|               | institutions      |        |     |        |        |
| Improved      | using improved    |        |     |        |        |
| system to     | systems to gauge  |        |     |        |        |
| gauge and     | and evaluate      |        |     |        |        |
| evaluate      | teacher           |        |     |        |        |
| teacher       | performance       |        |     |        |        |
|               | within the        |        |     |        |        |
|               | teacher training  |        |     |        |        |
|               | institutions and  |        |     |        |        |
|               | classroom         |        |     |        |        |
|               | environment       |        |     |        |        |
+---------------+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+--------+
| #3:           | Number of         |        |     |        |        |
|               | t                 |        |     |        |        |
| Teacher       | eachers/educators |        |     |        |        |
| Trainings     | trained with USG  |        |     |        |        |
|               | support           |        |     |        |        |
+---------------+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+--------+

Correlation to AMP - In this section, the Recipient should describe how
the performance being reported was monitored. This description should
reference the AMP methods used during the reporting period. If the AMP
was not strictly followed, the grantee should provide a rationale for
not using it.

Result by Result Analysis -- This section will provide detailed analysis
of the results summarized above as well as additional narrative
regarding the achievements and challenges.

Financial Summary - This section is not a financial report; rather it
summarizes financial expenditure data in reference to achievements. The
most tangible statement in this section will be one regarding whether
spending towards each result is "less than anticipated, on target with
estimates, or more than anticiapted." Reports which indicate that
expenditures are less or more than anticipated will be supported with
rationale detailing the probable cause(s). Reports which indicate that
expenditures are more than anticipated must also include a plan for
ensuring that the performance of the result will be met within the
estimated award budget for that result.

### 

*D. [Quarterly Financial Reports:]{.underline}* The Grantee shall submit
to the USAID CTO, a quarterly financial report that specifically
includes the SF-269 (long form), SF-424 line item budgets, expenditures
and accruals and a pipeline (balance remaining). This table with
expenditures and accruals shall be submitted to the CTO no less than 15
days before the end of each (USAID) fiscal year quarter throughout the
life of the project.

### 

### *[End of Program Report (1 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline}* The Recipient shall submit a final report 90 days after the completion date of the Agreement which includes: an executive summary of the Recipient's accomplishments in achieving results and conclusions about areas in need of future assistance; an overall description of the Recipient's activities and attainment of results during the life of the Cooperative Agreement; an assessment of progress made toward accomplishing the Strategic Objective 7; significance of these activities; important research findings, if any; comments and recommendations; and a fiscal report that describes how the Recipient's funds were used. 

*F. [Distribution of Reports]{.underline}*

The Recipient shall submit an original of the final report to the CTO
and one copy to the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse: E-mail
(the preferred means of submission) is: <docsubmit@dec.cdie.org>. The
mailing address via U.S. Postal Service is: Development Experience
Clearinghouse, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 210, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

Reports required as described in this section will be sent to the CTO.
Reports and intellectual products required above will also be submitted
to the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse either electronically
via e-mail (the preferred means of submission) to
<docsubmit@dec.cdie.org> or in hard copy via U.S. Postal Service to
Development Experience Clearinghouse, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 210,
Silver Spring, MD 20910.

# SECTION D - CERTIFICATIONS, ASSURANCES OF APPLICANTS

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

CERTIFICATIONS, ASSURANCES, AND OTHER STATEMENTS OF APPLICANTS
\[1\]\[2\]

\[To be submitted as part of an Applicant's cost proposal. To be signed
by an authorized agent of the applicant at the end of this Section D.\]

## PART I - CERTIFICATIONS AND ASSURANCES

1\. **ASSURANCE OF COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING
NON-DISCRIMINATION IN FEDERALLY ASSISTED PROGRAMS**

> \(a\) The recipient hereby assures that no person in the United States
> shall, on the bases set forth below, be excluded from participation
> in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to
> discrimination under, any program or activity receiving financial
> assistance from USAID, and that with respect to the grant for which
> application is being made, it will comply with the requirements of:
>
> \(1\) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub. L. 88-352, 42
> U.S.C. 2000-d), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race,
> color or national origin, in programs and activities receiving Federal
> financial assistance;
>
> \(2\) Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794),
> which prohibits discrimination on the basis of handicap in programs
> and activities receiving Federal financial assistance;
>
> \(3\) The Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended (Pub. L. 95-478),
> which prohibits discrimination based on age in the delivery of
> services and benefits supported with Federal funds;
>
> \(4\) Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681, et
> seq.), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education
> programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance
> (whether or not the programs or activities are offered or sponsored by
> an educational institution); and
>
> \(5\) USAID regulations implementing the above nondiscrimination laws,
> set forth in Chapter II of Title 22 of the Code of Federal
> Regulations.
>
> \(b\) If the recipient is an institution of higher education, the
> Assurances given herein extend to admission practices and to all other
> practices relating to the treatment of students or clients of the
> institution, or relating to the opportunity to participate in the
> provision of services or other benefits to such individuals, and shall
> be applicable to the entire institution unless the recipient
> establishes to the satisfaction of the USAID Administrator that the
> institution\'s practices in designated parts or programs of the
> institution will in no way affect its practices in the program of the
> institution for which financial assistance is sought, or the
> beneficiaries of, or participants in, such programs.
>
> \(c\) This assurance is given in consideration of and for the purpose
> of obtaining any and all Federal grants, loans, contracts, property,
> discounts, or other Federal financial assistance extended after the
> date hereof to the recipient by the Agency, including installment
> payments after such date on account of applications for Federal
> financial assistance which were approved before such date. The
> recipient recognizes and agrees that such Federal financial assistance
> will be extended in reliance on the representations and agreements
> made in this Assurance, and that the United States shall have the
> right to seek judicial enforcement of this Assurance. This Assurance
> is binding on the recipient, its successors, transferees, and
> assignees, and the person or persons whose signatures appear below are
> authorized to sign this Assurance on behalf of the recipient.

2\. **CERTIFICATION REGARDING LOBBYING**

The undersigned certifies, to the best of his or her knowledge and
belief, that:

> \(1\) No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by
> or on behalf of the undersigned, to any person for influencing or
> attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member
> of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a
> Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any Federal
> contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal
> loan, the entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the
> extension, continuation, renewal, amendment or modification of any
> Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement.
>
> \(2\) If any funds other than Federal appropriated funds have been
> paid or will be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to
> influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress,
> an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of
> Congress in connection with this Federal contract, grant, loan, or
> cooperative agreement, the undersigned shall complete and submit
> Standard Form-LLL, \"Disclosure of Lobbying Activities,\" in
> accordance with its instructions.
>
> \(3\) The undersigned shall require that the language of this
> certification be included in the award documents for all subawards at
> all tiers (including subcontracts, subgrants, and contracts under
> grants, loans, and cooperative agreements) and that all subrecipients
> shall certify and disclose accordingly.
>
> This certification is a material representation of fact upon which
> reliance was placed when this transaction was made or entered into.
> Submission of this certification is a prerequisite for making or
> entering into this transaction imposed by section 1352, title 31,
> United States Code. Any person who fails to file the required
> certification shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than
> \$10,000 and not more than \$100,000 for each such failure.
>
> Statement for Loan Guarantees and Loan Insurance
>
> The undersigned states, to the best of his or her knowledge and
> belief, that: If any funds have been paid or will be paid to any
> person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or
> employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee
> of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with
> this commitment providing for the United States to insure or guarantee
> a loan, the undersigned shall complete and submit Standard Form-LLL,
> \"Disclosure Form to Report Lobbying,\" in accordance with its
> instructions. Submission of this statement is a prerequisite for
> making or entering into this transaction imposed by section 1352,
> title 31, U.S. Code. Any person who fails to file the required
> statement shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than
> \$10,000 and not more than \$100,000 for each such failure.

