Paper abstract:

Why Tajikistan has one of the highest level of NEET-youth in the region, and about the highest level of NEET-girls in the world? The aim of the paper is to investigate factors that lead to school-to-home transition and increase the chances of girls becoming NEET (not in education, employment, or training) in Tajikistan.

35-41% of youth ages 18-29 are NEETs (Not in education, employment or training) in Tajikistan, that is the highest level in the Post-soviet countries, and is especially higher among the girls. 80-85% of NEET-youth in Tajikistan are girls. Tajikistan has one of the highest gendered NEET-youth in the world for the last several years according to data.

Period of leaving education and several years after is considered to be the critical period for future life and career of both boys and girls, but shapes girls more. This period became more individual in Tajikistan after the collapse of the USSR. Instead of school-to-work transition girls have higher chances to face 'school‐to‐home transition', i.e. dropping out of education or completing education.

Life-course approaches and transition to adulthood theoretical framework could help obtain a lot of quantitative and qualitative data collected during the last years. For the paper we will use data collected from 2014 to 2022.

For the first time, we will include findings on qualitative data obtained based on interviews with NEET-girls, and girls who are at risk of home violence.

Findings contain both multivariate quantitative analyses and qualitative findings for clearing of findings.

Summarizing initial findings, we came to the conclusion that family and individual factors, like financial conditions of the family, education level of parents, migration, level of education, and accessibility of jobs nearby have significant effect on youth employment, particularly for the girls. School-to-home leads to the social exclusion of girls. Some macro-factors, including COVID19 had more harmful effects on girls than boys.