Using Network Science to Understand the Level of Education in Backward Areas of Pakistan

Using Network Science to Understand the Level of Education in Backward Areas of Pakistan by Muhammad Obaid Ullah (2021)

Education is one of the most important possessions for underdeveloped countries through which they can solve their problems and come into the list of developed countries. For decades, the academic situation is under discussion in Pakistan. According to United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in year 2020 almost 44% children in the age group 3–16 is out of school in Pakistan. The current literacy rate of Pakistan is 62.3%. Literacy rate is very low in Pakistan, especially in the backward areas of Pakistan. Most people believe that poverty is the basic reason for this low literacy rate. Many organizations are working for increasing literacy in Pakistan. Some well-known organizations are UNICEF, MOFEPT, UNSECO and ASER. These organizations use statistical models to identify the education level of different areas, gender gaps in education, reasons of drop out children’s and the reason for out-of-school children. The organization used these statistics to develop a new policy for increasing literacy, but these statistical models and frameworks developed by the organizations are not able to capture complex and hidden information from the data. We used network science to find the more hidden and complex information from the data collected by the Annual Status of Education Report in 2018. This dataset contains the information of almost 260 million children belonging to 154 rural districts. The dataset has detailed information about the individual. For example, type of house, basic facilities (electricity, mobile, hospital, bank) etc. We construct a bipartite network of districts with facilities available in those districts and parents/children education levels. We identify the two-mode communities from the network which helps us study the hidden and complex information. We compare the result of our proposed model with statistical methods and reveal hidden information captured by the network science techniques. This research will help those policy makers who are working for promoting education in Pakistan. These organizations can easily decide the region-wise changes because till now they are making policy based on facilities available in the schools without considering which type of facilities are available in those regions.