COVID-19 in Pakistan: A Phone Survey to Assess Education, Economic, and Health-Related Outcomes

  • R Research Project/Report/Study

I Inactive

Key Information

Using a sample of 1,211 households in Pakistan, we examine the effects of COVID-19 on three key domains: education, economic, and health-related. First, during school closures, 66 percent of surveyed households report not using technology for learning at all. Wealth disparities mar access to distance learning, and richer households are 39 percent more likely to use technology for learning compared to the poorest households. This has implications for learning remediation as children head back to school. Second, more than half of the respondents report a reduction in income and one-fifth report being food insecure during the lockdown in the first week of May 2020. Only one-fifth of households reporting a reduction in income and one-fifth of respondents reporting a reduction in the number of meals consumed report being covered by the federal government’s cash transfer program. Third, while a majority of respondents (90 percent) report adopting precautionary measures such as face masks, a vast majority of respondents (78 percent) underestimate the risk of contracting a COVID-19 infection compared to tuberculosis. With schools reopening in a phased manner since mid-September, most respondents (68 percent) believe that school reopenings will further increase the risk of COVID-19 infections.


Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

South Asia

Pakistan

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

2020 - 2020

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

New for COVID-19

Geographic Scope

National

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Attainment

  • Primary enrollment
  • Secondary completion

Cross-cutting areas

  • COVID-19 Response
  • Economic/livelihoods (including savings/financial inclusion, etc.)
  • Gender equality

Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Boys in school, Girls in school, Youth

Age

5 - 18

School Enrolment Status

All in school

School Level

  • Lower primary
  • Upper primary
  • Lower secondary
  • Upper secondary

Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Community engagement/advocacy/sensitization

  • School management committees
  • Technical assistance/capacity building to civil society organizations or governments

Policy/legal environment

  • Developing/promoting new laws/policies
  • System-wide review and reform

Social/gender norms change

  • Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents

Teaching

  • Diagnostic feedback

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Improved academic skills (literacy and numeracy)
  • Increased school completion (general)
  • Increased school enrolment (general)

Cross-cutting goals

Not applicable or unknown

Additional Information Back to Top

Primary Contact

Rita Perakis
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Assistant Director and Senior Policy Analyst, Global Education
rperakis@cgdev.org