3\. **PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS FOR COVERED
COUNTRIES AND INDIVIDUALS (ADS 206)**

USAID reserves the right to terminate this \[Agreement/Contract\], to
demand a refund or take other appropriate measures if the \[Recipient/
Contractor\] is found to have been convicted of a narcotics offense or
to have been engaged in drug trafficking as defined in 22 CFR Part 140.
The undersigned shall review USAID ADS 206 to determine if any
certification are required for Key Individuals or Covered Participants.

If there are COVERED PARTICIPANTS: USAID reserves the right to terminate
assistance to, or take or take other appropriate measures with respect
to, any participant approved by USAID who is found to have been
convicted of a narcotics offense or to have been engaged in drug
trafficking as defined in 22 CFR Part 140.

4\. **KEY INDIVIDUAL CERTIFICATION NARCOTICS OFFENSES AND DRUG
TRAFFICKING**

I hereby certify that within the last ten years:

1\. I have not been convicted of a violation of, or a conspiracy to
violate, any law or regulation of the United States or any other country
concerning narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled
substances.

2\. I am not and have not been an illicit trafficker in any such drug or
controlled substance.

3\. I am not and have not been a knowing assistor, abettor, conspirator,
or colluder with others in the illicit trafficking in any such drug or
substance.

Signature: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Date: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Name: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Title/Position: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Organization: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Address: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Date of Birth: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

NOTICE:

1\. You are required to sign this Certification under the provisions of
22 CFR Part 140, Prohibition on Assistance to Drug Traffickers. These
regulations were issued by the Department of State and require that
certain key individuals of organizations must sign this Certification.

2\. If you make a false Certification you are subject to U.S. criminal
prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 1001.

5\. **CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARD PROVISIONS ENTITLED
"CONDOMS" AND "PROHIBITION ON THE PROMOTION OR ADVOCACY OF THE
LEGALIZATION OR PRACTICE OF PROSTITUTION OR SEX TRAFFICKING"**

This certification requirement only applies to the prime recipient.
Before a U.S. or non-U.S. non-governmental organization receives
FY04-FY08 HIV/AIDS funds under a grant or cooperative agreement, such
recipient must provide to the Agreement Officer a certification
substantially as follows:

"\[Recipient\'s name\] certifies compliance as applicable with the
standard provisions entitled "Condoms" and "Prohibition on the Promotion
or Advocacy of the Legalization or Practice of Prostitution or Sex
Trafficking" included in the referenced agreement."

**6. Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing**

By signing and submitting this application, the prospective recipient
provides the certification set out below:

1\. The Recipient, to the best of its current knowledge, did not
provide, within the previous ten years, and will take all reasonable
steps to ensure that it does not and will not knowingly provide,
material support or resources to any individual or entity that commits,
attempts to commit, advocates, facilitates, or participates in terrorist
acts, or has committed, attempted to commit, facilitated, or
participated in terrorist acts, as that term is defined in paragraph 3.

2\. The following steps may enable the Recipient to comply with its
obligations under paragraph 1:

> a\. Before providing any material support or resources to an
> individual or entity, the Recipient will verify that the individual or
> entity does not (i) appear on the master list of Specially Designated
> Nationals and Blocked Persons, which list is maintained by the U.S.
> Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and is available
> online at OFAC's website:
> <http://www.treas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/sdn/t11sdn.pdf>, or (ii) is
> not included in any supplementary information concerning prohibited
> individuals or entities that may be provided by USAID to the
> Recipient.
>
> b\. Before providing any material support or resources to an
> individual or entity, the Recipient also will verify that the
> individual or entity has not been designated by the United Nations
> Security (UNSC) sanctions committee established under UNSC Resolution
> 1267 (1999) (the "1267 Committee") \[individuals and entities linked
> to the Taliban, Usama bin Laden, or the Al Qaida Organization\]. To
> determine whether there has been a published designation of an
> individual or entity by the 1267 Committee, the Recipient should refer
> to the consolidated list available online at the Committee's website:
> <http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/1267ListEng.htm>.
>
> c\. Before providing any material support or resources to an
> individual or entity, the Recipient will consider all information
> about that individual or entity of which it is aware and all public
> information that is reasonably available to it or of which it should
> be aware.
>
> d\. The Recipient also will implement reasonable monitoring and
> oversight procedures to safeguard against assistance being diverted to
> support terrorist activity.

3\. For purposes of this Certification-

> a\. "Material support and resources" means currency or monetary
> instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging,
> training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation
> or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons,
> lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other
> physical assets, except medicine or religious materials."
>
> b\. "Terrorist act" means-
>
> \(i\) an act prohibited pursuant to one of the 12 United Nations
> Conventions and Protocols related to terrorism (see UN terrorism
> conventions Internet site:
> <http://untreaty.un.org/English/Terrorism.asp>); or
>
> \(ii\) an act of premeditated, politically motivated violence
> perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or
> clandestine agents; or
>
> \(iii\) any other act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury
> to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in
> hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such
> act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to
> compel a government or an international organization to do or to
> abstain from doing any act.
>
> c\. "Entity" means a partnership, association, corporation, or other
> organization, group or subgroup.
>
> d\. References in this Certification to the provision of material
> support and resources shall not be deemed to include the furnishing of
> USAID funds or USAID-financed commodities to the ultimate
> beneficiaries of USAID assistance, such as recipients of food, medical
> care, micro-enterprise loans, shelter, etc., unless the Recipient has
> reason to believe that one or more of these beneficiaries commits,
> attempts to commit, advocates, facilitates, or participates in
> terrorist acts, or has committed, attempted to commit, facilitated or
> participated in terrorist acts.
>
> e\. The Recipient's obligations under paragraph 1 are not applicable
> to the procurement of goods and/or services by the Recipient that are
> acquired in the ordinary course of business through contract or
> purchase, e.g., utilities, rents, office supplies, gasoline, etc.,
> unless the Recipient has reason to believe that a vendor or supplier
> of such goods and services commits, attempts to commit, advocates,
> facilitates, or participates in terrorist acts, or has committed,
> attempted to commit, facilitated or participated in terrorist acts.
>
> This Certification is an express term and condition of any agreement
> issued as a result of this application, and any violation of it shall
> be grounds for unilateral termination of the agreement by USAID prior
> to the end of its term.
>
> Signed:
> \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
>
> Name and Title*:*
> \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
>
> Name of Organization: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
>
> Date:
> \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_[\_]{.underline}

7\. **SURVEY ON ENSURING EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR APPLICANTS**

<http://www.usaid.gov/forms/surveyeo.doc> contains a survey on ensuring
equal opportunity for applicants. The applicant's completion of the
survey is voluntary. The absence of a completed survey in an application
may not be a basis upon which the application is determined incomplete
or non-responsive. Applicants who volunteer to complete and submit the
survey under a competitive or non-competitive action are instructed
within the text of the survey to submit it as part of the application
process; applicants who chose to submit the survey shall include it in
the technical application in the "annexes" section.

**PART II - OTHER STATEMENTS OF RECIPIENT**

1\. AUTHORIZED INDIVIDUALS

The recipient represents that the following persons are authorized to
negotiate on its behalf with the Government and to bind the recipient in
connection with this application or grant:

Name Title Telephone No. Facsimile No. Email Address

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

2\. TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (TIN)

If the recipient is a U.S. organization, or a foreign organization which
has income effectively connected with the conduct of activities in the
U.S. or has an office or a place of business or a fiscal paying agent in
the U.S., please indicate the recipient\'s TIN:

TIN: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

3\. CONTRACTOR IDENTIFICATION NUMBER - DATA UNIVERSAL NUMBERING SYSTEM
(DUNS) NUMBER

\(a\) In the space provided at the end of this provision, the recipient
should supply the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number
applicable to that name and address. Recipients should take care to
report the the number that identifies the recipient\'s name and address
exactly as stated in the proposal.

