Abstract:
Education as an institution is pivotal in establishing a strong human resource as without an effective education system and policies, nations cannot develop or adapt to challenges of an ever-evolving global economic, social and political dynamics. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate national educational policies of Pakistan (2009 and 2017) especially focusing on gaps between policy framework and its due implementation. This research also aims to identify the sociological factors that affect the education system in the country with due importance given to various sociological factors that contributes towards achieving learning outcomes as a result of public policy. The state of education in Pakistan lags far behind its contemporaries; hence, the deteriorating quality of education sector needs to be addressed holistically to envision effective learning. The objective of this research was to identify the various shortcomings in the policy making process and various factors not identified in the prevalent policy particularly sociological factors that hold immense importance for an education system to achieve maximum learning outcomes. The research methodology is qualitative in nature incorporating the functionalist and connectivism theories and correlating them with the selected indicators to ensure optimal learning. Interviews of various experts, educationists, policy makers and implementers were conducted. A comparative analysis of the interviews and educational policies was carried out to deduce findings for the main research questions. Main findings identified how the educational policies did not incorporate key indicators for envisioning learning i.e. parent education/involvement, gender of teacher and school environment. Moreover, factors on which the policy did outline provisions were also found to be lacking. Inadequate financial resources were mainly identified as an impediment for pragmatic policy implementation. Pakistan allocates a significantly small budget for education without increasing which effective educational policy implementation cannot be achieved
