A Critical Review of Low School Enrollment and Literacy Rates among Girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Abstract

Patriarchal principles dominate the social structure in Pakistani society. Moreover, Pakistan's culture is firmly anchored in traditions and practices that confine a woman's role to that of procreation, household management, child rearing, cleaning, and food preparation, which significantly reduces their enrollment in formal education. The present study not only provides a critical review of the existing literature but also adds primary data on the problems/challenges closely associated with low school enrollment and literacy among girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A qualitative approach, including unstructured interviews along with secondary data, was adopted in this paper. The findings of the study show that several empirical studies examine the general causes of the low ratio of female education in the study area. However, this empirical work identified gaps in previous scholarly work, particularly from sociological perspectives, intending to inspire further studies from the lenses of local people regarding the low enrollment of female education.