Effects of Education of Poverty and Well-being of Rural Households in District Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, and habits. Besides, education is also helpful in reducing different forms of poverty and increasing the well-being of the people. The present study was thus an endeavour to highlight the effects of education on poverty and well being of rural households in district Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The primary objectives of the study were to identify the effects of education on poverty and well being as well as to determine the differences in the mean income of different educated groups. Multinomial logit model, one-way ANOVA and t-test were utilized as a part of the current investigation. Five villages were selected through multi-stage sampling technique i.e. Darband, Shnawari, Wrastra, Bhagato and Muhammad Khwaja respectively. A sample size of 375 households was selected for the present study. SPSS ver. 20 was used for the analysis of data collected. Simple frequencies, percentages were calculated whereas t-test and income and education Gini were utilized. In this study, the Multinomial logit model has opted because the dependent variable, poverty, has three categories; moderate poverty, extreme poverty, and non poor. It has been found that education has a significant effect on reducing poverty and increasing the well-being of rural households. In this research, education is taken as a categorical variable with six categories; primary, middle, matriculation, intermediate, bachelor, and master. Each educational variable has a negative relationship with poverty. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that as the level of education increase the marginal effect to overcome extreme poverty and moderate poverty also increases. Primary education has a marginal effect of 11% to overcome extreme poverty, the middle has 12%, matriculation has 16%, intermediate has 17%, bachelor has 22% and master has the marginal effect of 26% to overcome extreme poverty. Similarly, for moderate poverty, the marginal effect of primary education has 8% to overcome moderate poverty, middle has 10%, matriculation has 13%, intermediate has 15%, bachelor has 21% and master has 28% marginal effect to overcome moderate poverty. Moreover, the study found that the educational variable has a positive association with the probability of not being poor. Primary education has a 29% contribution with the probability of not being poor and master education has a 39% contribution with the probability of not being poor. The result of the Multinomial logit model reveals that the independent variables have a significant impact on the dependent variable as the p values of the predictors are less than the α value of 0.05. Besides, the study also found a statistically significant difference in overall well-being between less educated and more educated households. More educated households are more social, less emotional, and more mentally strong than less educated households. Furthermore, a significant difference has been found in the mean income of less educated and more educated families. The mean income of more educated households is greater than a less educated one. Besides, the study also found the income Gini and education Gini at 0.54 and 0.38 which highlight greater income and education inequality in the study area.