The association between presence of sanitation facilities and school enrolment in Pakistan

Abbas A. Gillani

World Development Perspectives, 2021, vol. 21, issue C

Abstract: Pakistan is the seventh worst country in the world in terms of access to basic sanitation facilities, with 1 in 3 schools in Pakistan lacking basic toilet provision. Evidence shows that quality environment and physical infrastructure is linked with improved educational outcomes, although literature quantifying the magnitude, or mechanism, of how a toilet facility at school can increase school participation is a recent area of interest. By using school-level data of over 17.000 schools in Pakistan from The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), this paper estimates the relationship between a school having a toilet facility and enrolment at school, between the years 2013 and 2018. We find a school with a toilet facility is correlated with increased enrolment. Gender-wise breakup of results suggests, that for girls only schools, having a toilet facility was linked with a higher enrolment. However, for boys only schools, and for mixed schools, no robust evidence of any such association between a toilet facility at school and enrolment was found. Future research should focus on quantifying the mechanism behind the heterogeneous effects across gender, as toilet facilities potentially serve as a safe space for girls against harassment, assault and sexual violence.

Keywords: Education; Infrastructure; Gender; Pakistan; JEL; I20; I21; I28; R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:21:y:2021:i:c:s2452292921000035

DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2021.100289

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