International Education Guide - Enterprise and Advanced Education ...

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INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION GUIDE for the assessment of education from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
A private institution that operates independently as a
university or degree-awarding institution must obtain a
charter from the federal or provincial legislature under the
recommendation of the Higher Education Commission.
While it used to be difficult to obtain such a charter, the
accelerated pace of chartering private institutions in recent
years has resulted in a number of chartered institutions that
do not fully meet HEC criteria. For more information on
the issue of quality of higher education institutions, refer to
Higher Education.
School Education
Overview
School education in Pakistan follows the 5+3+2+2 pattern:
• five years of primary school
• three years of middle school
• two years of (lower) secondary school, also known as
high school
• two years of higher secondary school, also known as
intermediate stage
Children usually start school at the age of five. The system
described here refers to government-funded regular
schools. Running parallel to the regular system are religious
seminaries called madrassas, devoted almost exclusively to
religious teachings, and English-language private schools
that use British- or American-style curricula. Government
schools and madrassas are single-gender for either boys or
girls, while English-language private schools are usually
coeducational.
Figure 4. Outline of School Education System
GRADE
12
11
Higher Secondary School/Intermediate Stage
AGE
16
15
10
9
Secondary School/High Scoolh
14
13
8
7
6
Middle School
12
11
10
5
4
3
2
1
Primary School
9
8
7
6
5
Preschool Education