Reports on out of school children show large numbers of children dropping out of school before completing primary education and/or secondary education. Given that provinces are involved in the process of making legislation to ensure free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 5-16, an analysis of why there is such a high dropout rate is important. Data show a large number of children entering school in pre-primary or primary, mostly at the age of four to six years. Soon after they begin to drop out, with many leaving before entering grade one of primary school. From grade one till grade five there is a steady drop out of children so that eventually only half the children complete the full primary cycle. Issues of repetition, retention and completion. Repetition rates are higher in the first two grades of primary education, which is partly due to a lack of pre-primary experience, and hence a lack of school readiness among children. Repetition rates in both urban and rural areas are highest at grade one; boys are slightly more likely than girls to repeat grades. Repetition rates are higher in urban areas than in rural areas, perhaps because rural children are more likely to drop out than repeat. Although repetition rates tend to fall as grade level progresses, they are higher at lower secondary level as compared to primary. In addition, they show a noticeable trend with higher repetition rates in the lower grades. Across grades, the proportion of children repeating classes tends to belong to richer households, again for the same reason that poorer children in such a situation are more likely to dropout. Demand side barriers. Lack of awareness about the importance of early childhood education and the need to enrol children at the correct age are issues that are particularly common in rural communities and high poverty areas. The older a girl is, the more likely she is to drop out due to parental pressure. Parental objection for boys going to school is much lower both for urban and rural areas compared to girls. As girls grow older, primacy is given to their domestic duties and since women are unlikely to work in the future, families see no real need to educate them beyond primary level. As girls grow older, the barriers associated with gender become stronger; once they reach sexual maturity, they face harsher social restrictions on mobility. Older girls are removed from school when parents’ attitudes begin to determine that girls’ behaviour requires ‘control’ or ‘restriction’. Girls older than 10 years become vulnerable to early or forced marriage. Sexual harassment becomes a far weightier concern as children reach adolescence, especially in Pakistan where sexual harassment is likely to go unreported and children are not provided with education or a support structure to fight against it. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to rape, gang rape and abduction. Societal gender norms also impact boys. There is an expectation that sons will start earning a living at a certain age, especially if they come from impoverished homes with a large family. Therefore, as boys grow older, the opportunity costs associated with continuing their education increase and can cause a shift in parental attitudes. Another socio-cultural barrier to education is the absence of a home environment conducive to schooling. In rural areas, it is highly probably that all members of a family are employed in rural labour, so there will be no adult responsible for supervising children’s continuing education. The cost of schooling can act as a barrier to education; furthermore, as the level of education increases, both the direct and indirect costs also rise. Direct costs include expenditure on school materials, examination fees, and transportation. Indirect costs include the opportunity cost of a child’s time — a child could be earning an income rather spending time at school, so this implies the household is losing income by educating a child. Another indirect cost is incurred in monitoring female mobility — as girls grow older they need guardianship and protection to be mobile, which implies the cost of an adult’s time to take the child back and forth to school. The expense of education is given as a significant reason for children dropping out of primary school and rises as children grow older. Although secondary education is free, there are still many direct and indirect costs. In fact, the lower number of secondary schools and the greater subject specialisation make the direct costs in terms of transportation and school materials higher. Furthermore, older children have higher opportunity and social costs, hence household income becomes more relevant as the level of education rises (UNESCO, 2010). For urban children the charging of fees for ‘more developed’ facilities by schools and private tuition add to the cost of education. In rural areas, although the cost of education is an issue, other problems such as distance from school also add to the cost of education (Planning Commission, 2010). This is particularly an issue for rural children of lower secondary school age. Child labour is a highly relevant demand-side economic barrier, particularly for children in secondary education. Opportunity costs when measured against the cost of education, the quality of education and a household’s livelihood concerns are a significant deterrent to education. The percentage of economically active children not enrolled in school is higher than economically active children enrolled in school. Unpaid domestic labour goes unreported but is common; older children, girls more than boys, are often entrusted with the task of looking after their younger siblings and doing household chores while their parents are busy with other work. Since girls are unlikely to become employed, there is little economic incentive for them to continue their education; this tends to push them out of school. Given the greater opportunities for employment in urban centres for both boys and girls, the opportunity cost of educating an urban child is also considered by families. In rural areas, the cost of education is weighed against the need for families to engage their children in rural labour. Supply side constraints. Compared to primary schools, there is a sharp decrease in the supply of secondary schools so that the children per school ratio in some provinces more than doubles between primary and secondary. Furthermore, the condition of school infrastructure in secondary schools is only marginally better than in primary schools. Less than half of teachers at this level are female, with the percentage of female teachers even smaller in rural areas. Given the strong parental preference for sending their daughters at this level to schools with only female teachers, this does not bode well for girls’ education. Moreover, the qualification levels of teachers at post-primary levels matters even more. Although teachers have higher qualifications at this level, the teaching of English, science, economics and technical/vocational subjects, demands highly trained teachers with specialised skills. The problem has been exacerbated with the introduction of the new curriculum 2007 that requires not only subject specialists but also schools equipped with laboratories and teachers trained in activity-based teaching methodologies. As these changes and provisions have not been made simultaneously with curriculum reform, there remain serious barriers to the implementation of a high-quality curriculum at this level. Other weaknesses are the substandard content of textbooks, especially in science, with too much theoretical content and little scope for developing conceptual understanding of scientific concepts through practical application due to the poor availability of laboratories. Furthermore, the curriculum does not address the need for systematic progression in difficulty level, especially given the absence of vertical and horizontal linkages in subjects. The ASER 2010 reported poor learning achievements of children from public schools in rural areas. When graduating from lower secondary school, only 72.2 percent were able to read a story in Urdu/Sindhi (SAFED, 2011). These findings indicate that the quality of education is substandard; this is possibly a reason why children drop out, given their limited learning achievements that are relevant to the real world and the job market. Thus a critical reason why children fail to transit to secondary school is the absence of linkages between education and the job market. The choice of subjects taught in school is not linked with market demands. The opportunity for development of skills and vocational training can prove instrumental in encouraging children to remain in secondary school and beyond. Dr Fareeha Zafar is Director, Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE), Lahore