The challenge of providing equitable quality education that prepares individuals to navigate the globalised world is significant. In 2015, all United Nations (UN) member states adopted 17 goals as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including a 15-year strategy to accomplish them. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 specifically aims to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (UNESCO, 2017: 6). To achieve this goal, SDG Target 4.7 requires that learners acquire knowledge and skills that promote human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and an appreciation of cultural diversity and its contribution to sustainable development (Marron et al., 2019).

The achievement of SDG 4 has been identified as a critical tool for the accomplishment of the other 16 SDGs (Abera, 2023). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been charged with accelerating progress on the SDGs, and each member country is expected to make efforts towards achieving the shared goal of SDG 4.7. This requires the incorporation of global citizenship education (GCED), education for sustainable development, gender equality, human rights in educational policy, curricula, teacher education and student assessment (United Nations, 2021). In 2018, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed a new framework and assessment as part of its Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), shaped around the term ‘global competence’ (OECD, 2018). They define global competence as the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills that prepare people to live in the globalised world and help them sustainably tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century as collaborative members of a global society (Mansilla and Jackson, 2011; Vaccari and Gardinier, 2019).

Despite ongoing academic debates (Engel et al., 2019; Vaccari and Gardinier, 2019) on the intent, focus and impact of both the UN SDGs and the OECD PISA agendas, both are already influencing domestic education policies, teacher education, professional learning, schools and classrooms (Francesconi et al., 2022; Menzie-Ballantyne and Ham, 2022). Taking a pragmatic approach (Kelly and Cordeiro, 2020), this research acknowledges the importance of these academic debates, but concentrates on the practical reality of if, and how, the language of global citizenship and global competence is used in Pakistan’s education policies.

In terms of population, Pakistan is the second-largest country in South Asia. As a member of the UNDP, it is in the process of aligning its education system to reflect the SDGs, including SDG 4.7. Although Pakistan is not a member country of the OECD (Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan, 2017) it is receiving OECD funding to implement changes to its education system in line with the international agendas. In this context, it is acknowledged that donor agencies often have their own priorities and perspectives in terms of the use of aid (Zafar, 2015), which may not align with the country’s existing policies. This can result in amendments or short-term policy reforms to meet the requirements of the funding agencies. Poor governance of foreign aid also remains an ongoing challenge (Sarwar et al., 2015).

To explore if, and how, Pakistan is incorporating the UN SDGs and OECD agendas into its education policy, a deductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the language of global citizenship and global competence in Pakistan’s current national education policy – the National Educational Policy 2017 (Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan, 2017). In addition, as constitutional Amendment 18 devolves the implementation of education policy as a provincial responsibility (Jamal, 2021), and the provincial government of Punjab has progressed more than other provinces in implementation of the federal government’s international commitments, the New Deal 2018–2023 (GoP, 2019a) and the Punjab Education Sector Plan 2019/20–2023/24 (GoP, 2019b) were also examined. This article outlines the findings from the analysis of these three policy documents.

Table 2 presents the results of the deductive coding in terms of the frequency of words and phrases found in the National Educational Policy 2017 (NEP), the New Deal 2018–2023 (TND), and the Punjab Education Sector Plan 2019/20–2023/24 (PESP).

A summary of the frequency of meta themes in each policy document is presented in Table 3.

As can be seen in the results section, using Vaccari and Gardinier’s (2019) work on the meta themes evident in the international policies of UNESCO and the OECD to examine the language of the three policies shaping education in Pakistan and Punjab has revealed increasing inclusion of the language of global citizenship and global competence.