\(b\) The DUNS is a 9-digit number assigned by Dun and Bradstreet
Information Services. If the recipient does not have a DUNS number, the
recipient should call Dun and Bradstreet directly at 1-800-333-0505. A
DUNS number will be provided immediately by telephone at no charge to
the recipient. The recipient should be prepared to provide the following
information:

\(1\) Recipient\'s name.

\(2\) Recipient\'saddress.

\(3\) Recipient\'s telephone number.

\(4\) Line of business.

\(5\) Chief executive officer/key manager.

\(6\) Date the organization was started.

\(7\) Number of people employed by the recipient.

\(8\) Company affiliation.

\(c\) Recipients located outside the United States may obtain the
location and phone number of the local Dun and Bradstreet Information
Services office from the Internet Home Page at
http://www.dbisna.com/dbis/customer/custlist.htm. If an offeror is
unable to locate a local service center, it may send an e-mail to Dun
and Bradstreet at globalinfo@dbisma.com.

The DUNS system is distinct from the Federal Taxpayer Identification
Number (TIN) system.

DUNS:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

4\. LETTER OF CREDIT (LOC) NUMBER

If the recipient has an existing Letter of Credit (LOC) with USAID or
another US federal agency, please indicate the LOC number:

LOC:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

5\. PROCUREMENT INFORMATION

\(a\) Applicability. This applies to the procurement of goods and
services planned by the recipient (i.e., contracts, purchase orders,
etc.) from a supplier of goods or services for the direct use or benefit
of the recipient in conducting the program supported by the grant, and
not to assistance provided by the recipient (i.e., a subgrant or
subagreement) to a sub Recipient or subrecipient in support of the sub
Recipient's or subrecipient\'s program. Provision by the recipient of
the requested information does not, in and of itself, constitute USAID
approval.

\(b\) Amount of Procurement. Please indicate the total estimated dollar
amount of goods and services which the recipient plans to purchase under
the grant

\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\(c\) Nonexpendable Property. If the recipient plans to purchase
nonexpendable equipment which would require the approval of the
Agreement Officer, please indicate below (using a continuation page, as
necessary) the types, quantities of each, and estimated unit costs.
\[Note that the authorized geographic code under the resulting award
will be 000:\]

Nonexpendable equipment for which the Agreement Officer\'s approval to
purchase is required is any article of nonexpendable tangible personal
property charged directly to the grant, having a useful life of more
than one year and an acquisition cost of \$5,000 or more per unit.

TYPE/DESCRIPTION(Generic) QUANTITY ESTIMATED UNIT COST

6\. TYPE OF ORGANIZATION

The recipient, by checking the applicable box, represents that -

> \(a\) If the recipient is a U.S. entity, it operates as \[ \] a
> corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of\_\_\_\_\_, \[
> \] an individual, \[ \] a partnership, \[ \] a nongovernmental
> nonprofit organization, \[ \] a state or loc al governmental
> organization, \[ \] a private college or university, \[ \] a public
> college or university, \[ \] an international organization, or \[ \] a
> joint venture; or

a.  If the recipient is a non-U.S. entity, it operates as \[ \] a
    corporation organized under the laws of
    \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
    (country), \[ \] an individual, \[ \] a partnership, \[ \] a
    nongovernmental nonprofit organization, \[ \] a nongovernmental
    educational institution, \[ \] a governmental organization, \[ \] an
    international organization, or \[ \] a joint venture.

    7.  CERTIFICATION OF RECIPIENT

The recipient certifies that it has reviewed and is familiar with the
proposed cooperative agreement format (included in section E as
attachment 2) and the regulations applicable thereto, and that it agrees
to comply with all such regulations.

Solicitation (RFA) No.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Application/Proposal No.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Date of Application/Proposal
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Name of Recipient
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Typed Name and Title
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Signature
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Date \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**SECTION E- ATTACHMENTS**

Annex A

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| **Report Card on Education**      |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| **Pakistan**                      |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| **Summary 2006**                  |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Literacy statistics are low and   | Enrolment rates are very low in   |
| vary. The Ministry of Education   | all provinces and in both urban   |
| reports a national average of 50% | and rural areas. About 5-6        |
| literacy for the population above | million school-aged children are  |
| the age of 15. The World Bank     | not enrolled in school  Ranging   |
| reports a national literacy rate  | between 68% in urban Punjab and   |
| of 47% for the same population    | merely 33% in rural Balochistan,  |
| group.                            | net enrolment rates require       |
|                                   | considerable effort and           |
| UNESCO reports a national         | investment to achieve universal   |
| literacy rate of 53% and that     | primary levels by 2015 as         |
| over 50 million people are        | targeted by the MDG. This would   |
| illiterate in the country. Of     | require not only enhanced public  |
| these, 20 million are in the age  | involvement but also active       |
| group 10-24 years.                | participation of non-government   |
|                                   | organizations and the private     |
| There is a wide gender disparity  | sector. There is also a wide      |
| in literacy rates: adult male     | gender disparity in enrolment     |
| literacy (65%) is much higher     | rates at all levels of education. |
| than adult female literacy (40%); | The reasons for children "never   |
| the disparity is more pronounced  | attending" school include         |
| in rural areas (58% for males and | "parents did not allow"; "too     |
| 29% for females) than in urban    | expensive" "child too young";     |
| areas (78% for males and 62% for  | "child handicapped/sick"; and "no |
| females).                         | need to study/home study".        |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Learning \-- Low quality of       |                                   |
| education in public schools is    |                                   |
| reflected by poor levels of       |                                   |
| learning achievements. A National |                                   |
| Education Assessment Study was    |                                   |
| carried out by the Ministry of    |                                   |
| Education (2005) to determine     |                                   |
| learning achievements at primary  |                                   |
| level of education. Data were     |                                   |
| collected on tests of 4887        |                                   |
| students and 347 teachers of 270  |                                   |
| primary schools located in 32     |                                   |
| districts of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, |                                   |
| Balochistan, FATA, FANA, and AJK. |                                   |
| The head teachers of these        |                                   |
| schools also furnished            |                                   |
| information about their school in |                                   |
| response to a structured          |                                   |
| questionnaire. Competency tests   |                                   |
| revealed:                         |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| -   Only **2% students** in the   |                                   |
|     country are **\'learning      |                                   |
|     almost all** of the           |                                   |
|     curriculum;                   |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| -   At a national level, **40%**  |                                   |
|     students have **\'learned\'   |                                   |
|     only one-fourth** of the      |                                   |
|     competencies (or between 1    |                                   |
|     and 9 out of 36               |                                   |
|     competencies).About **42%**   |                                   |
|     students in the country are   |                                   |
|     **\'learning\' one-half** of  |                                   |
|     the curriculum (or between 10 |                                   |
|     and 18 of the 36              |                                   |
|     competencies). In overall     |                                   |
|     terms, proportionately more   |                                   |
|     girls are \'learning\' more   |                                   |
|     competencies than boys.       |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| -   \'Learning\' of competencies  |                                   |
|     is proportionately lowest in  |                                   |
|     numeracy and highest in the   |                                   |
|     life skills domain.           |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| -   Students of FATA and FANA are |                                   |
|     acquiring the lowest number   |                                   |
|     of competencies in all three  |                                   |
|     domains.                      |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Education Financing\-- Low        | School Choice\-- The education    |
| spending on education- around 2%  | system in Pakistan does not       |
| of GDP. One half of the public    | maintain uniformity and           |
| education expenditures are made   | standardization of quality and as |
| on primary education. One-quarter | such does not offer equality of   |
| each are made in secondary and    | opportunity to children. On the   |
| tertiary education. Almost 73% of | one hand, it is the public        |
| the budgetary allocations are for | schools which cater to the poor   |
| provinces and only 27% for the    | and rural populations at most     |
| Federal program. Overall, current | levels of education. Of all       |
| expenditures are 75% while 25%    | schools, 86.4% primary; 70%       |
| are development expenditures. Of  | middle; and 76.8% high schools    |
| the Federal program, two-thirds   | are public schools. Private       |
| of the budget is allocated to the | schools account for the balance   |
| Higher Education Commission       | of school enrolments of which     |
| (UNESCO 2006).                    | there are approximately 11,000    |
|                                   | madrasas offering free religious  |
|                                   | education in the country with an  |
|                                   | enrolment of about 1.5 million    |
|                                   | children and adolescents.         |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

