Determinants of Enrollment at Secondary and Higher Level of Education in Pakistan

Abstract

The persistent low enrollment rate at the secondary and higher level of education in Pakistan indicates the failure of the Government to annihilate the illiteracy and ultimately reduce poverty through education. Using annual time series data from the year 1965 to 2015, the study aims to analyze the determinants of the secondary and higher level of educational enrollment of both males and females in Pakistan. The main concentration was on the impact of educational spending by government, number of institutions, GDP per capita to see the healthiness of economic wellbeing of individuals. Moreover, labor market situations have explained by the unemployment rate. Unrestricted VAR and Cointegration technique is employed to identify the relationship among variables. The Results confirms the existence of a significant relationship between the number of institutions and government spending in the long-run for secondary education for females. Besides, the impact of GDP per capita on male secondary enrollment is much stronger than female. While at a higher level of education the GDP per capita, government spending and number of institutions significantly impact the rate of enrollment. A statistically significant and inverse association observed between the unemployment rate and higher enrollment in the long run.

Keywords — Educational Enrollment, Educational Financing, Unemployment, Institutions, GDP Per Capita