Investing in the education of oldest sister in household increases the learning outcomes of younger siblings in the family.
This was the crux of a special lecture given by Dr. Javaeria Qureshi from University of Illinois, Chicago, USA here on Thursday. The lecture organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) was based on Dr. Javaeria Qureshi paper titled "Returns on Investing in Female Education: Impact on Younger Sibling Human Capital".
Presenting her paper, Dr. Javaeria urged on policy makers to look into the fact that increasing oldest sister’s education will also have the unintended consequence of increasing the education of her younger siblings. "Merely looking at impact of girls‘ education while ignoring potential impacts on younger siblings is systematic underestimation of total benefits of female education", she stated.
She explained that in developing countries, often the oldest sister share childcare responsibilities in the household and play a more important role in child learning, if she is relatively educated as compared to other childcare providers, especially mothers. Elder sister influence the sibling’s learning by improving the quality of time she spends with younger siblings.
"In Pakistan, when parents are not the ones helping with studies, an older sister is fulfilling that role in 70 percent of the time, because she is likely to spent more time at home as compared to elder brother," Dr Qureshi added.
She was of the view that a more educated oldest sister will also use a greater number and variety of words in conversation, and play in more creative ways with the younger siblings.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Vaqar Ahmed Deputy Executive Director, SDPI said that Pakistan has one of the largest numbers of female dropouts and the situation necessitates greater investment in girl’s education. "New government should play policy and planning role for education as envisaged under the 18th amendment with particular focus on improving female education," he added.
Dr. Vaqar also lamented the enormous leakages in education sector and called for adequate and efficient monitoring mechanism both on financial and project implementation side. He particularly emphasised on the need for census as well as availability of data of past programs on female children. He also proposed civil society organizations to use social accountability methods for ensuring that public officials fulfill their promises towards female education in Pakistan.
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