Early childhood care and education (ECCE), termed katchi, is defined as both formal and nonformal as well as public or private day-care, health, nutrition, or education services for children.  Besides the katchi classes (that were re-introduced at the end of the 1990s) in government schools, several private schools also provide pre-primary classes (UNESCO 2007). Nursery, kindergarten or Montessori style education is offered in profit-making private schools, usually operating in urban localities and enrolling children aged 2-5 years. Many of these private ECCE schools have better-equiped classrooms, well-trained teachers, and appropriate ECCE materials (IBE 2011). The gross enrolment ratio for pre-primary education is 47% (2009) (UIS 2009).  

Following a temporary suspension between 1980 and 1990, the MoE reports a total ECCE enrolment for 2007/08 of 7.40 million. The public sector has an enrolment of 4.61 million (62%), whereas the private sector has 2.79 million (38%) enrolment (MoE 2009). In the 2005-06 school-year, Pakistan’s MoE estimates that about 64% of children entering grade 1 had some previous ECCE experience (IBE 2011).  

In public schools, the qualification required for teaching in a katchi class is the same as that for primary school, i.e. higher secondary education certificate plus 1-year teaching certificate. The provinces usually adopt the same criteria except where suitable staff is not available and relaxation of criteria is exercised. On the other hand, in private schools the ECCE teachers are usually better qualified and well-trained in relevant methods. Other staff members include non-teaching staff such as the ayas (maids), hired for assisting young children (IBE 2006). Experts may not view a traditional katchi class as an equivalent to ECCE standards as katchi class education in government schools is usually offered under multi-grade teaching arrangements.  Since katchi classes are not allocated separate budgetary means, there is no separate teacher nor specific teaching materials for these students (UNESCO 2007). Several NGOs have developed teaching-learning materials for ECCE, including Children’s Resource International (CRI), the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), the Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC) and the College of Home Economics, Lahore (IBE 2006).  

Historically, ECCE has not been formally recognized by the public sector in Pakistan and today there is no clear-cut division of responsibility in Pakistan (Government of Pakistan 2009). Often-times they are included in the primary schools, where a separate room is allocated for katchi classes (PILDT n.d.). Day-care facilities providing early childhood care for children under 3 years are administered by the Ministry of Women Development and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education. Without a clear-cut division of responsibility, still others in this age group are served by heath care services administered by the Ministry of Health who visit homes in the rural areas. The Ministry of Education should in principle implement early childhood education for all children as from 3 years old (IBE 2006, 2011).  Included in the 2009 Education Sector Reform, funding was provided to the district and provincial governments for ECCE programmes (Government of Pakistan 2009). 

Against the background of no previous government management of ECCE, Pakistan’s Government included ECCE as a component in the Education Sector Reforms programme and provided funding to the provincial and district governments. ECCE was also included in the National Plan of Action of Education for All. Pakistan is committed to the Dakar Framework of Action, the first goal of which is to expand and improve comprehensive ECCE for all children, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged (Government of Pakistan 2009).  Realizing the role and significance of ECCE especially for facilitating new entrance to school and improving learning achievement, provision has also been made in the National Education Policy 1998-2010 to re-introduce katchi as a formal class in primary schools. Apart from ECCE classroom classes and centers in government schools, the MoE, with the technical input from several NGOs, has developed and disseminated an ECCE curriculum (IBE 2006, 2011).