Abstract
This paper is based on some key findings of an original research carried out to
explore the issue of inequitable access to education within caste-based social
structures in rural Punjab, Pakistan. Data from 36 interviews with low and high
caste parents, school heads and four key informant focus groups in two villages
in southern and central Punjab revealed that schooling costs remained difficult
to manage for the poorest low-castes despite provision of government sponsored
free schools. Bourdieu’s social critical framework used with specific reference
to his notion of capitals reveals processes of social reproduction. The economic
capital transubstantiates into social and cultural capital, refracting into schooling
costs that are not just economic but also temporal, psychological and social for
the lowest caste groups. This limits the impact of economic subsidies offered by
the government for expanding educational access. The paper contributes to the
current literature by arguing that policies aimed at equitable educational access
must conceptualize educational costs as multidimensional, just as poverty itself is
not just economic but multifaceted.
Tayyaba Tamim. (2018) Caste, Costs and Educational Access in Rural Punjab, Journal of Education and Educational Development, volume 5, 5.1.
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