Family resources, sitting at home and democratic choice: investigating determinants of educational attainment in post-Soviet Tajikistan

Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, school enrolment, attendance and attainment rates fell across the region. In Tajikistan, there has been a decrease in average completion rates for basic, secondary and higher education, as well as a growing gender gap because girls are much less likely than boys to finish all levels of schooling. Past work on educational stratification in the region has demonstrated similar trends, but not sought to explain the processes generating these patterns. Scholars of educational participation suggest that a variety of family, community and macro-structural factors influence educational attainment. This paper broadens our understanding of the processes generating the decline in educational attainment and widening gender gap by analysing interviews conducted with parents, teachers and university students living in Tajikistan in 2006–2007. Respondents overwhelmingly attribute the drop in educational rates to increased poverty and its effects on family resources. The large decrease in girls' attainment is rationalized by citing cultural norms dictating that they will only become housewives, ‘sitting at home’, and do not need further education. Others point to changes in educational policy as a reason for lower attainment rates because parents and children are now able to choose whether or not to continue studies in the new democratic society. This article is the winner of the 2008 CESS Award for Best Graduate Paper. This prize is awarded yearly by the Central Eurasian Studies Society to promote new scholarship focusing on the history, politics, culture and societies of Central Eurasia