[Challenges]{.underline}

Despite impressive economic growth rates as well as decline in poverty
in Pakistan over the past decade, progress in human development has been
slow. Literacy and educational indicators have failed to reflect any
substantial improvement. Shortage of schools, poor school environment
and demand side factors have kept enrolments low. **Untrained and
non-motivated teachers, coupled with "teacher absenteeism"; shortage of
teaching and learning materials and weak examination systems, have
adversely affected the quality of education and increased drop out
rates.**

Most development activities in the education sector in Pakistan related
to teaching and learning have been "project" driven. Despite the
generous level of donor funding to support the sector, there is little
institutional base at the Federal, Provincial and District levels to
sustain quality improvements. Concomitantly, project support has tended
to focus on symptoms of a failed education system such as low completion
rates, low literacy rates, rote learning styles, and un-motivated
teachers to cite a few examples. The root cause of these problems, weak
governance, has been left unchecked. As a result, social indicators have
negligibly changed since nationhood. **The lack of attention and redress
of problems related to governance of education should be very much a
concern of the GOP in order to improve their institutional base for
stimulating necessary improvements.** Addressing governance issues, on
the other hand cannot be done in a vacuum. A continued focus by the GOP
on direct interventions to support the two most important quality
elements in education, the student and the teacher will need to occur
alongside with supporting institutional reforms.

[Achievements:]{.underline}

Recognizing the need for major education reforms, the **Ministry of
Education at the Federal level has proposed and led a review of the
National Education Policy\--1998-2010**. The Inter-Provincial Education
Minister's conference endorsed the need for a policy review in 2005. A
National Education Policy review team was constituted in September 2005
with the mandate to review the existing policy in close collaboration
with the provinces. After focussed discussions to identify issues for
wider consultation with the four provincial governments and AJK, the
team visited 25% of the districts in each province and held intensive
and interactive consultations with all possible provincial and district
stakeholders in 2006. This extensive and consultative stage led to the
creation of a number of Green Papers which embodied basic and raw
(green) thinking on specific issues related to education. The extensive
diagnostic and consultative stages have finally culminated in the
drafting of a White Paper which would form the basis of a national
policy document to be presented to the Government of Pakistan for
approval. It is intended that the policy document would set forth broad
parameters, goals and objectives which would be based on realistic
assessment of identified and committed resources and would be a good mix
between desirability and achievability.

Education in Pakistan is a provincial subject in terms of strategy and
financial resources, and a district subject in terms of implementation
and monitoring. With strong political commitments and well-defined
strategies, three of the four provinces i.e., **Punjab, Sindh and NWFP,
have formulated their respective Education Reform Programs** to be
implemented with domestic and international assistance. In this regard,
provincial planners have outlined measures that are currently under
implementation. Additional areas of intervention are being identified
for which assistance from local and international partners will be most
beneficial in the near future.

**Annex B:** **Brief note on the teacher workforce in Pakistan**

*Public Sector:*

The capacity constraints of the TT framework in the country are
compounded by the shear size of the teaching cadre. Appoximately
**629,674** teachers are currently serving in the country's public
sector education institutions.

-   **Punjab** accounts for 47.43 percent of the total, with 298,665
    teachers employed in the province;

-   The **Sindh** teaching cadre is 139,959 (22.22%);

-   **NWFP's** cadre is 97,173 (15.43%) strong;

-   **Balochistan's** cadre comprises of 40,551 (6.43%) teachers

-   **AJK** employs 23,594 (3.74%), FATA's teaching cadre's strength is
    18,442 (2.92%),

-   **FANA's** strength is 4,942 (0.78%), while ICT's cadre comprises
    6,348 (1%) teachers

(Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005; Kardar 2005).

The change in the size of the teaching cadre shows an interesting
pattern along a time line. The number of public sector teachers grew
steadily from independence till the end of the 1980s. The largest
increase was witnessed from 1979-80 to 1989-90, when the cadre's
strength increased from 364,687 to 696,911 (Ministry of Education,
"Facts and figures" 2004). Thereafter, a decline in the teaching
workforce has taken place, bringing the number down to the current level
(629,674).

Disaggregating the teaching force by levels of schooling reveals that
primary schools house half of the total teaching cadre. They account for
314,712 teachers (Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). Middle
schools employ 109,327 teachers (Shami et al., "Pakistan education"
2005). High schools house 162,430 teachers in total, while 23,849
teachers are employed in the higher-secondary schools (Shami et al.,
"Pakistan education" 2005). Females account for 36.12% of the total
teaching force at the primary level. The percentage is 47.94 % for the
middle school level, 32.5 % for the high school level, and 39.07 % for
the higher-secondary level. A further disaggregation confirms that
Punjab employs substantially higher number of teachers at all levels of
schooling than the other provinces/regions (Shami et al., "Pakistan
education" 2005).

Table 1: No. of teachers

  ------------- -------------- ----------- ------------ ----------- --------------
  **Province    **Teachers**                                        
  District**                                                        

                **Overall**    **Primary   **Middle     **High      **Higher-Sec
                               Schools**   Schools**    Schools**   Schools**

  Pakistan      629674         314712      109327       162430      23849

  Punjab        298665         126964      67042        85406       10338

  Sindh         139959         95331       9492         28704       5255

  NWFP          97173          57292       12199        18992       5310

  Balochistan   40551          16150       8573         12107       

  AJK           23594          4334        6810         9550        978

  FANA          4942           2232        1038         1672        

  FATA          18442          10547       3548         3941        165

  ICT           6348           1862        625          2058        1803
  ------------- -------------- ----------- ------------ ----------- --------------

Source: Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005; Kardar 2005

Almost all (99%) teachers employed have an academic qualification.
Moreover, majority of the teachers in the public sector have received
some form of training. The following table reflects the proportion of
trained teachers in the public sector.

Table 2: Percentage of Teachers (Public) with Professional Qualification

  ------------------------------------------ ------------ ---------------
  **Professional Qualification**             **Total**    **Female**

  PTC                                        37.3         41.5

  CT                                         12.3         12.8

  B-Ed                                       17.4         18.0

  M-Ed                                       5.1          4.0

  Other Trained                              11.1         10.1

  Untrained                                  1.1          1.0

  No Information                             15.6         12.3
  ------------------------------------------ ------------ ---------------

Source: Shami et al., "National education" 2005

According to the Pakistan Education Statistics 2003-04, the country's
pupil to teacher ratio stands at 29 pupils per student. In Punjab, the
ratio is slightly higher at 31, and in NWFP it is still higher at 33.
For Sindh the ratio stands at 25, while for Balochistan it is 22 (Shami
et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). Notwithstanding, non-governmental
reports such as the UNDP Human Development Report has suggested a much
higher pupil to teacher ratio for the country. In 2000, the Report put
Pakistan's pupil to student ratio at 44, which compared unfavorably with
most other regional countries (United National Development Program,
"Human Development" 2000).

