Pakistan, Oct. 29 -- For much of the past decade, Pakistan's public spending on education has hovered within a narrow and inadequate range of roughly 1.4 to 2.1 per cent of GDP between FY2017-18 and FY2022-23. More recent reporting suggests that even this already modest level has fallen further.

The broad point is familiar. Pakistan spends too little on education.

That matters because the country is already living through a learning crisis. Almost 26 million children remain out of school, and many of those who are enrolled are not learning at the level expected for their age. Behind those outcomes sit the basic inputs of an education system: teachers, classrooms, textbooks, assessments, infrastructure, transport and school administratio...