This paper provides targets and estimates of the resource requirements for ECE in the next 12 years (See Table 9). Notwithstanding the budgetary implications, good planning, political prioritization, and consistency can facilitate reaching such targets. A robust ECE system will improve school readiness, student retention in primary and secondary education, transition to higher educational levels, and education outcomes.

Given the benefits of ECE, considering the current state of ECE financing in Pakistan, and because of the resource requirements outlined above, this paper provides decisionmakers with a framework to invest additional resources in ECE and ensure they are used effectively and efficiently. Different policy options should be considered to develop a long-term ECE service delivery and financing strategy. The example scenarios described in this paper all call for a substantial increase in ECE financing over the next decade. However, the analysis considers modalities that could help lessen this burden and facilitate a sequenced approach.

There is also an opportunity for federal and provincial governments to invest in tracking expenditures on pre-primary education at aggregate, functional, and operational levels. Doing so would allow Pakistan to report ECE spending to international databases, such as the UIS – something it does not currently do. Such tracking is crucial for understanding the state of ECE financing, gaps, and compliance status with international and national benchmarks. The government, civil society organizations, and development partners might also consider focusing on implementing community-based approaches and public-private partnership modalities for ECE. This could lower the burden on the public education system and reduce the funding requirements for achieving SDG 4.2 targets. Policy makers can use simulation exercises such as those used in this paper to better plan service delivery for children in the early years.

# **Limitations**

This exercise is not without constraints and limitations. First, pre-primary budgets are grouped with primary education in Pakistan; therefore, the ECE budgetary allocations and expenditures are unknown. To address this, we used a part of the primary education budget proportionate to the number of grades at the primary level as the pre-primary education budget. However, this is not a robust way of estimating budgets. Second, the human resource and infrastructure figures are not disaggregated for ECE in the provincial EMIS and other data systems. For provinces where this data was unavailable, we made proportionate calculations like the ones mentioned above. Third, the enrollment data for private schools is not readily and accurately available in the EMIS/NEMIS or other data systems. Nor is data on children with special needs (population, enrollment, etc.) accurately available. Fourth, multigrading at the ECE level is not identifiable through EMIS systems. Lastly, there are inconsistent ECE policies within provinces: e.g., caregivers are a mandatory part of the public ECE system in Punjab but not in other provinces.

# **Future Directions**

This paper presents a preliminary status of ECE financing in Pakistan, outlining estimates not available before at the national or provincial level. However, the data systems in the country must be tailored to capture the planning and costing needs of the ECE sub-sector. Updating these estimates regularly and with more precise data would allow an opportunity to track progress and adjust as needed.

21