Peer-reviewed article
School enrolment and learning outcomes for children with disabilities: findings from a household survey in Pakistan
Nidhi Singal, Ricardo Sabatés, Monazza Aslam, Sahar Saeed ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined school enrolment and learning outcomes for children with disabilities in rural Punjab, Pakistan, using household survey data from 2015. Children with moderate to severe disabilities were significantly less likely to attend school and had lower reading and maths performance than their peers without disabilities. The research also found that siblings living with a child with disabilities had lower learning outcomes themselves, suggesting household-level effects on education.
Key points
- Children with moderate to severe disabilities had lower school attendance rates than children without disabilities
- Children with disabilities performed worse on basic reading and maths assessments
- Siblings and co-residents of children with disabilities also showed lower basic reading and numeracy levels
- Data came from the Annual Survey of Education in rural Punjab in 2015
- Disability status was assessed using the Washington Group on Disability Statistics questions
Limitations
The study is descriptive and does not explain the causal mechanisms behind lower enrolment and learning outcomes for children with disabilities, nor does it evaluate interventions to address these disparities. Cross-sectional household data cannot determine whether disability causes lower outcomes or whether other household factors contribute to both.
Abstract
This paper presents findings from household data collected as part of the Annual Survey of Education conducted in rural Punjab in 2015, which included questions on disability developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. Data reported here focuses on the disability status of children aged 5 to 16 years, their access to school and learning outcomes on basic reading and maths tasks. Our findings highlight that children who were identified by their carer/mothers as having moderate to severe disabilities were less likely to be attending school and had lower levels of learning on basic reading and maths tasks, than their peers who were not identified as having any difficulties in functioning. More importantly, our findings also suggest that being a co-resident/sibling in a household with a child with moderate to severe disabilities was associated with lower levels of basic reading and numeracy for the co-residents/siblings compared to other children. We conclude by highlighting important policy considerations and identifying areas of future research.