Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data

Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject by policymakers in Pakistan and those internationally, it is troubling that none of the...

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Main Authors: Andrabi, Tahir, Das, Jishnu, Khwaja, Asim Ijaz, Zajonc, Tristan
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/02/5629056/religious-school-enrollment-pakistan-look-data
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8914
id okr-10986-8914
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-89142021-04-23T14:02:42Z Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data Andrabi, Tahir Das, Jishnu Khwaja, Asim Ijaz Zajonc, Tristan ACCESS TO EDUCATION ADULTS AGED CALL DISABLED CHILDREN EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION STATISTICS EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT EDUCATIONAL HISTORY EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS ENROLLMENT ENROLLMENT GROWTH ENROLLMENT RATE ENROLLMENT RATES ENROLLMENTS EXERCISES FAMILIES GER GIRLS GROSS ENROLLMENT GROSS ENROLLMENT RATIO HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS JOURNALS LEARNING LITERACY LITERACY CLASSES MEDIA ORPHANS PAPERS PARENTS PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOLS PRIVATE SCHOOLS PUBLIC EDUCATION PUBLIC SCHOOLS RELIGIOUS EDUCATION SCHOOL CENSUS SCHOOL CHOICE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECULAR EDUCATION SIBLINGS TEACHING Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject by policymakers in Pakistan and those internationally, it is troubling that none of the reports and articles reviewed based their analysis on publicly available data or established statistical methodologies. The authors of this paper use published data sources and a census of schooling choice to show that existing estimates are inflated by an order of magnitude. Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The educational landscape in Pakistan has changed substantially in the past decade, but this is due to an explosion of private schools, an important fact that has been left out of the debate on Pakistani education. Moreover, when the authors look at school choice, they find that no one explanation fits the data. While most existing theories of madrassa enrollment are based on household attributes (for instance, a preference for religious schooling or the household s access to other schooling options), the data show that among households with at least one child enrolled in a madrassa, 75 percent send their second (and/or third) child to a public or private school or both. Widely promoted theories simply do not explain this substantial variation within households. 2012-06-25T14:46:33Z 2012-06-25T14:46:33Z 2005-02 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/02/5629056/religious-school-enrollment-pakistan-look-data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8914 English Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3521 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia Pakistan
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ACCESS TO EDUCATION
ADULTS
AGED
CALL
DISABLED CHILDREN
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION STATISTICS
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS
ENROLLMENT
ENROLLMENT GROWTH
ENROLLMENT RATE
ENROLLMENT RATES
ENROLLMENTS
EXERCISES
FAMILIES
GER
GIRLS
GROSS ENROLLMENT
GROSS ENROLLMENT RATIO
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
JOURNALS
LEARNING
LITERACY
LITERACY CLASSES
MEDIA
ORPHANS
PAPERS
PARENTS
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
PUBLIC EDUCATION
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
SCHOOL CENSUS
SCHOOL CHOICE
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
SCHOOLING
SCHOOLS
SECULAR EDUCATION
SIBLINGS
TEACHING
spellingShingle ACCESS TO EDUCATION
ADULTS
AGED
CALL
DISABLED CHILDREN
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION STATISTICS
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS
ENROLLMENT
ENROLLMENT GROWTH
ENROLLMENT RATE
ENROLLMENT RATES
ENROLLMENTS
EXERCISES
FAMILIES
GER
GIRLS
GROSS ENROLLMENT
GROSS ENROLLMENT RATIO
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
JOURNALS
LEARNING
LITERACY
LITERACY CLASSES
MEDIA
ORPHANS
PAPERS
PARENTS
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
PUBLIC EDUCATION
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
SCHOOL CENSUS
SCHOOL CHOICE
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
SCHOOLING
SCHOOLS
SECULAR EDUCATION
SIBLINGS
TEACHING
Andrabi, Tahir
Das, Jishnu
Khwaja, Asim Ijaz
Zajonc, Tristan
Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
geographic_facet South Asia
Pakistan
relation Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3521
description Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject by policymakers in Pakistan and those internationally, it is troubling that none of the reports and articles reviewed based their analysis on publicly available data or established statistical methodologies. The authors of this paper use published data sources and a census of schooling choice to show that existing estimates are inflated by an order of magnitude. Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The educational landscape in Pakistan has changed substantially in the past decade, but this is due to an explosion of private schools, an important fact that has been left out of the debate on Pakistani education. Moreover, when the authors look at school choice, they find that no one explanation fits the data. While most existing theories of madrassa enrollment are based on household attributes (for instance, a preference for religious schooling or the household s access to other schooling options), the data show that among households with at least one child enrolled in a madrassa, 75 percent send their second (and/or third) child to a public or private school or both. Widely promoted theories simply do not explain this substantial variation within households.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Andrabi, Tahir
Das, Jishnu
Khwaja, Asim Ijaz
Zajonc, Tristan
author_facet Andrabi, Tahir
Das, Jishnu
Khwaja, Asim Ijaz
Zajonc, Tristan
author_sort Andrabi, Tahir
title Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
title_short Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
title_full Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
title_fullStr Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
title_full_unstemmed Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan : A Look at the Data
title_sort religious school enrollment in pakistan : a look at the data
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/02/5629056/religious-school-enrollment-pakistan-look-data
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8914
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