The language is least evident in the New Deal 2018–2023. The emphasis of this policy appears to be on quality learning, so that both students and teachers progress in learning, access, retention and governance by 2023 (GoP, 2019a: 15). Primarily, the focus is on transforming teacher effectiveness through quality education, strengthening basic competences at the primary level, and reforming post-primary education through restructured curricula and assessment (GoP, 2019b). A secondary focus is on providing access to quality education and educational infrastructure for every school-aged child in Punjab – regardless of their cast, creed, economic background, gender or location (GoP, 2019a). The policy also emphasises improving governance systems through strengthening the school education department, empowering school leaders and administration, and restructuring public–private engagement (GoP, 2019b). The policy reflects a commitment by the Punjab province to manage the basic needs of education, such as student access, poverty alleviation and teacher quality (Khushik and Diemer, 2020). This concentration on basic needs is reflective of the language used in the SDGs’ predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals (UNESCO, 2000).

However, while the New Deal 2018–2023 was still being implemented, it was adjoined by the Punjab Education Sector Plan 2019/20–2023/24 to include additional aspects relating to the country’s global commitments. Some of the language of this additional plan and its national counterpart, the National Educational Policy 2017, aligns with the language of UNESCO and the OECD PISA global competence framework. As outlined in the results section, the language that most aligns relates to the meta theme of attitude and values.

This is an interesting finding, as many countries have found that including values in any policy or curriculum is controversial, and the OECD acknowledges that values are difficult to measure (Engel et al., 2019). The most common words relating to attitudes and values in both these documents are ‘respect’ and ‘responsibility’. This may reflect the fact that respect and responsibility are core values in Pakistan’s culture and religion (Javed et al., 2014). It is possible that policymakers and teachers emphasise, model and teach the values they acquired from their parents, society and religion (Asif et al., 2020; Shoaib and Rafique, 2015). In Pakistan’s education policy, the word ‘responsibility’ may refer to accountability or reliability (Smith, 2015). ‘Respect’ is used in the sense of being acceptable, considerate and attentive, in line with the cultural understanding of the term (Adigüzel and Ayaz, 2020; Dillon, 2022).

Other global citizenship and global competence attitudes and values identified by Vaccari and Gardinier (2019), such as openness, advocacy, universality, global solidarity, sensitivity to other cultures and global-mindedness, were not identified in either document. From this, it appears that Pakistan’s education policies largely seek to highlight concepts that are already familiar and reflective of the social or cultural context. Further work is needed to investigate whether this pattern is evident in other countries’ policies, as it may indicate that nations are working to ensure they retain their social and cultural focuses in the process of conceptualising and internalising international agendas.

After attitudes and values, the most frequently identified meta theme was rights, centred on ‘human rights’, ‘peace’, ‘equality’ and ‘tolerance’, with the objective of promoting these concepts in the national curriculum and teachers’ education and training by 2025. These rights are the core themes of a joint charter, developed by the Pakistan government and various religious groups, named Paigham-e-Pakistan (Hayat and Ramzan, 2021; Naeem et al., 2019). Adding an emphasis on the other rights-related terms, identified in the OECD and UNESCO policies, including ‘children’s rights’, ‘individual rights’ and ‘justice’ could further promote equity in the country, and assist in the achievements of the SDG targets.

In terms of the coding of the meta theme knowledge and understanding, the National Educational Policy and the Punjab Education Sector Plan both emphasise ‘analysis’. In the OECD PISA’s global competence framework the term ‘analysis’ is used in the context of the critical analysis of content and issues. In the National Educational Policy, it is used in terms of situation analysis (Chaudhary et al., 2012), while the Punjab Education Sector Plan uses it in terms of education sector analysis and analysis of data (Awan and Zia, 2015; Mubarak, 2019). It is interesting to note that neither policy uses the word in relation to the development of students’ or teachers’ ability to analyse; rather, it is used from a policy, system or sector perspective in terms of analysing data for the purpose of international benchmarking. There was no indication that the policy intended to promote instruction to develop students’ and teachers’ analytical abilities, which is an important component of global competence and global citizenship.

