<![CDATA[English controls academic and professional access in Pakistan, yet the National Education Policy Development Framework (NEPDF) 2024 completely ignores informal digital learning of English (IDLE), which refers to self-directed learning through digital tools: WhatsApp, YouTube, and chatbots. No prior study has examined this policy-practice gap within Pakistan’s post-2024 framework, particularly across urban and rural communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh. This qualitative case study gathered perspectives from 20 undergraduate students, 10 teachers, and 5 policymakers through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and content analysis of NEPDF 2024 and provincial policy texts, analyzed using NVivo-facilitated STAP thematic analysis. Findings show that students and teachers actively use IDLE tools while policymakers remain largely unaware. The IDLE-informed policy model (IIPM), grounded in connectivism, sociocultural theory (SCT), and learner autonomy, is proposed as a practical policy framework that incorporates low-bandwidth tools like WhatsApp to expand access for under-resourced learners. This study contributes to educational evaluation by assessing the alignment between Pakistan’s national language policy and grassroots IDLE practices, producing a transferable policy evaluation model for global south English as a foreign language (EFL) context.]]>
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