Determinants of Schooling in Rural Areas of Pakistan

Abstract

The twin problems of low school enrolment and high gender disparity have widely been addressed in the literature. In this paper we investigate the determinants of schooling of children overall and separately for boys and girls using primary data of rural households. The contribution of this paper lies in integrating the child schooling decisions of the households by rigorous econometric analysis. The empirical estimates based on the model point to certain findings. The first enrolment of children in schools is delayed and it is more severe for girls. There exists gender disparity in children’s schooling. The head of the household education significantly increases the probability of overall children’s schooling. It has a greater effect on boy’s schooling and does not matter in girl’s schooling. The head of household income has a slight impact on overall children’s enrolment but for girls it is significantly higher than boys. Parental education also significantly increases the probability of child’s schooling. Mother’s education exerts a much stronger effect of increasing school enrolment. The estimates of the gender specific determinants suggest that maternal education increases the likelihood of girl’s schooling enrolment than of boys. Higher per capita income of households and ownership of assets by households increases the probability of school attendance. Family size and household composition also plays a significant role. Children from large families are more likely to go to school but children from households with a large number of children (up to 15 years) are less likely to go to school. Similarly, children from households with larger number of children (in the age group of 5-15) are less likely to go to school. It is sibling size (in both age groups) which hinders the schooling of children, not the family size.