The Effect of Gender Differences in Primary School Access and Quality on Schooling Outcomes in Rural Pakistan

Cynthia B. Lloyd, Population Council
Cem Mete, Yale University
Zeba A. Sathar, Population Council

This paper assesses the role of increased access, greater school choice and improved school quality on the primary school enrollment of girls and boys in Pakistan using data collected especially for this purpose in rural Punjab and NorthWest Frontier Province (NWFP) in 1997. A unique contribution is the emphasis on gender-specific dimensions of school accessibility and school quality. Currently married women were interviewed about the schooling history of their children and all primary schools in the communities were visited and assessed through direct observation. This rich data set allows us to explore variations in enrollment as a function of individual, household and community characteristics as well as of school access and school quality. As public primary schools in Pakistan are single sex, we are able to use sex-specific measures of school access and school quality.