Working Paper 164 - Closing the Education Gender Gap: Estimating the Impact of Girls’ Scholarship Program in The Gambia

Ousman Gajigo ()
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Ousman Gajigo: African Development Bank, Postal: 15 Avenue du Ghana P.O.Box 323-1002 Tunis-Belvedère, Tunisia, https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications

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Abstract: This paper estimates the enrollment impact of a nation-wide scholarship program for female secondary students in The Gambia implemented to reduce gender disparity in education. In the regions where the scholarship program was implemented, all girls attending public middle and high schools were exempted from paying school fees, which used to be mandatory. The gradual implementation of the project provided a unique opportunity to rigorously assess the enrollment impact of the scholarship program. We use two nationally representative household surveys carried out in 1998 and 2002/03. By 2002/03, about half of the districts in the country had benefited from the project. We found that the program increased enrollment for middle and high school female students by 9 percentage points, and increased the years of schooling attained by 0.3 to 0.4. The program had no significant impact on enrollment or years of schooling attained for male students at any level.

Date: 2012-12-26
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