Abstract
In this article, we review research on the economics and sociology of education to assess the relationships between family and community variables and children’s educational outcomes in South Asia. At the family level, we examine the variables of family socioeconomic status (SES), parental education, family structure, and religion and caste. At the community level, we assess the limited research on the relationships between economic, cultural, and social characteristics and children’s educational outcomes. The literature presents several consistent relationships between the roles of family and community characteristics in determining educational outcomes and reveals several possibilities for further research.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
More frequent data collection initiatives, better access to computing power, and a growing emphasis on evidence-based policymaking are some of the reasons for these recent developments. Fuller (1986) is an example of another comprehensive but dated review of the literature on the determinants of schooling outcomes in Asia and other developing regions.
Most recently attempts have been made to collect internationally comparable learning data in India, but such information is still not available on a national scale (Das and Zajonc 2008). Leading researchers are now making important strides in this area of work, however. For instance, most recently the journal Education Economics devoted an entire issue to quality education in South Asia (Kingdon and Riboud 2009). This literature on learning outcomes is still under development in the South Asian context but it is much more developed in areas outside this region (for a broader literature review see Chudgar and Luschei 2009).
Furthermore, though it is known that family- and community-level characteristics are intertwined and affect each other, researchers find it hard to separate family from community influences, and vice versa. It is also worth noting that educational outcomes can affect family and community characteristics. For example, high-performing children can encourage their parents to get more education or to initiate community-improvement programs. However, no research on these topics has been conducted in South Asia.
According to data compiled by economists Barro and Lee (2001), between 1960 and 2000 the average years of education of adult men and women in South Asia increased significantly, with the exception of Afghanistan. Improvements in average educational attainment in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal are particularly modest: average attainment increased from about 1 year in 1960 to less than 3 years in 2000. The increases in India and Pakistan are better: from 2 years of education in 1960 to 4 years of education in 2000. In any given year, Sri Lanka’s average educational attainment has been far larger than in other South Asian countries: from 4 years in 1960 to 7 years in 2000. Regarding the gender gaps in the average educational attainment of adults, larger pro-male gaps persist in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan—greater than 1 year of education. In Burma and Sri Lanka, the pro-male gender gaps are smaller—less than 1 year. In Nepal in the early 1960s and 1970s there was no gender gap because the educational attainments of both men and women were nearly zero; over time, Nepal’s pro-male gender gaps became similar to those in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
In a different context, using data for 22 countries from the Demographic and Health Survey, Desai and Alva (1998) showed that the relationship between a mother’s education and her children’s health outcomes was uniformly reduced once the researchers accounted for the father’s education, various socio-economic status indicators, and location. Thus they call into question the causal link between maternal education and children’s well-being.
References
Ahmed, M., Ahmed, K. S., Khan, N. I., & Ahmed, R. (2007). Access to education in Bangladesh: Country analytic review of primary and secondary school. http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_documents/Bangladesh_CAR.pdf.
Alderman, H., Behrman, J., Ross, D., & Sabot, R. (1996). Decomposing the gender gap in cognitive skills in a poor rural economy. Journal of Human Resources, 31(1), 229–254.
Andrabi, T., Das, J., & Khwaja, A. (2008). A dime a day: The possibilities and limits of private schooling in Pakistan. Comparative Education Review, 52(3), 329–355.
Andrabi, T., Das, J., Khwaja, A., & Zajonc, T. (2006). Religious school enrolment in Pakistan: A look at the data. Comparative Education Review, 50(3), 446–477.
Arends-Kuenning, M., & Amin, S. (2004). School incentive programs and children’s activities: The case of Bangladesh. Comparative Education Review, 48, 295–317.
Arunatilake, N. (2006). Education participation in Sri Lanka—Why all are not in school. International Journal of Educational Research, 45(3), 137–152.
Asadullah, M. N. (2006). Returns to education in Bangladesh. Education Economics, 14(4), 453–468.
Asadullah, M. N., & Chaudhury, N. (2009). Reverse gender gap in schooling in Bangladesh: Insights from urban and rural households. Journal of Development Studies, 46(8), 1360–1380.
Aslam, M. (2009a). Education gender gaps in Pakistan: Is the labour market to blame? Economic Development and Cultural Change, 57(4), 747–784.
Aslam, M. (2009b). The relative effectiveness of government and private schools in Pakistan: Are girls worse off? Education Economics, 17(3), 329–354.