Table 3: Pupil Teacher Ratio, 2000

  ------------------------------------------- ---------------------------
  **Country Name**                            **Percentage**

  Afghanistan                                 43

  Bangladesh                                  57

  Bhutan                                      41

  India                                       40

  Iran, Islamic Republic                      25

  Maldives                                    23

  Nepal                                       37

  **Pakistan**                                **44**

  Sri Lanka                                   \-
  ------------------------------------------- ---------------------------

Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2000

Pakistan's pupil to teacher ratio is the highest at the primary school
level. The ratio stands at 33 (Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005).
At 22, the ratio for middle schools is the lowest (Shami et al.,
"Pakistan education" 2005). For high schools and higher-secondary
schools, the ratio stands at 26 and 27 pupils per teacher respectively
(Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). Among the four major
provinces, the primary schools pupil to teacher ratio for Balochistan is
the lowest at 27 (Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). The highest
ratio is NWFP's with each teacher, on average accounting for 40 students
(Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). For middle schools,
Balochistan has the lowest ratio at 13 while Punjab's ratio at 25 is the
highest (Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). At the high school
level, Sindh performs the best, with each teacher on average accounting
for 19 students (Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005). To the
contrary, in Punjab, the ratio is as high as 31 (Shami et al., "Pakistan
education" 2005). For the higher-secondary schools, Sindh has the lowest
ratio at 24 while Punjab's ratio remains the highest at 33 (Shami et
al., "Pakistan education" 2005).

Table 4: Pupil to teacher ratio

  ------------- ------------- ----------- ------------ ----------- --------------
  **Province    **Pupil to                                         
  District**    Teacher                                            
                Ratio**                                            

                **Overall**   **Primary   **Middle     **High      **Higher-Sec
                              Schools**   Schools**    Schools**   Schools**

  Pakistan      29            33          22           26          27

  Punjab        31            34          25           31          33

  Sindh         25            28          17           19          24

  NWFP          33            40          14           23          26

  Balochistan   22            27          13           20          

  AJK           24            37          22           18          18

  FANA          30            36          28           22          

  FATA          27            31          18           22          27

  ICT           25            42          64           11          7
  ------------- ------------- ----------- ------------ ----------- --------------

Source: Shami et al., "Pakistan education" 2005

*Private sector:*

In the private (non-government) sector, the teaching cadre is
burgeoning. In 2002-03, the private sector (excluding non-formal
education, NEF teachers and NCHD teachers) constituted an 86,240 large
teaching force at the primary level, 66,901 (77.57%) of which were
female (Ministry of Education, "Facts and figures" 2004). The figure for
middle schools is 126,900, 92,600 (72.97%) of them being females (Shami
et al., "National education" 2005). At the secondary level, the private
sector teaching cadre strength is 107,457, 76,615 (71.3%) of which are
female (Ministry of Education, "Facts and figures" 2004).

The above provides an interesting contrast with the trend in the public
sector. While the majority of teachers in the public schools are hosted
at the primary level, in the private sector the number of middle and
secondary school teachers is higher than that for primary schools.
Another major difference is the gender composition, which heavily favors
females in the private sector but males remain dominant (in terms of
numbers) in the public sector.

Data on non-government schools in NWFP only partly confirms to the
private sector's national level statistics. A total of 51,692 teachers
are employed in the province's private sector, with the number of middle
school and high school teachers being much higher than that for primary
schools (Directorate of Schools & Literacy, "Statistical Report" 2005).
However, unlike the national average, females do not dominate NWFP's
private sector education. Apart from the primary level, where females
account for 51.91% of the total cadre, males have a slightly higher
representation than females at the middle, high, and higher-secondary
levels (Directorate of Schools & Literacy, "Statistical Report" 2005).
The pupil to teacher ratio for NWFP private schools stands at an
impressive 16.65 (Directorate of Schools & Literacy, "Statistical
Report" 2005).

Table 5: No. of teachers in non-government schools in NWFP

  --------------------------- ------------- --------------- -------------
  **Schools**                 **Male**      **Female**      **Total**

  Primary Schools             5254          5672            10926

  Middle Schools              8998          8415            17413

  High Schools                9838          7667            17505

  Higher School               2978          2870            5848

  **Total**                   **27068**     **24624**       **51692**
  --------------------------- ------------- --------------- -------------

Source: Directorate of Schools & Literacy, "Statistical Report" 2005

**Annex C: Donor Support to Education Reform in Pakistan**

Recognizing the importance of donor collaboration as addressed through
the Paris Declaration, the following is a summary of the major donor
funded programs with a focus on quality improvements in education. This
summary can help USG shape its new programming so as not to overlap with
current initiatives but rather help intersect or coordinate with these
initiatives. Outside of the USG, other donors in the education sector
include the following:

**Asian Development Bank**

Decentralized Elementary Education in Sindh (On-going) {\$75 million}:
The objective of the Project is to increase access to a pro-poor
decentralized public elementary school system. The Project will raise
the quality of elementary education through provision of teacher
training. In-service training of master trainers and new class 6- 8
teachers in curriculum and pedagogy, to be carried out at the district
level with special emphasis on madrasah education, English language, and
life skills training; preprimary school training of 1,000 teachers and
teacher aides will be undertaken. Districts will undertake training
through the use of their own staff, NGOs, and universities to support
SMCs in the use of SDFs and preparation of school plans. Training for
class 6-8 teachers in those madrasahs with students sitting for public
examinations after class 5 and 8 will be provided training in the use of
core curriculum textbooks (math, science, social studies, language, and
life skills).

In addition, ADB is sponsoring its multi-sectoral Devolved Social
Services Program in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP. The program is
The DSSP is primarily a governance program that expects to build local
responsibility and capacity to undertake effective planning at the
district level to address priority needs in the social sector.

**Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)**

CIDA's objective in the education sector is to improve the quality and
delivery of basic education, especially for the female population, and
to increase access to education. The Pakistan Canada Debt for Education
Conversion (2005-2010) {\$70 million}: 90% of the converted debt funds
will be transferred to Pakistan\'s four provincial governments for
improvements in the country\'s teacher education system through
five-year expenditure programs. The Federal Ministry of Education will
receive 10% of the funds to improve the two federally run teacher
colleges and to strengthen planning and policy functions at the
Ministry. Add that CIDA will be providing \$450 million (Canadian) for
teacher training in Pakistan.

**Department for International Development**

DFID is supporting a number of small education initiatives but has plans
to provide budgetary support to NWFP in line with the new education
strategy recently adopted by the provincial government. Also under its
Faislabad Devolution Project in Punjab, it is seeking to improve
education through management capacity and systems strengthening,
teachers and head teachers training, community participation in school
management, developing PPPs, and improving infrastructure and
facilities. DFID is also providing budgetary support to ADB for the
Devolved Social Services Program. DFID is also providing a grant of \$30
million, to be administered by ADB in addition to a TA grant of US\$20
million for the Punjab government to strengthen sector and program
management and monitoring, support [policy
reforms](http://www.adb.org/Law), and boost social sector governance and
development of local governments to be utilized over four years.

**European Commission**

The EC is currently funding projects that include quality development
components. Both the AKU-Institute for Educational Development project
(on-going with an EC contribution of \$12.4 million) and the Northern
Pakistan Education Programme (NPEP) (on-going with an EC contribution of
\$20 million) are being implemented by AKF. Pipeline projects under
consideration include the Sindh Education Support Programme (\$48.4
million) and the NWFP Education Support Program (Euro 20 million).

**Government of Japan**

In the field of Primary Education, the Japanese are supporting the
Balochistan Secondary Education Program and a Child/Adult Literacy
program in Punjab. In primary education in FATA, the Japanese are
constructing and equipping 65 schools. With regard to vocational
training---the Japanese are providing grant aid to accelerate the
training of construction machinery operations by equipping the institute
with new machinery and introducing courses that meet the needs of
construction sites. (27 million yen). The MOFA of Japan is presently
awaiting a final request from Pakistan to assist with the curricula and
instructors of the National Vocational Training Institute (NAVTEC)
through grant aid.

