Socioeconomic Determinants Of School Progression In Pakistan

Low enrollment and high drop out rates can best be understood by examining a range of socioeconomic factors that affect school progression from primary through secondary to post secondary schools in Pakistan. The study employs a sequential approach which captures the different opportunity costs of education at successive levels of schooling attained by students. The results show that child characteristics, parent’s education and household level variables are important determinants of child school progression. Household income and parent’s education are significantly and positively related to child schooling. The child’s own age as well as the number of siblings (up to age 18) are negatively related to the schooling decision and are an important factor in low enrollment rates and high incidence of dropouts. It was also found that the provision of government schools appeared to be an important predictor of enrollment in Pakistan. The study thus infers that a number of socio economic variables which capture or affect “poverty” are intimately related to the school progression decision.