The level of Girls Education in Rural Areas of Pakistan Subject to Socio-Economic, Demographic and Schooling Characteristics: Count Data Models Approach

Abstract

An important determinant of sustainable social and economic development is the education. The objective of this study is to diagnose the determinants of girls’ level of education at household level in rural areas of Pakistan. In this study, the dataset of 941 girls aged 5-18 years has been obtained from Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey 2014. The Generalized Poisson regression model has been utilized and its findings illustrate that household saving,  household income, household assets, parent education, age and employment of household head have positive and significant effects on the girls’ level of education. On the other side, head count poverty, farm work status, school joining age, family size, household debt, household expenditures, Govt. type school, repetition of last class and
domestic work have negative impact on the girls’ level of education. Furthermore, the girls who reside in or near to school and whose school distance is less are more likely to enroll in higher class than the girls who reside far away from school. The government should alleviate poverty and provide employment opportunities in rural areas. There is need to construct schools nearer to rural areas and improve the preschool facilities and functioning of public schools.