Ninth Annual Conference on Management of the Pakistan Economy Human Capital Development for Sustained Economic Growth/ Education Access and Quality for Rural Girls

Abstract

While there has been improvement in schooling outcomes for girls in the decade 2001- 2011, progress is uneven within Pakistan. Rural girls lag far behind urban girls and progress across provinces is uneven. The transition to secondary school, in ways much more critical for improving employability and reproductive health and other outcomes, shows even more uneven progress by province and income class. Questions about the preference for public versus private schools and the actual choice of schools available to girls in most rural areas need to be answered if we are serious about a rapid escalation of secondary school enrollments for girls. The Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) 2001-02 and Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Surveys (PSLM) 2007-08 and 2010-11 are going to be utilized to look at patterns in this transition. Access is likely to be the main driving force behind the transition to secondary level schooling. Initial findings reflect the almost total reliance on public schools for 10-14 year old girls. This suggests that private secondary schools are not an option for girls in rural areas. The next major intervening factor is household income level - public schools for girls are the only choice it seems even for the rich families. Data also suggest that girls in poor and large families are competing against their brothers and other siblings for limited resources. Most important secondary school is only an option on completion of primary school and choices are greater at the primary school level. We study the choice of secondary school as condition on factors driving primary school completion. Regional patterns reflect the expansion of private schools in Punjab and KP and not so much in Sindh and Balochistan. We will utilize extensive rich data from a Population Council study from 16 communities of Punjab and KP and Sindh with detailed information on numbers and quality of schools within and outside the community and schooling outcomes. This will supplement the main analysis from the PSLMS. We will run regressions to observe the weight of three set of factors i.e., choice and distance to assess the transition from primary to secondary school for girls.