1. 1
Identifying Impediments to
Girls Education:
Kohat | Buner | Haripur | Charsadda
(Khyber Pakhtunkwa)
Children’s Global Network Pakistan
Research Report Launch
21st December 2016
Peshawar

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
“To carry out a qualitative research study in four target districts of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa – identifying the impediments to girls’ education and contribute to
the knowledge base to stimulate a debate at the provincial and national level on
how to overcome the barriers to female education in Pakistan.”
2

3. TARGET DISTRICTS
3
Buner
Haripur
Kohat
Charsadda

4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 What are the causes that contribute to low girl’s enrollment in schools?
 What factors cause high dropout rates of girls from schools?
 What possible measures could be taken by the community, parents, teachers
and district education department officials to help increase girls’ enrollment and
retention in schools up till secondary level?
4

5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & APPROACH
 Both qualitative and quantitative
research methods were used.
 The data was collected using the
following methods:
i. Focused Group Discussions
(FGDs)
ii. In-depth Interviews (IDIs)
iii. Case Studies
iv. Secondary Data
5
Glimpses: Focus Group Discussions | In-depth
Interviews

6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & APPROACH
 Parents of three categories were engaged in focus group discussions:
i. Parents of enrolled girls
ii. Parents of out of school girls
iii. Parents of dropout girls
 Separate FGDs were held with fathers and mothers (147 parents) of the girls which were moderated by
the research associates.
 Each session was comprised of 6 to 8 participants with the time duration of 45 to 60 minutes.
 The FGDs (conducted in Pushto) were audio recorded and later transcribed in English for analysis.
 All the interviews were conducted face-to-face and later transcribed for analysis.
 “Purposive Sampling” technique was adopted for data collection.
6

7. NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN EACH DISTRICT
Area Focused groups with parents of 3
categories :
Interview District
Education Officers
Interview
Head
Teachers
Case Studies
Drop-out
Girls
Enrolled
Girls
Out of school
Girls
Kohat 2 3 2 2 1 2
Buner 2 2 2 1 1 2
Haripur 2 2 2 1 1 2
Charsadd
a
2 2 2 2 1 2
Total FGDs Interviews Case Studies
25 06 04 08 7

8. DATA ANALYSIS
 The qualitative analysis was done using NVivo
 The code book was developed by 3 coders to enhance accuracy
 The quantitative data analysis was done on SPSS
8

9. MAJOR BARRIERS
 From Focus Group Discussions (Parents of enrolled, drop out and out of school), In depth
Interviews (HT, DEO, AEO) & Case study analysis
 Poverty
 Long distance to schools leading to safety concerns
 Early Marriages
 Disability
 Work value proposition for families
9

10. RESEARCH FINDINGS
 The results show that enrollment of girls to school is correlated to education of the parents.
 The higher the parental education the more likely it is that girls go to school.
 The correlation of distance of school is reflected as a significant variable in all three categories
of interviewed parents.
 The distance affects enrollment and retention rates at a significance level.
 Distance of school from home is negatively correlated to enrollment, the closer the school the more girls are
likely to go.
 Also the distance of school is also negatively correlated to the number of drop out and out of schoolgirls.
 The school fee and distance of school are correlated, when the distance to school is more the school fee is less.
This is mainly because the schools in the town are usually private schools, which charge a higher fee, while those
schools that are away from the town center are mostly public schools charging no fee or very minimal level of fee.
10

11. RESEARCH FINDINGS
 The regression analysis was conducted on the data to see which variable had a predictable effect on
dropout rate as well as out of school rate.
 The results reflected that household expenses: school fee, distance of school as well as the mode of
communication had about 42.4% predictable value on drop out of girls from school; while household
expenses and special conveyance had a significant effect.
 When the household expense was more or the girl had to use special conveyance to go to school she was more
like to drop out of school.
 Similar results were seen for out-of-school girls where household expenses, school fee, distance of
school as well as the mode of communication were predicted to be 62.3% of the reason why girls were
never enrolled in school.
 Confirmed delivery of stipend programme, provision of missing facilities, budgets availability of HT,
provision of free books.
 Unawareness on child protection – where to go, whom to talk about? 11

12. CASE STUDIES ANALYSIS
BARRIERS/PROBLEMS
Not enough financial resources
Girls having to work to support the family
Distance of school from home
School for the disabled/ special schools
Cultural norms/ female education
12

13. RECOMMENDATIONS
 Good Quality Service Delivery
 Work with teachers
 Empower and monitor school administrators
 Improve and maintain infrastructure
 Service delivery for special children
 Skill based curriculum
 Addressing Safety Concerns:
 Address terrorism issue
 Improve child protection
 Provide safe access
13
 Addressing Poverty
 Stipend program
 Awareness to address cultural and social
impediments
 Awareness campaigns

