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Leaving studies because of lack of interest: an analysis of the risk factors of school dropouts in Pakistan

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Abstract

Among all the students dropping out of school for different reasons in Pakistan in 2017, nearly 23% of the students dropped out because they were not interested in studies. The vagueness at the heart of lack of interest often leaves the stakeholders clueless about how best to reduce school attrition. This study identifies the factors associated with students’ dropping out of school due to lack of interest. We used Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017–18 data and employed multivariate logistic and multinomial logistic regression models. The results suggested that students were more likely to drop out because of a lack of interest when they were enrolled in the lower educational levels, were orphaned, lived in the urban areas, were married, belonged to households where the households head was above 40 years or was female. However, the impact of wealth status, gender, and migration of a family member on dropping out was context-specific.

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Acknowledgements

Dr Rafi Amir-ud-Din and Hfiz Zahid Mahmood acknowledge the funding for this project by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). Although, the funding agency does not have any role in the design and outcome of the study.

Funding

This research project is funded by Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan under the “National Research Program for Universities (NRPU)” (Project # NRPU-8572).

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Correspondence to Faisal Abbas.

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Amir-ud-Din, R., Mahmood, H.Z., Abbas, F. et al. Leaving studies because of lack of interest: an analysis of the risk factors of school dropouts in Pakistan. Qual Quant 56, 3189–3214 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01266-9

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