Maham Mela
Department of Anthropology
“Education Enrollment Decisions: A Case Study of Pakistan.”
In the summer of 2009, I conducted research on the relationship between educational enrollment decisions and religious attitudes in Pakistan. My sample included parents from three geographical areas – Lahore (second largest city of Pakistan); Sargodha (smaller city in the most populous province, Punjab); and a village in Punjab. In gathering a regionally diverse sample, I was able to capture a representative group of individuals from different income groups. My sample consisted of mostly parents including some who were also school teachers and principals. My questions pertained to their background, current work, past and present roles of religion in their lives, current and future roles of religion in their children’s lives, and what factors determined the school(s) their children were enrolled in. The predominant theme across all income groups, regardless of religious background of parents, was a desire to see a combination of the “secular” and Islamic education. The purpose would be to produce good Muslims and citizens who could also succeed in the world materially and hence live an overall meaningful life. This is an interesting finding because it can have implications for the government encouraging certain types of schools or (as is increasingly prevalent in Pakistan’s education reform) for the nature of public-private partnerships. I plan to incorporate this summer research into my doctoral research and also conduct a similar qualitative study in the United Arab Emirates, another Muslim majority region.
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