Household choice of public versus private schooling: a case study of Bahawalpur City

Government of Punjab is committed to attain the universalization of school education by providing free education and even in a number of districts the free books and through the programs of food for education. The stipends on the subsidized schooling are also part of the policy by Government of Punjab. The rapid increase in enrolment in private schools reflects the partial failure of these schemes and making the target of universalization of school education difficult. The paper examines the household choice of private versus public sector schools as an outcome of child, household and school characteristics by using logit model. Data has been collected from Bahawalpur city through stratified sampling of clusters and random sampling of households. A survey of 627 households having at least one school-going child made the data available. The study found that income of the household, education of the parents, English as medium of instruction in school and distance of public school from the household enhance the preference of private schools. To universalize the school education more public sector schools are required near to the households. The adaptation of English as medium of instruction may increase the school enrolment.