There is a huge literature available on education and its determinants, but there is still a need
to focus on what actually determines children to attend school in developing regions. Not
every child gets an opportunity to go to school in Pakistan. Those who attend might have
good parental educational background, family income, access to school, smaller household
size etc. These factors directly or indirectly affect a child’s schooling and are widely debated
in policy-making decisions among developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to
examine what determines the primary gross enrollment ratio in Pakistan. The results show
that male literacy rate is not determining gross enrollments however female literacy is
significant factor for determining gross enrollment ratio. Among all the four provinces,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwah is having slightly higher gross enrollment ratio than Punjab and Sindh
whereas Baluchistan has the lowest gross enrollments. The estimates for population density
are insignificant. Generally, household size is helpful in determining gross enrollments but in
accordance with my estimated results the household size seems to be insignificant towards
explaining gross enrollments. The results show that among all the four provinces Punjab and
Khyber Pakhtunkhwah are having high primary gross enrollment ratios than that of Sindh and
Baluchistan.