14. GOOD QUALITY SERVICE DELIVERY
 Work with teachers
 Continue merit based appointments on National Testing Service (NTS) results and invest in continued professional
development programs designed to help teachers improve their teaching techniques.
 Incentivize and promote teachers on basis of a wholesome evaluation, which measures their personal capability (test),
and their students’ performance in the school.
 Introduce clear incentives for good performance, as well as a strong retribution policy for negligence and professional
misconduct.
 Encourage and support a school culture that incentivizes head teacher and senior teachers to regularly observe, help and
support junior teachers is better.
 Empower and monitor school administrators
 Commission strategic review of school administrators’ authority structure and enable faster decision making
regarding underperforming staff, without compromising teaching service structure.
 Continue to strengthen Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) and other such interventions and invest more in monitoring and
evaluation of teachers, students and administrators within education sector in KP.
 School within the same district should have regular interaction to encourage formal sharing of teaching techniques.
14

15.  Improve and maintain infrastructure
 Regular space verification by education department to ensure schools do not cross children per room limitations and follow
basic building safety protocols.
 Encourage and support decoration of classrooms with chart papers and posters to make the environment more educationally
productive.
 Invest in maintaining and building private functioning toilets for girls at an urgent priority.
 Provide washroom trainings to children, and where possible, equip with soap, towels and other necessary sanitation items for
girls.
 Service delivery for special children
 An assessment needs to be conducted across the districts to determine the number of special children. On the basis of the
assessment,. special schools need to be built but in areas where the population of special children does not warrant a whole
school, the existing schools should be provided resources to cater to these children Special teachers should be trained in terms of
dealing with physically and mentally disabled children. Besides teachers, specifically for these classes all other teachers should
also be provided training to identify children with psychological problems like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
autism, and dyslexia so they can be provided education through appropriate style.
 Skill based curriculum
 Vocational training component should also be added in the school curriculum. In the short-term skills, that can be used at home or
to help parents, encourage parents to see more value in educating their girls, enabling them to continue for longer.
15

16.  Addressing Safety Concerns
 It is clear that some issues like terrorism are beyond education department’s control, and in such circumstances
education department should inform parents of its limitations and ensure safety to the extent possible.
 Where possible, government should give training on better protection, safety and other needs in troubled times.
 If and when situation is improved, and the education department has taken necessary measures (like in Buner), then it is
important to invest in communication of these measures to parents, so they feel safe in sending their children to schools.
 Improve child protection
 Introduce anonymous helplines, or provide other means for children and parents to report child abuse and corporal
punishment.
 Strengthen child protection units, and invest in raising awareness about them within the education system.
 Carry out awareness campaigns within schools, especially for girls to make them aware of their rights, safe environment,
appropriate punishment, and acceptable teaching style.
 Provide safe access
 In order to improve enrollment and maintain retention, it is absolutely necessary to provide safe access to school.
Therefore, any investment in a public school transport system in KP will be met with great positivity.
 Also investing in cheaper alternatives like training and encouraging old people within communities to watch out spaces
from where girls travel to school, or provide ‘walking support’ can be very useful.
16

17.  Addressing Poverty
 The stipend program is a great success, and has increased enrollment within the districts visited, however there
is room for improvement. Parents’ request introduction of stipend program from primary level, this
recommendation should be explored if there are enough funds.
 Stipend program should also incentivize hard work, and a pilot should be initiated to see the effects of introducing
variation in stipends based on performance on girls in school.
 Nutrition, medicine and other incentive based programs encourage poor families to send their daughters to
school. Depending on the poverty indicators of an area, such programs should be piloted case-by-case basis.
17

18. AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS
 Governments should continue its enrollments walks, campaigns and other similar activities. They are
successful and result in community being aware of the improvements at public schools.
 Success stories from girls who were educated and are earning well should be shared within the community
to improve perceptions about educating girl children.
 Head teachers should be given special budgets to hold neighborhood meetings bi-annually, these meetings
should be attended by members of the PTC, parents, and other community members to raise awareness
about the benefits of education and the good work being done at the government schools.
 Strategic campaigns in collaboration with the health department that campaign on the health consequences of
early marriages and medical issues faced by females due to them.
 Conscious effort should be made by the Head Teachers to meet with the parents of girls who want to take
their daughter out of school. When parents want to remove their daughter from school, the school should get
them to fill an exit survey. This will help in collect data about retention rates that can be later used to develop
policies.
 Involve parents and the community at large in school events and competition to form a bond with the
community to reduce stigmatized image of female education.
 It is often discovered that although government schools are improving, their enrollment does not increase
because community is not aware of the improvements, therefore government schools must advertise their
strengths and progress within respective communities. 18

19. FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
 Future research needs to look at the following topics:
 How can stipend program be used to incentivize better performance in schools, while ensuring it
continues to encourage enrollment and retention?
 How can school administrators (principals) be empowered to take quicker decisions regarding their
underperforming teachers, without compromising the teaching service structure?
 A study that differentiates between rural and urban school will be able to provide dual benefits by
suggesting policies that are feasible in both type of communities.
19

20. Thank you
20