Similarly, ‘critical thinking’ appeared only once in the National Educational Policy. By contrast, significant emphasis is placed on critical thinking in the Punjab Education Sector Plan. In this Plan, the term ‘critical thinking’ is used to support improvements to the examination system and teachers’ training and professional development and to guide the teaching of issues such as environmental change and sustainability. The policy objectives also appear to suggest courses designed to promote critical thinking and ensure that students are prepared to live in the competitive, global, knowledge-based economy. Despite this emphasis, the current examination system used in Pakistani schools may prevent it from being implemented, as the system concentrates on measuring lower order cognitive thinking levels based on memorisation, ignoring higher order cognitive abilities such as problem solving and analytical skills (Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan, 2017). Transformation of the country’s assessment system would be needed to build among students and citizens the skills required to meet the targets of the SDGs (Diemer et al., 2020).

Results identified under the employment meta theme in both the National Educational Policy and the Punjab Education Sector Plan focused on ‘workforce’ and ‘career’. ‘Workforce’ is used in the context of developing a skilled workforce that can contribute to the development of Punjab, Pakistan (Nooruddin, 2017), the word ‘career’ is used for career choices and guidance for students (Abbasi and Sarwat, 2014; Arif et al., 2019). This focus suggests that policymakers may have reflected on the demands and needs of the global employment market identified in the OECD document (Colvin and Edwards, 2018).

Finally, in coding the dignity meta theme, ‘fulfilment’ is mentioned once in the National Educational Policy and ‘well-being’ is mentioned once in the Punjab Education Sector Plan. There was no mention of ‘sense of belonging’ or ‘happiness’. Including such terms in the country’s policies could assist in promoting agendas of well-being and social-emotional learning identified by both UNESCO and the OECD as goals closely aligned to education for global competence and global citizenship.

It is acknowledged that this article raises more questions than it answers, but that was to some degree the intention, to provide a foundation for further exploration of how Pakistan and Punjab are adopting, adapting and/or contextualising the UNESCO global citizenship and OECD global competence policies. It was also intended as an example to raise questions as to how other countries, particularly those in the Global South, are internalising these international agendas. This article also acknowledges the identification by Vaccari and Gardinier (2019) and others (for example, Robertson, 2022) of the different, and at times competing, agendas of UNESCO and the OECD, and the dangers of developing nations accepting and/or adopting international agendas, particularly those with funding attached, without due consideration of context. This makes research, such as that described in this article, all the more important as, while academic debates about intent and focuses necessarily continue, the practicalities are that these international agendas are already being incorporated in domestic education policy.

This is evidenced by the increasing use of global citizenship and global competence language through the National Educational Policy 2017, The New Deal 2018–2023, and the Punjab Education Sector Plan 2019/20–2023/24. This inclusion, viewed in conjunction with other activities such as Pakistan’s participation in global assessments and global student competitions, for example, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the International Kangaroo Mathematics Contest, suggests that Pakistan is prioritising education for global competence and global citizenship. The Punjab Education Sector Plan outlines this specifically with aspirational goals to include all elements of Target 4.7 in curriculum, teacher training and student assessment by 2023/4.

An interesting observation of the analysis was that Pakistan’s policymakers appear to be preserving local cultural and social sensitivities as they contextualise the international global competence and global citizenship agendas. Further research needs to be undertaken to explore this observation in greater depth. As outlined, incorporating language in policy documents is the first step towards embedding education for global competence and global citizenship; however, the agenda still faces significant challenges in Pakistan, such as changing the examination system to allow for assessment of higher order thinking. Given that, ultimately, it is teachers who are responsible for implementing these policies in schools and classrooms, the next step in analysing if, and how, education for global competence and global citizenship is being implemented in Pakistan and Punjab will be to conduct research exploring how teachers interpret global competence and global citizenship-related concepts, and how they implement these policy aspirations in their classrooms. It is acknowledged that the findings outlined here are specific to Punjab and Pakistan; however, they may assist in providing insights and/or comparisons into how countries are adopting the international global competence and global citizenship agendas in other local contexts.