The political economy of implementation in the Pakistan public education ecosystem: A five-step approach to embedding a foundational learning program

<p>This essay details real-time insights related to the <strong>political economy of embedding</strong> a large-scale randomized controlled trial pilot of a targeted instruction program in the complex and multi-tiered public education ecosystem of Pakistan. The first section of the essay deep dives into <strong>mapping the complexity of the multi-tiered public education ecosystem of Pakistan</strong>, plagued by various systemic frictions. Each friction branches out into its own set of constraints that together may hinder (if not break) the inertia of embedding programs and impact evaluations such as our targeted instruction program in public service delivery. In the second section of this essay, we elaborate upon each of these frictions and constraints to describe the steps we undertook to <strong>navigate the complex education ecosystem</strong> to embed the program within it for its guaranteed launch and implementation. We present a five-step approach for how foundational learning programs can be embedded in budget-constrained public education systems, using existing teachers supported by low-cost technology. </p>