The Japanese are also funding scholarships for participants to pursue
domestic higher education through the HEC Needs Based Scholarship
Program to fund 1500 students for domestic studies (based on USAID
model). In addition, the Japanese are sponsoring scholarships for
approximately 700 students to study in Japan 78% of which will be
masters degrees. In the area of human capacity building, the Japanese
are supporting two efforts:

1.  Project for improvement of Public Administration for Local
    Governments in Punjab Province (2004-2007)

2.  Promotion of adult and child literacy in Punjab (2004-2006)

**World Bank**

The Bank's goal in the education sector is to support national and
provincial education reform efforts to increase net primary enrolment
rates, and to bridge the gender gap at the primary and secondary level.
The Bank projects \$625 million for FY2004-07, with \$325 million as
direct support for education, and \$300 million through the proposed
Poverty Reduction Structural Credit and Provincial Development Policy
Credits. Teacher Professional Development constitutes a significant
component of the education reforms that the Bank is undertaking.

\(a\) ***Punjab Education Sector Adjustment Credits I, II and (III
Proposed)*** {\$100 million each}: The purpose of the credits is to
support the Punjab Province\'s three year Education Sector Reform
Program (PESRP) to accelerate progress in the quality agenda, and deepen
the efforts to expand access as well as retention. In particular,
teacher professional development is a key component of the quality
agenda. Programs have been launched by the Punjab Education Foundation
(PEF) to support the low cost private sector including direct financial
assistance to private schools, teacher training for low cost schools on
a cluster basis, and vouchers of choice to households.

\(b\) ***Balochistan Elementary Education Project (FY2006-09)*** {\$20
million}: The Balochistan Education Support Project for Pakistan aims to
promote public-private and community partnerships to improve access to
quality primary education for girls in particular. Project components
consist of; establishing community schools in rural areas; supporting
private schools; and capacity building for the Balochistan Education
Foundation, the implementing agencies, the parent education committees,
and teachers. The latter component includes quality improvement measures
(free textbooks; teachers\' professional development; school monitoring
and supervision); training of staff of the foundation, agencies,
education committees, and teachers; and funding for staff salaries.

### (c) ***Sindh Structural Adjustment Credit***: A key component of the program was to improve quality. To assess current teacher quality and improve teaching standards, three-month training courses were developed as well as pre and post training tests to assess levels of competency. In-service training was imparted to 5,284 candidates (12,000 are targeted to be trained by FY06) while management training of principals and supervisors is in progress. {#c-sindh-structural-adjustment-credit-a-key-component-of-the-program-was-to-improve-quality.-to-assess-current-teacher-quality-and-improve-teaching-standards-three-month-training-courses-were-developed-as-well-as-pre-and-post-training-tests-to-assess-levels-of-competency.-in-service-training-was-imparted-to-5284-candidates-12000-are-targeted-to-be-trained-by-fy06-while-management-training-of-principals-and-supervisors-is-in-progress. .Numbered3}

###  {#section-5 .Numbered3}

### It is clear that education sector reform and developed has to have as its mainstay whole sector approaches that emphasize institutional reforms for sector and strengthening at all tiers of government (CIDA, World Bank, ADB, UNESCO and UNICEF). The World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, DfID and USAID attend coordination meetings around provincial education sector plans particularly for Sindh. Those donors working in NWFP have also been coordinating on the development of the sector plan for this province. Sector plans have been developed for Punjab, Sindh and NWFP Provinces and policy matrices with triggers are being coordinated between the World Bank and the provincial governments.  {#it-is-clear-that-education-sector-reform-and-developed-has-to-have-as-its-mainstay-whole-sector-approaches-that-emphasize-institutional-reforms-for-sector-and-strengthening-at-all-tiers-of-government-cida-world-bank-adb-unesco-and-unicef.-the-world-bank-european-commission-asian-development-bank-dfid-and-usaid-attend-coordination-meetings-around-provincial-education-sector-plans-particularly-for-sindh.-those-donors-working-in-nwfp-have-also-been-coordinating-on-the-development-of-the-sector-plan-for-this-province.-sector-plans-have-been-developed-for-punjab-sindh-and-nwfp-provinces-and-policy-matrices-with-triggers-are-being-coordinated-between-the-world-bank-and-the-provincial-governments. .Numbered3}

**Annex D**

**PROGRAMMES FOR FUTURE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN**

**US & THE GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN IN EDUCATION SECTOR**

**(ABRIGED VERSION)**

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="1.25in" height="1.0673611111111112in"}

**Government of Pakistan**

**Ministry of Education**

PROGRAMMES FOR FUTURE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN

US & THE GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN IN EDUCATION SECTOR

\_\_\_\_

NEW PROPOSALS (ABRIDGED VERSION)

:

Proposal \# 1:

**[Introduction of Computer Education at the Middle Level of Education
System (Classes VI to VIII).]{.underline}**

-   According to the new Scheme of Studies, the computer education is a
    compulsory subject from class VI to VIII. This scheme of studies
    shall be effective from September 2007. Under the new scheme of
    studies, we have to equip our middle schools with computer labs.

-   There are 14,000 middle schools, out of which 6,192 are female
    middle school and 2,639 are mixed schools where boys and girls are
    studying together.

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```
-   As per our requirement, at least 10 computers will be provided to
    each middle school catering a minimum enrolment of 40 students per
    class.

-   Training of computer teachers can also be an essential element of
    US-Assistance for effective teaching-learning process.

-   This will involve a sum of US \$ 14,000,000 (14 Million) (140,000
    Computers @ US \$ 100). If we can get these on special price
    otherwise the cost will go up.

Proposal \# 2:

**[In-Service Training of Science, Math and Computer Teachers for
Secondary Level Education (Classes IX-X).]{.underline}**

-   Education of Science and Math is being emphasized at the secondary
    school level under the present educational reforms.

-   It has been decided that the teaching of science and math shall be
    in English.

-   There are approximately 10,000 secondary schools.

-   According to our census report, there are 8,000 science teachers out
    of which female science teachers are 2,738.

-   The total number of math teachers in the secondary schools is 3,979;
    out of which 1,411 are female science teachers.

-   The duration of the training will be around 8 weeks. 4 weeks in
    classroom and 4 weeks on virtual basis (distance learning via
    internet/e-mail) and will be arranged in Pakistani institutes.

-   The training will cover the following elements:

    -   Pedagogy skills,

    -   Contents of the Science and Math Subjects,

    -   Assessment,

    -   Experimentation and

    -   Computer skills.

-   This may be adopted as a new programme for USAID.

Proposal \# 4:

**[School Level Students' Exchange: As USAID Project]{.underline}**

-   In order to develop cordial relationship between youth of the two
    countries and for interfaith harmony amongst people of both
    countries and also for sharing each other's learning and teaching
    experiences, exchanges of students of secondary schools will be
    arranged on reciprocal basis.

-   The delegation of school students from Pakistan will visit USA for 2
    weeks duration and on a reciprocal delegation of school students
    from USA will visit Pakistan every year.

-   Number of students will range from 25-30 along with two supervisors.

-   50% of the students will be females with one female supervisor.

Proposal \# 5:

# 

# [Teachers' Attachment in US Schools: As USAID Project.]{.underline}

-   Under professional development programme, the teaching faculty from
    Pakistani schools will be sent to USA for 4-6 weeks for attachment
    in the American schools to observe and learn the good practices of
    modern teaching system for a better learning outcome.

-   The number of teachers will be around 25-30 every quarter.

-   This will be a long-term programme for a period of five years.

-   Total of 100 teachers with a gender balance will visit USA in one
    year.

Proposal \# 6:

### 

### [Science Improvement at Secondary Level:]{.underline}

-   The proposal aims at to increase the number of better educated
    secondary school graduates through an improved sustainable system of
    Science and Mathematics education for grades VI-X for all genders.
    The proposal envisages at increasing the access and provides quality
    sciences, mathematics and computer education at the elementary and
    secondary levels through multiple inputs and interventions. The
    Government of Pakistan has already equipped the Science Laboratories
    in 35% of the Secondary Schools, which comes to around of 3,000
    schools.

-   This proposal will cover the following:

    -   Up-gradation of Science Lab in 7,000 Secondary Schools.

