School, work and community-level differences in Afghanistan and Tajikistan: divergence in secondary school enrolment of youth

Author： Whitsel Christopher

Publisher： Routledge Ltd

ISSN： 1465-3354

Source： Central Asian Survey, Vol.29, Iss.4, 2010-12, pp. : 501-519

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Abstract

Youth in Tajikistan and Afghanistan struggle to attend secondary school. Educational research indicates that individual, family and community factors are key determinants of educational participation. The question that dominated past research was whether family or community variables had a greater influence on educational participation. Instead, this article asks how the community context shapes the influence of family characteristics on educational participation. Using recent data from the Tajikistan Living Standards Measurement Survey and Afghanistan National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, we demonstrate ways that school availability, school costs and work opportunities shape individual and family determinants of youth educational participation in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. We find that there is greater divergence between communities in Tajikistan than in Afghanistan.