Aturupane, H. (1997). Earnings functions and rates of return to education in Sri Lanka (UC-ISS Project Working Paper Series No. 9701). Colombo: University of Colombo.
Aturupane, H., Glewwe, P., & Wisniewski, S. (2007). The impact of school quality, socio-economic factors and child health on students’ academic performance: Evidence from Sri Lankan primary schools. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Barro, R., & Lee, J.-W. (2001). International data on educational attainment: Updates and implications. Oxford Economic Papers, 53(3), 541–563.
Becker, G. (1981). A treatise on the family: Enlarged edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Behrman, J. (1999). Schooling in Asia: Selected micro evidence on determinants and effects and policy implications. Journal of Asian Economics, 10, 147–194.
Behrman, J., Foster, A., Rosenzweig, M., & Vasishthan, P. (1999). Women’s schooling, home teaching, and economic growth. Journal of Political Economy, 17, 682–714.
Bennell, P. (1996). Rates of return to education: Does the conventional pattern prevail in sub-Saharan Africa? World Development, 24(1), 183–199.
Benoliel, S., Ilon, L., Sutton, M., Karmacharya, D., Lamichhane, S., Rajbhandry, P., et al. (1995). Promoting education for girls in Nepal (CDIE Impact Evaluation No. 5). Washington, DC: USAID.
Bhalotra, S., & Heady, C. (2003). Child farm labor: The wealth paradox. World Bank Economic Review, 17, 197–227.
Borooah, V., & Iyer, S. (2005). Vidya, Veda, and Varna: The influence of religion and caste on education in rural India. Journal of Development Studies, 41(8), 1369–1404.
Buchmann, C., & Hannum, E. (2001). Education and stratification in developing countries: A review of theories and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 77–102.
CAMPE [Campaign for Popular Literacy] (1999). Hope not complacency: State of primary education in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The University Press Limited.
Chamarbagwala, R. (2008). Regional returns to education, child labor, and schooling in India. Journal of Development Studies, 44(2), 233–257.
Chaudhury, N., Hammer, J., Kremer, M., Muralidharan, K., & Rogers, H. (2006). Missing in action: Teacher and health worker absence in developing countries. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), 91–116.
Chudgar, A. (2006). Factors associated with decisions to educate sons and daughters in India. Unpublished paper, Stanford University.
Chudgar, A. (2008). Looking beyond the household: The importance of community-level factors in understanding underrepresentation of girls in Indian education. In M. A. Maslak (Ed.), The structure and agency of women’s education (pp. 201–218). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Chudgar, A. (2009). Does adult literacy have a role to play in addressing the Universal Elementary Education challenge in India? Comparative Education Review, 53(3), 403–433.
Chudgar, A., & Luschei, T. (2009). National income, income inequality, and the importance of schools: A hierarchical cross-national comparison. American Educational Research Journal, 46(3), 626–658.
Cockcroft, A., Andersson, N., Milne, D., Omer, K., Ansari, N., Khan, A., et al. (2009). Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(4), 342–349.
Coleman, J. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. The American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
Dar, A., Blunch, N.-H., Kim, B., & Sasaki, M. (2002). Participation of children in schooling and labor activities: A review of empirical studies (Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0221). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Das, J. & Zajonc, T. (2008). India shining and Bharat drowning: Comparing two Indian states to the worldwide distribution in mathematics achievement (Policy Research Working Paper No. 4644). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Desai, S., & Alva, S. (1998). Maternal education and child health: Is there a causal relationship? Demography, 35(1), 71–81.
Dhakal, D. P., Grabowski, R., & Belbase, K. (1987). The effect of education in Nepal’s traditional agriculture. Economics of Education Review, 6(1), 27–34.
Dréze, J., & Kingdon, G. (2003). School participation in India. Review of Development Economics, 5, 1–24.
Duraisamy, P. (2002). Changes in returns to education in India, 1983–94: By gender, age-cohort and location. Economics of Education Review, 21(6), 609–622.
Duraisamy, P., & Malathy, R. (1991). Impact of public programs on fertility and gender specific investment in human capital of children in rural India: Cross-sectional and time series analyses. Research in Population Economics, 7, 157–187.
Edlund, L. & Rahman, A. (2005). Household structure and child outcomes: Nuclear vs. extended families—Evidence from Bangladesh. Working Paper, Columbia University.
Edmonds, E. (2003). Child labor in South Asia. OECD Social, Employment, and Migration Working Paper (No. 5). Paris: OECD.
