AS another year ends, it is worth looking back and taking stock of significant developments in Pakistan’s education sector. While many small-scale interventions and pilot projects are ongoing, I will restrict my review to wide-scale developments that are more likely to have a perceptible impact, good or bad. The widely quoted figure of 25 million out-of-school children , the one that prompted this government to announce an “education emergency,” has been bumped up to an estimated 26m. Meanwhile, public spending on education remains stuck at 0.8 per cent of GDP. Instead, according to a news report just this week, the government’s best idea is to gently twist private businesses’ arm to make them pledge one per cent of their profits for the cause of education, presumably because levied taxes (paid or evaded) and additional costs of doing business in this country are not high enough. Never has a country, certainly no country of a quarter billion souls, righted its ship of public education on the back of corporate charitable giving. For a positive development, the national Inter Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC) announced a notable increase in flexibility. SSC and HSSC students will now be able to select individual subjects, instead of being restricted to pre-set tracks, ie arts, (general) science, pre-engineering, and pre-medical, like in many other foreign school systems. Students advancing to HSSC will not be constrained in their choice by what SSC subjects they took, ie anyone who opted for arts subjects at the SSC level could still take subjects needed for admission to medical or engineering programmes. It may require catching up in some subjects, but it will be an option. It is a welcome development, because how certain can we expect 14-year-olds starting SSC or 16-year-olds starting HSSC to be about the future course of their academic year? A widely debated development is the Punjab government’s ongoing privatisation of a large portion of its 48,000 public schools. So far, the management of 12,500 public primary and middle schools has already been transferred to private entities, primarily education sector NGOs, with another 4,500 announced in the upcoming phase, which, for the first time, will include 70 of the province’s 550 inter colleges. Students at schools with low enrolment have been reassigned to nearby schools. Similarly, teachers have been transferred to other schools or placed in the surplus pool. Unsurprisingly, there is pushback from teacher unions, but schools do not exist solely for the purpose of providing livelihoods for teachers. What we know for certain is that, for decades, most public schools have failed to deliver on their mission of educating children and that successive governments have been unable to reverse the decline. It was high-time for a radical change, and I look forward to seeing the outcome evaluations of this programme. Never has a country righted its ship of public education on the back of charity. Sindh has decided to go a different route to deal with its inability to improve public school education and announced the introduction of IGCSE / A-level education tracks in one public school of every district. A big development that almost was but did not come to pass, but may yet come to be, is the reversal of the devolution of education to provinces. The recentralisation of education as a subject to the centre was mentioned during early negotiations of the 27th Amendment . Speculatively, while it is on the wish list, it was not high up enough on the list of priorities to be included in the ratified version. Now, there are rumours swirling about yet another, a 28th amendment, with the two key priorities of changing the NFC and bringing education back to the centre. While provinces are certainly expected to put up a fight on the issue of the NFC, having accomplished little to nothing in education since the 18th Amendment gave them control, they are expected to be glad for the federal government to take the responsibility of developing curricula off their hands. Another important development affecting students seeking to study abroad has been the tightening of student visa requirements. Last month, the Institute of International Education’s Fall 2025 snapshot report showed that in the US, enrolment of new international students is down by 17pc over last year. This drop has been attributed to the Trump administration’s changes to student visa rules. In the UK, similar measures have already led a few universities to suspend or significantly tighten admissions for applicants from Pakistan entirely. The Home Office tracks and limits the rate at which applications for student visas are rejected for every UK university to prevent abuse of the visa system by international students who overstay or apply for asylum. According to revised rules, universities whose student visa application rejections will exceed the 5pc threshold will lose the right to host international students. Since Pakistani students are counted among the biggest offenders, several universities no longer consider applicants from Pakistan. This is a case of bad actors ruining opportunities for all genuine applicants from the country. Any review of education news in 2025 must acknowledge the rapid advancement of AI. Tech execs of companies leading the AI revolution, thought leaders, and leading universities and school systems have not been able to converge on a consensus on how AI tools will be incorporated into learning and how it will change the sector as a whole. Meanwhile, in several conversations I had with people in the bureaucracy, in their infinite wisdom and foresight, they have already declared that AI-powered learning tools will sweep through schools and universities transforming the education sector as we know it, solving all problems and, having nothing to offer, are happy to fold their arms, lean back, and just watch as passive observers! In conclusion, what is life without a little conflict, sentimentality, and betrayal of a soap opera? That is why I feel it necessary to acknowledge the low-level hubbub created every time an HEC chair steps down and the horse race of vice-chancellors for the replacement begins. The rumour is that the shortlist has been cut down to three candidates, and the announcement of who is going to be the next HEC chair is imminent. Until next year, we watch, wait, and hope that the next chapter brings more substance than spectacle. The writer has a PhD in education. Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2025