    -   Strengthening Science Education Centers in each province.

    -   Development of instructional materials for Science Teachers.

-   Duration of the program will be five years.

### CONTINUATION OF ONGOING INITIATIVES/PROGRAMMES:

Proposal \# 1:

## 

## *Reform Support Unit Project*

-   Establishment of Reform Support Unit (RSU) in the Ministry of
    Education for strengthening Education Sector policy and planning
    process through the provision of local/expatriate Pakistani
    consultants.

-   Educational Management Information System (EMIS) is one of the tools
    for the data based decision-making.

-   A programme to strengthen NEMIS is already under implementation with
    the assistance of USAID.

-   USAID support both in terms of experts and networking equipment,
    software and hardware would be required for upgrading the capacity
    of EMIS in Pakistan.

Proposal \# 2:

**[District Level Capacity Building for Education Managers and
Administrators.]{.underline}**

-   The Local Government Ordinance, 2001, puts a strong emphasis on
    demand-responsive, participatory planning, and rational utilization
    of resources.

-   It is fully recognized that expertise in core areas such as,
    strategic planning, finance & budgeting and personnel development,
    management and decision making, education leadership and managing
    change, information collection and assessment is lacking in most
    districts.

-   3,185 Educational Managers/Administrators have so far been trained
    through USAID sponsored programme titled \"Professional Development
    of Teachers and Educational Managers\" in Sindh and Balochistan
    provinces.

-   

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-   The government would welcome USAID's continued support for capacity
    building of district education officials in these core areas.

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```
-   

-   About 2,750 to 3,000 educational managers and administrators (on
    average 25-30 from each of 110 districts) will be imparted
    specialized training.

-   The duration of the programme will be five years.

-   Training will be arranged through Pakistani experts and or
    expatriates.

**\* \* \* \* \* \* \* \***

**ANNEX E: Cooperative Agreement Format**

![](media/image1.png){width="1.34375in" height="1.2916666666666667in"}

> USAID/PAKISTAN
>
> FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

(NAME)

(ADDRESS)

Reference:

Subject: Cooperative Agreement No.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Dear \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_:

Pursuant to the authority contained in the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, as amended, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
hereby awards to [(Organization/Recipient),]{.underline} hereinafter
referred to as the "Recipient", the sum of \$ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ to
provide support for a program in \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ as described in
the Schedule of this award and in Attachment B, entitled \"Program
Description.\"

This Cooperative Agreement is effective and obligation is made as of the
date of this letter and shall apply to expenditures made by the
Recipient in furtherance of program objectives during the period
beginning with the effective date \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and
ending\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. USAID will not be liable for reimbursing the
Recipient for any costs in excess of the obligated amount.

This Cooperative Agreement is made to the Recipient
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, on condition that the funds will be
administered in accordance with the terms and conditions as set forth in
Attachment A (the Schedule), Attachment B (the Program Description), and
Attachment C (the Standard Provisions), all of which have been agreed to
by your organization.

Please sign the original and all enclosed copies of this letter to
acknowledge your receipt of the Cooperative Agreement, and return the
original and all but one copy to the Agreement Officer.

Sincerely,

Karin Kolstrom

Agreement Officer

Attachments:

A. Schedule

B. Program Description

C. Standard Provisions

ACKNOWLEDGED:

BY: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

TITLE: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

DATE: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Fiscal Data:

\[to be inserted after award\]

# SCHEDULE

##  A.1 PURPOSE OF COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

> The purpose of this Cooperative Agreement is to provide support for
> the program described in Attachment 2 to this Cooperative Agreement
> entitled \"Program Description.\"

##  A.2 PERIOD OF COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

> 1\. The effective date of this Cooperative Agreement is
> \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. The estimated completion date of this Cooperative
> Agreement is \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.

##  A.3 AMOUNT OF COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT AND PAYMENT

> 1\. The total estimated amount of this Cooperative Agreement for the
> period shown in A.2.1 above is \$­­­\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.
>
> 2\. USAID hereby obligates the amount of \$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ for
> program expenditures. USAID is not obligated to reimburse the
> Recipient for the expenditure of amounts in excess of the total
> obligated amount.
>
> 3\. Payment will be made to the Recipient by \_\_\_\_\_\_ in
> accordance with procedures set forth in 22 CFR 226

A.4 COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT BUDGET

> The following is the Agreement Budget, including local cost financing
> items, if authorized. Revisions to this budget shall be made in
> accordance with 22 CFR 226.

  -------------- -------------- -------------- ----------------------- -------
  **Input        Improved       Improved       Improved governance and Total
  Categories**   teacher        student        strengthened public     
                 education and  learning and   sector capacity at the  
                 professional   the learning   federal, provincial,    
                 development    environment    and district levels to  
                                               sustain quality         
                                               teaching and learning   

  Labor                                                                 

  Fringe                                                                
  Benefits                                                             

  Travel                                                                

  Equipment                                                             

  Subawards                                                             

  Other Direct                                                          
  Costs                                                                

  Subtotal                                                              

  Overhead                                                              

  **Total**      ** **          ** **          ** **                    
  -------------- -------------- -------------- ----------------------- -------

##  A.5 REPORTING AND EVALUATION

### 

### 

### A.5.1[. Annual Implementation Plan (2 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline}

Implementation plans shall be submitted on a schedule established by the
CTO. The first annual implementation plan will cover the 12 month period
following mobilization. The first annual implementation plan is due
within 50 working days of the signing of the agreement.

The implementation plan serves several purposes including a guide to
program implementation, a demonstration of links between activities,
strategic objectives and intended results, a basis for budget estimates
and the foundation for the monitoring and evaluation plan.

Implementation plans shall be organized to clearly link activities to
the expected results. The implementation plans shall approved by the CTO
in consultation with the GOP. Additionally, the implementation plan
budget shall delineate an overall budget and the budget per activity
showing fully loaded costs.

The implementation plan, at a minimum, shall include:

-   Brief situation analysis in the context of what other donors and
    implementing partners and host-country governments are contributing;

-   Life-of-program results;

-   Milestones (or benchmarks) toward achieving those results over the
    duration of the program;

-   Partner involvement and contributions to achieving the results;

-   Budget; and,

-   Timeline.

### 

### [A.5.2. Award Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMP) (2 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline} 

Four months after award, the Recipient, in consultation with
implementation partners and USAID, shall finalize the Award Monitoring
and Evaluation Plan (AMP) for the project, including final selection of
indicators, baseline data needs and establishment of program targets. In
addition to internal project impact and monitoring indicators for the
Recipient's use, USAID may require the collection of data on a set of
core indicators to be finalized during AMP development.

### 

### A.5.3[. Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (2 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline} 

### Quarterly performance monitoring reports shall be submitted to the CTO, in coordination with Mission internal reviews. Reports should [briefly]{.underline} document actual accomplishments toward the program objectives, intermediate results and milestones, including conformance with environmental guidelines. The last performance monitoring report of the year shall be a summation of the results and progress toward results made during that year. Key indicators shall be tracked and graphed against pre-defined targets as agreed upon by the CTO. The report shall be presented in the following format and shall not exceed 30 pages:

Executive Summary -- This section is a narrative summary of overall
achievements against planned achievements and a brief description of any
realized or potential performance challenges[^16]. Achievements should
be quantified against both principal and collateral award
targets/indicators wherever possible, leaving detailed analysis for
later sections.

Summary Table - The Executive Summary should be followed by a table
which identifies all results and their corresponding targets/indicators.
Overall grant goals for each target and indicator shall be identified as
well as planned and actual goals for the reporting period. In addition,
costs inccurred by result or group of results should be identified as
well as planned and actual expenditures for the reporting period. This
table is intended to serve as an at-a-glance data summary.