Edmonds, E. (2008). Child labor. In T. P. Schultz & J. Strauss (Eds.), Handbook of development economics, Vol 4 (pp. 3607–3709). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Epstein, J., & Sanders, M. (2000). Connecting home, school, and community: New directions in social research. In M. Hallinan (Ed.), Handbook of the sociology of education (pp. 285–306). New York: Springer.
Fafchamps, M., & Quisumbing, A. (1999). Social roles, human capital, and the intrahousehold division of labor: Evidence from Pakistan (FCND Discussion Paper 73). Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.
Filmer, D., & Pritchett, L. (1999). Educational enrollment and attainment in India: Household wealth, gender, village, and state effects. Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, 13(2), 135–164.
Fuller, B. (1986). Is primary school quality eroding in the third world? Comparative Education Review, 30(4), 491–507.
Glewwe, P., & Kremer, M. (2006). Schools, teachers, and education outcomes in developing countries. In E. Hanushek & F. Welch (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (Vol. 2, pp. 945–1018). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Govinda, R., & Bandopadhyay, M. (2008). Access to elementary education in India: Country analytical review. http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_documents/India_CAR.pdf.
Goyal, S. (2009). Inside the house of learning: The relative performance of public and private schools in Orissa. Education Economics, 17(3), 315–327.
Hannum, E., & Buchmann, C. (2004). Global educational expansion and socio-economic development: An assessment of findings from the social sciences. World Development, 33(3), 333–354.
Hanushek, E. (2009). School policy: Implications of recent research for human capital investments in South Asia and other developing countries. Education Economics, 17(3), 291–313.
Hazarika, G. (2001). The sensitivity of primary school enrolment to the costs of post-primary schooling in rural Pakistan: A gender perspective. Education Economics, 10(2), 237–244.
Heyneman, S., & Loxley, W. (1983). The effect of primary-school quality on academic achievement across twenty-nine high- and low-income countries. American Journal of Sociology, 88(6), 1162–1194.
Holmes, J. (2003). Measuring the determinants of school completion in Pakistan: Analysis of censoring and selection bias. Economics of Education Review, 22, 249–264.
Jamison, D., & Lockheed, M. (1987). Participation in schooling: Determinants and learning outcomes in Nepal. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 35(2), 279–306.
Jamison, D., & Moock, P. (1984). Farmer education and farm efficiency in Nepal: The role of schooling, extension services, and cognitive skills. World Development, 12(1), 67–86.
Jeejeebhoy, S. (1993). Family size: Outcomes for children and gender disparities. Economic and Political Weekly, 28, 1811–1821.
Kambhampati, U., & Rajan, R. (2006). Economic growth: A panacea for child labor? World Development, 34(3), 426–445.
Kingdon, G. (2005). Where has all the bias gone? Detecting gender bias in the household allocation of educational expenditure. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 53(2), 409–451.
Kingdon, G., & Riboud, M. (2009). Introduction. Education Economics, 17(3), 287–289.
Kingdon, G., & Unni, J. (2001). Education and women’s labour market outcomes in India. Education Economics, 9(2), 173–195.
Kochar, A. (2004). Urban influences on rural schooling in India. Journal of Development Economics, 74, 113–136.
Koolwal, G. (2007). Son preference and child labor in Nepal: The household impact of sending girls to work. World Development, 35(5), 881–903.
Kremer, M., Chaudhury, N., Hammer, J., Muralidharan, K., & Rogers, H. (2005). Teacher absence in India: A snapshot. Journal of the European Economic Association, 3(2–3), 658–667.
Lloyd, C., Mete, C., & Grant, M. (2009). The implications of changing educational and family circumstances for children’s grade progression in rural Pakistan: 1997–2004. Economics of Education Review, 28, 152–160.
Lockheed, M., Jamison, D., & Lau, L. (1980). Farmer education and farmer efficiency: A survey. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 29(1), 37–76.
Loury, G. (1981). Intergenerational transfers and the distribution of earnings. Econometrica, 49(4), 843–867.
Maitra, P. (2003). Schooling and educational attainment: Evidence from Bangladesh. Education Economics, 11, 129–153.
McAslan, E. (2002). Social capital and development. In V. Desai & R. Potter (Eds.), The companion to development studies (pp. 139–144). London: Hodder Arnold.
Murthi, M., Guio, A.-C., & Dréze, J. (1995). Mortality, fertility, and gender bias in India: A district-level analysis. Population and Development Review, 17(3), 415–434.
Nath, S. (2002). The transition from non-formal to formal education: The case of BRAC, Bangladesh. International Review of Education, 48, 517–524.
