Determinants of School Choice: Evidence from Rural Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The objective of this study is to understand why parents in rural areas choose low-cost private schools when free public schools are available. The study employs data from the Privatization in Education Research Initiative (PERI) School Choice Survey, 2011. The sample under study comprises 5–18-year-old children enrolled in private or public schools at the primary, secondary, or high school level in eight rural tehsils across Punjab, Pakistan. Our methodology entails specifying a probability choice model to understand what determines school choice in a rural setting. The variable of interest is parents’ perceptions of their child’s competence, the quality of the child’s school, and the employment opportunities available to the child. The model also controls for a range of child-, parent-, and household-specific characteristics. Five main factors emerge as important determinants of private school choice. These include the socioeconomic status of the household, the degree of a school’s accessibility, the cost of schooling, parents’ perceptions of school quality, and their perceptions of the available employment opportunities in the region.