[Book] Education for Development in Northern Pakistan by Andreas Benz

Description
The development of education in Gilgit-Baltistan is an impressive success story. Starting from very low literacy levels only six decades ago, parts of this rural high-mountain region today are among the educational front-runners of Pakistan. This book analyzes the rapid educational expansion of the region and shows how rural households derive benefits from these new educational opportunities. Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan is now considered to be a model region for successful educational expansion and rural development.
Education is seen as one of the key factors for development and is given a high priority in development agendas. In this cutting-edge academic study, the author shows in detail the trajectories of educational development in Gilgit-Baltistan, from the earliest schools to the establishment of the first university, and provides explanations for educational disparities along the lines of regional and intra-denominational variation, as well as socio-economic and gender-related inequalities. This original research work, with in-depth village case studies in three unique rural communities of Gilgit-Baltistan, provides robust empirical data, analyzed through a state-of the art, multi-disciplinary, theoretical framework and field work methodology. The study also draws attention to persisting gender disparities and the threat of a deepening educational and socio-economic divide.

About the Author / Editor

Dr Andreas Benz is a research associate at the Centre for Development Studies (ZELF), Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany. He has studied Human Geography, Islamic Studies, and Political Science at Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat, Freiburg, and Freie Universitat, Berlin. He completed his PhD in 2011 on the topic of education and development in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, based on numerous research visits to the region between 2006 and 2010. Since 2011, he has been a member and research associate for Crossroads Asia: Conflict, Migration, Development, a research network, for whom he is conducting a 4 year study on student mobility and migration in northern Pakistan and north-western India.