Nechyba, T., Older-Aguilar, D., & McEwan, P. (1999). The effect of family and community resources on education outcomes. Duke University: Unpublished manuscript.
Prennushi, G. (1999). Nepal: Poverty at the turn of the twenty-first century: Main report and background studies (South Asia Region Internal Discussion Paper IDP 174). Washington, DC: World Bank.
PROBE Team [Public Report on Basic Education] (1999). The PROBE report: Public Report on Basic Education in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Psacharopoulos, G., & Patrinos, H. (2004). Returns to investment in education: A further update. Education Economics, 12(2), 111–134.
Ranasinghe, A., & Hartog, J. (2002). Free education in Sri Lanka. Does it eliminate the family effect? Economics of Education Review, 21, 623–633.
Rao, V., & Walton, M. (Eds.). (2004). Culture and public action: A cross-disciplinary dialogue on development policy. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ravallion, M., & Wodon, Q. (1999). Does child labor displace schooling? Responses to an enrolment subsidy. Economic Journal, 110(462), C158–C175.
Rose, E. (2004). Education and hypergamy in the marriage market. Working paper. University of Washington.
Rosenzweig, M. R., & Evenson, R. (1977). Fertility, schooling, and the economic contribution of children in rural India: An econometric analysis. Econometrica, 45(5), 1965–1979.
Rosenzweig, M. R., & Schultz, P. (1982). Market opportunities, genetic endowments, and intrafamily resource distribution: Child survival in rural India. American Economic Review, 72(4), 803–815.
Sachar, R. (2006). Social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India: A report. New Delhi: Prime Minister’s High Level Committee, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.
Salmon, C. (2002). Performance of the Bangladeshi labor market during the nineties. Background paper prepared for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
Sankar, D. (2007). What is the progress in elementary education participation in India during the last two decades? An analysis using NSS education rounds, South Asia sector for human development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Schultz, T. (1975). The value of the ability to deal with disequilibria. Journal of Economic Literature, 13(3), 827–846.
Schultz, T. P. (2001). Why governments should invest more to educate girls. World Development, 30(2), 207–225.
Sen, A. (2004). How does culture matter? In V. Rao & M. Walton (Eds.), Culture and public action: A cross-disciplinary dialogue on development policy (pp. 37–58). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Shafiq, M. N. (2007a). Household schooling and child labor decisions in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Asian Economics, 18(6), 946–966.
Shafiq, M. N. (2007b). Household rates of return to education in rural Bangladesh: Accounting for direct costs, child labour, and option value. Education Economics, 15(3), 343–358.
Shafiq, M. N. (2009). A reversal of educational fortune? Educational gender gaps in Bangladesh. Journal of International Development, 21(1), 137–155.
Shariff, A. (1999). India: Human development report: A profile of Indian states in the 1990s. New Delhi: NCAER and Oxford University Press.
Shrestha, G. M., Lamichhane, S. R., Thapa, B. K., Chitrakar, R., Useem, M., & Comings, J. P. (1986). Determinants of educational participation in rural Nepal. Comparative Education Review, 30(4), 508–522.
Stash, S., & Hannum, E. (2001). Who goes to school? Educational stratification by gender, caste and ethnicity in Nepal. Comparative Education Review, 45(3), 354–378.
Strauss, J., & Thomas, D. (1995). Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions. In J. R. Behrman & T. N. Srinivasan (Eds.), Handbook of development economic (Vol. 3a, pp. 1885–2023). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Swaminathan, M. (1998). Economic growth and the persistence of child labor: Evidence from an Indian city. World Development, 26, 1523–1528.
UIS [UNESCO Institute for Statistics] (2005). Children out of school: Measuring exclusion from primary education. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
UNESCO (2003a). South and East Asia regional report. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
UNESCO (2003b). Gender and Education for All: The leap to equality. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2010). EFA Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the marginalized. Paris: UNESCO.
Warwick, D., & Reimers, F. (1995). Hope or despair?: Learning in Pakistan’s primary schools. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
World Bank (1997). Primary education in India. Washington, DC: World Bank.
World Bank (2000). Bangladesh education sector review. Dhaka: The University Press Limited.
World Bank (2007). South Asia: Human Development Sector. Attaining the health and education Millennium Development Goals in Nepal (Discussion Paper Series, No. 12). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Chudgar, A., Shafiq, M.N. Family, community, and educational outcomes in South Asia. Prospects 40, 517–534 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9169-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9169-z