Socio-cultural Barriers to Girls Education in Malakand District of Pakistan

Girls’ education is important for women empowerment and socio-economic development, which is largely ignored in the study area due to socio-cultural factors. The objective of the study is to investigate various socio-cultural factors, which hinder girls’ access to higher secondary education in Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Researchers used a quantitative research approach with cross-sectional research design, and data was randomly collected through self-administered questionnaire from 336 presently registered girl students in higher secondary education institutions in the projected area. In the manuscript descriptive univariate statistics with simple frequency and percentages were used while the Pearson Correlation test was applied to draw the strength of association between girls’ accessibility to the education institutions and socio-cultural barriers in accessing education institutions. The Pearson Correlation result shows that sons’ education is preferred over daughters’ education in the study area. Results indicated that early girl marriage restricts girls’ access to getting formal education. Civil society and government should raise awareness on girl education.