The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan passed in 1973 stipulates that the State shall: (i) promote equality; (ii) remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education as much as possible; and (iii) improve access to technical and professional education without discrimination (National Assembly of Pakistan 1973). In 2011, the Government passed an amendment to the Constitution, decentralizing powers to the provincial governments. This Amendment included an Article stating that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children and youth from ages 5 to 16 (PILDT 2011). Prior to this, in 2009, the Pakistan Government passed a National Education Policy document as an update to a previous Policy (1998-10). The Policy focuses on “governance as an issue and also calls for manifesting its commitment to education by investing more on education" (Government of Pakistan 2009). It recognizes the importance of Islamic values and adheres to the agreed principles of relating Islamic teaching to the nation’s education policies (IBE 2011). The Policy does well to lay out several of the country’s priorities and shortcomings regarding education.  It also calls to achieve universal and free primary education by 2015 and up to class 10 by 2025. In addition, the Policy asks provincial governments to commit to 7% of their budgets to be allocated to education by 2015, a staggering increase compared to the current 2% (Government of Pakistan 2009). The Government has also passed a number of policies, such as the Compulsory Primary Education Act and Compulsory School Attendance Bill of 2008 to help the nation achieve higher enrolment rates (IBE 2011).

With the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment and abolition of the concurrent legislative list in 2011, education has become a completely provincial subject matter. The matters of budgeting, curriculum, syllabus, centres of excellence and standards of education were included in this transfer of power. And although school education has now been completely devolved to the provinces, the Federal Government cannot be absolved from its statutory responsibility of guaranteeing fundamental rights to its citizens enshrined in the Constitution (PILDT 2011). This includes the power to make laws with respect to all matters pertaining to such areas in the Federation that are not included in any provinces, in addition to international education matters, museums, libraries and similar institutions. In addition to this devolution of powers, the Amendment includes Article 25-A, which declares that “the State, [meaning the federal government, provincial government or assembly or such local or other authorities,] shall provide free and compulsory education to children of the age to 5 to 16 years" (MoE 2011).

Other than the Ministry of Education there are a number of key education institutions.  The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) is autonomous of the MoE and empowered with financial and administrative authority concerning intermediate and secondary education, often organizing exams and prescribing course instructions (FBISE n.d.). Pakistan’s Inter-Board Committee of Chairman (IBCC) was established as a forum for discussion and consultation for the chief executives of the Boards and provincial Curriculum Bureaus on matters relating to development and promotion of Intermediate and Secondary and Technical Education (IBCC n.d.). The Academy of Educational Planning and Management was also established to provide assistance to the Ministry of Education in planning, implementing, monitoring and policy formulation (AEPAM n.d.). The Literacy and Mass Education Commission, was renamed twice before settling on the Prime Minister’s Literacy Commission (PMLC) in 1995 (HEC n.d.), which was created to help raise the country’s literacy rate (IBE 2011). Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) was established in 2002 to facilitate the development of the universities of Pakistan.  Also established in 2002, the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) is a public-private partnership with a mission to promote development in the fields of health, education and micro-finance.