Leaving studies because of lack of interest: an analysis of the risk factors of school dropouts in Pakistan

Among all the students dropping out of school for different reasons in Pakistan in 2017, nearly 23% of the students dropped out because they were not interested in studies. The vagueness at the heart of lack of interest often leaves the stakeholders clueless about how best to reduce school attrition. This study identifies the factors associated with students’ dropping out of school due to lack of interest. We used Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017–18 data and employed multivariate logistic and multinomial logistic regression models. The results suggested that students were more likely to drop out because of a lack of interest when they were enrolled in the lower educational levels, were orphaned, lived in the urban areas, were married, belonged to households where the households head was above 40 years or was female. However, the impact of wealth status, gender, and migration of a family member on dropping out was context-specific.