REASONS OF LOW LEVELS OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Author: Maliha Naveed

Looking at the Demand Side of Education

Education around the globe is considered as the defining feature of economic and
social development. Pakistan on the supply side has clearly lagged behind in
provision of adequate educational resources and consequently on the demand side
has failed in creating a clear demand for education. However, it is important to
realize that the problems which hinder the provision of education are not just of
mismanagement by government but some of them are deeply rooted in the social
and cultural orientation of the people. Overcoming the latter is difficult and would
require a change in attitude of the people until then universal primary education
is difficult to achieve.

Many reasons could be attributed to it:

Gender Discrimination

Major factors that hinder enrollment rates include opportunity cost, poverty,
cultural constraints, illiteracy of parents and parental concerns about safety and
mobility of their daughters. The economic benefits from schooling are
particularly doubtful for girls as society approves of Pardah. Also, since girls have
a labor force participation rate of only 4.3% of total population (Tahir et.al, 15),
the returns to education seems minimal. Female enrollment rates are low as
schooling system is considered to have a bad impact on girl’s character. Society’s
emphasis on girl’s modesty, protection and early marriages may limit family’s
willingness to send them to school. Enrollment by rural girls is 45% lower than
that by urban girls; while for boys the difference is of 10% only, showing that
gender gap is another factor (Lloyd 106). There exists a positive relation between
enrollment and household incomes. Recent studies have shown that income
shocks (death of family member or animals) affect enrollments, with greater
impact for girls (Lloyd 102).

Cost Of Education

The cost of education is another determinant for parents to decide whether to send
their children; to government schools, private schools or no schools. Cost of
education has increased further due to increased inflation. Educating a child in
public school costs twice to society as would cost in private school. Although
private schools appear cheaper but government fees appear “free” to parents,
however society bears the cost by paying taxes (Andrabi et.al 40). Societal “cost
of learning” is lower in private schools, but private schools are located in richer
settlements only. The paradox is that private schools are better but not everywhere
and governments schools ensure equitable access but do not provide quality
education.

Returns to Education - A Misconception

The issue with non-achievement of primary education to all is due to the low
enrollment rate coupled with very low retention rate; especially for girls. Geeta
Kingdon, in “Education, Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from
Pakistan” explained that returns to education are significantly greater for women
than men in almost all occupations. This could be due to scarcity of educated
women nevertheless; women actually earn less than men because of lack of equal
opportunities. Moreover, returns to wage employment as well as returns to self-
employment increase with the increasing years of education for both genders.
This implies the presence of misconception of education having negative returns
due to the forgone income. Thus there is a strong need to make the students and
their parents aware that returns to education increase with an additional year of
education.

Thus, to improve the cynical condition of education in Pakistan not just provision
of education has to be focused upon by the government but the problems of
demand side of education needs to be addressed as well. Only then could there be
a hope for higher enrollment rates accompanied with proper retention and low
drop outs rate. Parents and society in general has to reshape its preferences and
thinking about education for the system to improve. And to supplement this
government has to provide the resources along with diverse opportunities to
provide proper returns to education. Equality of opportunities where returns of
education could be compensated is the key to fix the demand side problems of
education.