Determinants of School Choice: Evidence from Rural Punjab, Pakistan
| Autor: | Sahar Amjad Sheikh, Hamna Ahmed |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
education.field_of_study
Economic growth Equity (economics) Universal Primary Education education Population Developing country Public expenditure Compulsory education Private sector jel:A19 School choice jel:R20 Economics School choice public vs private rural Punjab Pakistan. markets forecasting exchange rate volatility Pakistan |
| Zdroj: | THE LAHORE JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS. 19:1-30 |
| ISSN: | 1811-5446 |
| Popis: | (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1. Introduction and MotivationPakistan has pledged to achieve "education for all" such that all children (particularly girls) have access to free and good-quality primary schooling in line with the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. In the wake of such international initiatives, the country has made some progress in education indicators over the past decade: the gross enrollment rate at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels increased by 15, 6.3, and 3.9 percent between 2001 and 2009. Nonetheless, the country still ranks lowest in terms of education indicators relative to its South Asian comparators (Table A1 in the Appendix). Thus, it is likely Pakistan will miss the deadline for meeting the goals of education for all and universal primary education by 2015.In 2010, under Article 25-A of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, access to free and compulsory education was declared a fundamental right for all children between the ages of 5 and 16 years. But with public expenditure on education declining instead of increasing (from 2.2 percent of GDP in 2005/06 to 2 percent in 2009/10), the current bleak status of education in Pakistan indicates that guaranteeing this right remains a formidable challenge (Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, 2010).In recent years, many developing countries have seen a surge in low-fee private schooling (LFP). De, Majumdar, Noronha, and Samson (2002), Kingdon (2007), and Srivastava (2006) find support for increasing trends in LFP schooling in India. Nearly 30 percent of the rural populace in India "can access a fee-charging primary private school in the same village" (Muralidharan & Kremer, 2006). Srivastava (2007) notes that, although the state of Uttar Pradesh is educationally backward, it has a private school enrolment rate of 57.6 percent-the second highest in the country. The rise of private schooling has also been witnessed in Bolivia where nearly one fifth of all students at the primary and secondary levels are enrolled in private schools (Psacharopoulos, Arieira, & Mattson, 1997). Pakistan has undergone similar trends: in 2010/11, 25 percent of all school- going children were enrolled in private schools (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2011). To consider these trends in a global context, the private enrollment rate in developed countries is generally low; for example, private school enrollment in OECD countries stands at 3 percent due to substantial public investment in education (Checchi et al., 2004).The rise in private schooling has stirred a debate on the merits and possible demerits of this expansion. On the positive side, the private sector offers a cost-effective means of providing education,1 thereby filling the void created by the inadequate supply (both in terms of quality and quantity) of public education services (Tooley, 2004; Tooley & Dixon, 2006; Tooley, Dixon, & Gomathi, 2007). On the other hand, critics of private sector expansion emphasize that the provision of education is one of the core responsibilities of the government; they have also raised concerns about equity (Lewin, 2007; Rose, 2009). Since private schooling entails greater expenditure relative to public schooling, there are doubts about the extent to which the private sector can include the poorest in the economic growth cycle.In the context of Pakistan, however, with shrinking education budgets and weak commitment to education reforms, the private sector has emerged as an important provider of education services for the rural poor (Andrabi et al., 2007; Alderman, Orazem, & Paterno, 2001)2 with 15 percent of all school-going children in the bottom 20 percent of the population attending private schools in rural Pakistan (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2009, Table A2). Against this backdrop, our objective is to assess why parents choose LFP schools for their children when free public schools are available. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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