Nasir Iqbal

Education Poverty in Pakistan: A Spatial Analysis at District Level

This study aims, first to construct an education poverty index (EPI) for Pakistan using household data; second, to investigate the spatial differences of education poverty (EP) at district level; and third to find the socio-economic determinants of EP. Four different dimensions are used to construct EPI using the Alkire Foster (AF) method. The results show that 26 per cent households are below the poverty cut-off in Pakistan. The ratio is high in rural area of Pakistan (33 per cent) as compared to urban areas of Pakistan (12 per cent). Similar trend has been observed across all provinces. The majority of the households are deprived in terms of cost of education. Empirical analysis shows that various socio-economic variables such as income, regional variation and awareness play very important role in explaining EP. To eradicate education deprivation, area- and dimension-specific policies are required to make efficient use of scarce resources.