Ilkogretim Online - Elementary Education Online, 2020; 19 (4): pp. 879-884 http://ilkogretim-online.org doi:10.17051/ilkonline.2020.04.196 Mother’s education as a predictor of individual’s opportunities to learn and earn Shahla Akram, National College of Business Administration & Economics, Lahore, Pakistan, shahlaakram4@gmail.com Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, National College of Business Administration & Economics, Lahore, Pakistan, ecozahid@yahoo.com Abstract. The educated mother may be a great source to enhance child's participation and opportunities in different spheres of life. Mother’s education is an essential and crucial factor in determining the income as well as education outcomes of a child. This study has investigated the effects of mother’s education on child’s income and education outcomes. The household level data of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) conducted in Punjab province of Pakistan has been used for this purpose. The results show that mother’s education, region of residence (rural/urban), and wealth status are significantly related with child’s income and education outcomes. However, after controlling for an individual’s own education and working experience as a determinant of his income, mother’s wealth status shows statistically significant relationship with child’s income but mother’s education turns to be statistically insignificant. It implies that instead of having direct effects, mother’s education has indirect effects on child’s income and these effects are observed through the positive effects of mother’s education on child’s education outcomes. Keywords: Mother’s education, Income, Education, outcomes, Punjab, Pakistan, socioeconomic factor. Received: 06.10.2020 Accepted: 18.11.2020 Published: 19.12.2020 INTRODUCTION The question that what factors determine an individual's income and education outcomes has persistently been a matter of interest for researchers. Different studies have explored different possible determinants of such outcomes. For example, in the case of education outcomes, student’s motivation (Linnenbrink, 2005), teacher’s performance (Klassen & Tze, 2014) and the usage of the effective teaching strategies (Ariës, Groot, & van den Brink, 2015) have been identified some of the important factors. However, the literature has also explored the significance of the role of parents in the academic achievement of their children. Parents’ involvement in the activities related with their children’s studies, their communication with their children, home environment and children’s birth order are important determinants of their academic achievements (Cabus & Ariës, 2017; Chase-Lansdale et al., 2019). The home environment defines a child’s emotional attachment with his family, and availability of learning and motivation to him by his family. A favourable home environment provides peace of mind to children which may be helpful for their learning. However, unexpected events such as economic shock (business loss of parents or loss of employment) or accidental illness or parents' death may have adverse effects on education outcomes of children. These effects are found to be more horrible in poor societies than in rich. Moreover, female children are more affected than male by such unexpected events (Chudgar, Sakamoto, & Shen, 2019). This discrimination is also found in terms of in private and public sector school choice in poor societies (Chudgar & Creed, 2016). Extensive literature is available on the role of family background in the children's outcomes. Socioeconomic factors are held responsible for the differences of individuals’ outcomes within and between societies. Parental education and wealth status are two most important factors to decide the fate of future generation Economic condition of parents is considered important for children’s education outcomes not only during the period of their childhood (Erola, Jalonen, & Lehti, 2016), but also in adolescence as it can affect the choice of adolescents ’education and schooling (Jæger & Holm, 2007). Parents’ social capital proves to be an important factor in job searching time and children whose parents have strong social relations are more likely to find suitable jobs (Härkönen & Bihagen, 2011). Nevertheless, parents' education may be more important factor than their wealth status because the educated parents are expected to invest more in the human capital of their children. Moreover wealth status of the parents may be affected by some shocks such as loss of jobs and loss in business. (Pronzato, 2012). Although father’s education as well as mother’s education matter for education of next generation but the role of mother’s education may be more pronounced in this regard (Haveman & Wolfe, 1995;