  ------------- ----------- -------- -------- ----------- ------------------------------
  Development   Indicator   Target   Actual   Budgeted    Actual Unit Cost
  Result                                      Unit Cost   

                                                          

                                                          

                                                          
  ------------- ----------- -------- -------- ----------- ------------------------------

Correlation to AMP - In this section, the Recipient should describe how
the performance being reported was monitored. This description should
reference the AMP methods used during the reporting period. If the AMP
was not strictly followed, the grantee should provide a rationale for
not using it.

Result by Result Analysis -- This section will provide detailed analysis
of the results summarized above as well as additional narrative
regarding the achievements and challenges.

Financial Summary - This section is not a financial report; rather it
summarizes financial expenditure data in reference to achievements. The
most tangible statement in this section will be one regarding whether
spending towards each result is "less than anticipated, on target with
estimates, or more than anticiapted." Reports which indicate that
expenditures are less or more than anticipated will be supported with
rationale detailing the probable cause(s). Reports which indicate that
expenditures are more than anticipated must also include a plan for
ensuring that the performance of the result will be met within the
estimated award budget for that result.

### 

[A.5.4 Quarterly Financial Reports:]{.underline} The Grantee shall
submit to the CTO, a quarterly financial report that specifically
includes the SF-269 (long form), SF-424 line item budgets, expenditures
and accruals and a pipeline (balance remaining). This table with
expenditures and accruals shall be submitted to the CTO no less than 15
days before the end of each (USAID) fiscal year quarter throughout the
life of the project.

### 

### [A.5.5. End of Program Report (3 hard copies + electronic copy):]{.underline} The Recipient shall submit a final report 90 days after the completion date of the Agreement which includes: an executive summary of the Recipient's accomplishments in achieving results and conclusions about areas in need of future assistance; an overall description of the Recipient's activities and attainment of results during the life of the Cooperative Agreement; an assessment of progress made toward accomplishing the Strategic Objective 7; significance of these activities; important research findings, if any; comments and recommendations; and a fiscal report that describes how the Recipient's funds were used. 

[A.5.6. Distribution of Reports]{.underline}

The Recipient shall submit an original and two copies of the final
report to the CTO and one copy to the USAID Development Experience
Clearinghouse: E-mail (the preferred means of submission) is:
<docsubmit@dec.cdie.org>. The mailing address via U.S. Postal Service
is: Development Experience Clearinghouse, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite
210, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

Reports required as described in this section will be sent to the CTO.
Reports and intellectual products required above will also be submitted
to the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse either electronically
via e-mail (the preferred means of submission) to
<docsubmit@dec.cdie.org> or in hard copy via U.S. Postal Service to
Development Experience Clearinghouse, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 210,
Silver Spring, MD 20910.

## A.6 INDIRECT COST RATE

Pending establishment of revised provisional or final indirect cost
rates, allowable indirect costs shall be reimbursed on the basis of the
following negotiated provisional or predetermined rates and the
appropriate bases:

Description Rate Base Type Period

> 1/Base of Application:
>
> Type of Rate: Provisional
>
> Period:
>
> 2/Base of Application:
>
> Type of Rate: Provisional
>
> Period:
>
> 3/Base of Application:
>
> Type of Rate: Provisional
>
> Period:

##  A.7 TITLE TO PROPERTY

Property Title will be vested with the Cooperating Country.

##  A.8 AUTHORIZED GEOGRAPHIC CODE

The authorized geographic code for procurement of goods and services
under this award is 000.

##  A.9 COST SHARING

The Recipient agrees to expend an amount not less than 3% of the total
activity costs.

## A.10 SUBSTANTIAL INVOLVEMENT

Substantial involvement during the implementation of this Agreement
shall be limited to approval of the elements listed below:

a.  Approval of Recipient Implementation Plans.

b.  Approval of specified key personnel assigned to the positions listed
    below. The personnel currently listed have been approved. All
    changes thereto must be submitted for the approval by the Cognizant
    Technical Officer.

> Title: Name:
>
> Title: Name:

c.  Approval of Recipient's monitoring and evaluation Plans

d.  Agency monitoring to permit specified kinds of direction or
    redirection because of interrelationships with other projects.

## 

## A.11 PROGRAM INCOME

The Recipient shall account for Program Income in accordance with 22 CFR
226.24. Program Income earned under this award shall be added to the
project.

## A.12 UNACCOMPANIED POST

At this time, Pakistan is an unaccompanied post for US direct hire
employees; for security reasons, family members of US direct hire
employees are not permitted to travel to or reside at post with the
employee at government expense.   Under the resulting cooperative
agreement, while USAID cannot expressly forbid a Recipient employee from
bringing family members to post at personal expense, it is not
encouraged or desired.  Under no circumstances will costs related to
dependents be considered allowable costs to the resulting award
including but not limited to housing, transportation, education, and per
diem.  Separate maintenance allowance (SMA) would be allowable if in
accordance with the standardized regulations and the recipient's
policies and practices.

Standard Provisions: Mandatory and Optional Standard Provisions will be
included in the award document as required and as applicable to the
programmatic activities implemented in the award. The following weblink
provides full text of the provisions.

<http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/300/303maa.pdf>

> \[End of Request for Applications\]

[^1]: World Bank (2006). Program Document for a Proposed Third Punjab
    Education Sector Development Policy Credit. Report No. 35441-PK.

[^2]: Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan (1998). [Putting the Child First:
    Teacher Education for Quality Learning and School
    Improvement.]{.underline} Social Policy Forum. Pakistan-Canada
    Social Institutions Development Programme.

[^3]: These constitute primarily of PCT, CT, B. Ed, B.S. Ed, M. Ed, and
    M.A. Ed.

[^4]: World Bank (2006). Simplified Implementation Completion Report.
    Second Development Policy Credit for the Government of Punjab
    Province. Report No. 35465.

[^5]: UNESCO and USAID (2005). [Donor Support to Education: Lessons
    Learned Meeting]{.underline}. 23-24 June, 2005. Islamabad, Pakistan.

[^6]: Sughra Choudhry Khan (2004). *From Practice to Policy: Making a
    Difference*. Report prepared for the Teachers' Resource Centre.
    Karachi, Pakistan.

[^7]: Data on learning achievements in Pakistan from: Ministry of
    Education and UNESCO (2002) *National Education Assessment Study:
    Focus on Learning at Primary Level*. Government of Pakistan.
    Restricted Revised Draft 24 June, 2003 and Ministry of
    Education.(2005) *National Assessment Report*. Government of
    Pakistan.

[^8]: See Annex B for statistical data on teachers in Pakistan

[^9]: Baela R. Jamil (2004). Teacher Education in Pakistan: A (Draft)
    Position Paper. Presented at the National Conference on Teacher
    Education, December 20, 2004. Islamabad. Hosted by The Academy for
    Educational Development. & Government of Pakistan (2006). National
    Education Conference 2006: Delegate Brief. Ministry of Education.

[^10]: Multi-Donor Support Unit, Lahore (1995). Multi-Donor Support Unit
    for the Social Action Programme: Determinants of Primary Students
    Achievement National Survey Results.

[^11]: The unit cost for conventional teacher education has been
    calculated on the basis of training institutions' budgets for
    2003-04.

[^12]: Academy for Educational Development (2006). Performance Gap
    Analysis and Training Needs Assessment of Teacher Training
    Institutions. Pakistan Teacher Education and Professional
    Development Program.

[^13]: Expenditure data is not yet available for later years of the ESR
    and is also not yet available for the PRSP period.

[^14]: DFID and USAID (2006). Options and Recommendations for Education
    Sector Budget Support in Pakistan.

[^15]: Where performance challenges are caused by or related to
    management issues, the Recipient shall include an additional
    reporting section on the matter, including the remedy taken or the
    proposed remedy to be taken.

[^16]: Where performance challenges are caused by or related to
    management issues, the Recipient shall include an additional
    reporting section on the matter, including the remedy taken or the
    proposed remedy to be taken.