The Implications of Changing Educational Opportunities in Rural Pakistan 1997-2004: School Access, Choice and Quality

Cynthia B. Lloyd, Population Council
Cem Mete, World Bank Group
Monica Grant, Population Council

This paper will assess the effects of primary schooling opportunities (including access, choice and quality) and recent changes in those opportunities at the community level on a range in school outcomes in rural Punjab and North West Frontier Province. These outcomes include the decision to enter primary school, the age of entry and the completion of primary school. The analysis will be based on two waves of data drawn from 12 rural villages. The first wave was collected in December 1997 and the second wave was conducted roughly 6 years later in January 2004. As far as we know, these data are among the few that have been collected in a developing country setting that track changes in the school environment over time while at the same time following behavioral change within the same setting.