The study, for the UNICEF and Ministry of Education, aimed to inform policy about the interaction between social marginalisation and education in Pakistan using findings of a qualitative field survey in rural and urban sites in each of the four provinces. Social marginalisation was defined here as the process whereby some people face systematic disadvantages in all spheres of life due to their social position or status. The process of marginalisation is inherent in the very construction of a mainstream. In the context of Pakistan, caste, kinship, traditional occupational hierarchies, tribal relations, religion, ethnicity, race and patriarchy are some of the important dimensions of social marginalisation. The study examined conditions in a number of groups considered a priori to be among the social marginalized. It enquired into the interaction between social marginalisation and the formal education system ? to what extent did formal education challenge social marginalisation, did it in any way reinforce marginalisation, and what might be the ways forward? The project also involved the compilation of a database of non-governmental interventions and organizations working on social marginalisation and education