Determinants of School Enrollment in Balochistan

Educational attainment in Pakistan has been historically low as compared to other countries in the region. Currently the primary net enrollment rate (NER) in Pakistan is sixty six percent which is far below that of some of the other countries in the region. It is also evident that there is great disparity within Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan which has a primary NER of fifty six percent as compared to the Punjab province which has a primary NER of seventy percent. This project examined various factors that influence enrollment decisions in Pakistan however; there have been relatively few recent studies that examine the determinants of schooling decisions and gender differentials in schooling in Balochistan. This analysis consists of three main components: (i) constructing profiles of children in Balochistan by schooling status; (ii) conducting a decomposition of variance of schooling status; and (iii) a logistic regression analysis to determine gender differentials in school enrollment. The project results suggest that for six - ten year olds in Balochistan the majority of variation in schooling status is explained between households rather than within households, while for eleven - fifteen year olds the majority of variation in schooling status is explained by within household differences. Poverty also plays a major role in determining whether or not a child is enrolled in school, as children belonging to the poorest wealth quintile in the six - ten age groups are four times more likely to be out of school than children in the richest wealth quintile