EVIDENCE October, 2010 from to POLICY a note series on learning what works, from the Human Development Network 57783 Do Scholarships Help Students Continue Their Education? Providing children with a quality education is a priority work includes supporting projects that explore how best of policymakers and education experts around the world. to support children staying in school. One recent project Creating a successful education system requires more than was in Cambodia, where boys and girls from poor fami- good teachers and the right infrastructure. Children must lies were offered scholarships if they continued beyond be encouraged to stay in school long enough to benefit primary school. The project's evaluation, which ran over from the offerings. Making this happen is a critical step two school years, showed that scholarships worked as a in education reform. A variety of research questions re- way of getting children to stay in school. But it also found main unanswered, however. Can scholarships help stu- that children who were offered scholarships did not do dents extend their education beyond primary school in measurably better on vocabulary or math tests than peers low income countries? Should payments be made directly who were not offered scholarships--despite the fact that to the children or to their parents? Is there an optimal the former group had higher enrollments and attendance. scholarship amount? And do boys and girls need the same Researchers hope that future reviews of the students in encouragement? Cambodia, along with evaluations of similar programs in The World Bank is committed to assisting develop- other developing countries, will help policymakers and ing countries raise their educational standards, part of the education experts better understand the interplay and use United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Our of scholarships, schooling and learning. Case Study Cambodia Cambodia has had numerous scholarship programs fund- 2006 school years and raised school attendance rates by ed by the government and outside donors. One project, 20 to 30 percentage points. funded by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, tried to Building on that experience, a government program keep girls in school by giving their families annual cash supported by the World Bank's Cambodia Education Sec- "scholarships"--which could be used for any purpose-- tor Support Project was launched in such a way as to test during the first three years of secondary school (seventh the optimal scholarship amount and measure the effect on through ninth grades). The project covered the 2003- both boys and girls. The project covered the 2005-2010 school years and included two scholarship levels--$60 a Did You Know... year for the poorest recipients and $45 for the others. About 80 percent of girls and boys who start primary school in The project targeted 100 lower secondary (middle) Cambodia complete it schools that were not participating in other scholarship By secondary school, net enrollment drops to 36 percent for programs, focusing on those in poor areas and where boys and 32 percent for girls non-enrollment was high. All 6th grade students in the The literacy rate for males aged 15-24 is 90 percent and 83 local feeder elementary schools filled out a scholarship percent for females application. Questions focused on the make-up of the (World Bank EdStats, 2008) household, from number of family members to avail- ability of running water and ownership of household over 3,800 scholarships offered. Two-thirds of recipients were durables. To come up with a drop-out risk score, the girls. The money was given to the families in three tranches answers were analyzed in conjunction with data drawn over the school year, in public award ceremonies. The grants from Cambodia's nationwide household survey. were made conditional on enrollment, attendance and satis- The evaluation design built on how students were se- factory grade progress. During the first year of the program, lected for the scholarship. The 6th grade applicants were researchers conducted a household survey of 3225 applicants ranked according to a dropout-risk score--from those most (about 60 percent of whom had received a scholarship), and likely to drop out of school to those least likely to drop out. four unannounced school visits to check applicants' atten- In each school, a fixed number of scholarships were award- dance. As part of the household survey, children--regard- ed to children with the highest dropout-risk. Comparing less of whether they were enrolled in school--were given applicants "just below" to "just above" the cutoff effectively vocabulary and math tests. During one of the school visits, compares extremely similar applicants--who differ only in students were given a math test. This evaluation covers that the former were offered a scholarship. how the the first set of scholarship applicants do after one The grants were offered to 6th grade students as they and a half school years. The researchers plan further data entered the 7th grade, and were renewable for the 8th and collection to assess how these same applicants fare five 9th grades. In total, there were 26,537 applications and just years down the line. The Findings The scholarships had a "substantial" effect on Likewise, giving children $45 to stay in school student enrollment and attendance in 7th and proved as effective as giving them $60. 8th grades. There was no significant incremental impact on the The enrollment rate among non-recipients was about 60 enrollment rate between children who received the $45 percent by the end of 7th grade; it was 80 percent among annual grant compared with those who were given $60. students who received scholarships, an increase of 20 per- centage points. This compares to impacts ranging from The money could be used on anything and how zero to 13 percentage points for comparable cash transfer it was used was not monitored. However, fami- educational programs around the world. * lies that received grants spent more money on school... The impact was the same for girls and boys. The amount of money was not a lot for the families: It rep- More girls than boys received grants because they ranked resented about two to three percent of the child's household higher for the risk of dropping out. But the study found consumption and the $45 scholarship was about equal to no difference in the effect of the grant on encouraging chil- the direct costs of attending lower secondary school. Fami- dren, whether girls or boys, to stay in school. lies that received the grant did spend on average about $10 *see: Fiszbein, A., N. Schady, F.H.G. Ferreira, M. Grosh, N. Kelleher, P. Olinto, and E. Skoufias, Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty. 2009, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. This bulletin summarizes the results of the Policy Research Working Paper 4998, "School Enrollment, Selection and Test Scores," by Deon Filmer and Norbert Schady. The work was conducted through the World Bank's Development Research Group, Human Development and Public Services Team. The full paper can be found at http://www-wds.worldbank.org/ scholarships not only help economically-poor students stay in school, they also help the academically-weak ones. The program found that students who enrolled in 7th grade despite being turned down for a scholarship were more likely to drop out of school before 8th grade if they had low test scores. Scholarship students, in contrast, stayed in school even if they had similarly poor test results in 7th grade. But the scholarships, apparently, were not enough to ensure that low-performing students could do better in school--the money simply helped them stay in school. The researchers cautioned that follow-up assessments were needed to ensure that this finding is not due to the relatively short-run nature of the study. more on on schooling-related expenses, such as books or The Cambodian government decided that, for other educational materials. now at least, the jump in school enrollment was important enough to continue the model, ...and scholarship recipients were less likely to incorporating the lessons from the evaluation, work for pay while attending school. and expanding the reach of secondary school scholarships. Students who were offered the grants were about 10 per- centage points less likely to engage in paid work, compared The increase in school enrollment among high-risk stu- with those who did not get money. dents was sufficiently compelling evidence of the value of the program that the Cambodian government sought to expand it. Because of the findings that $45 scholarships "(The program) means I won't be skipping school regularly like were as effective at $60 scholarships, the government in- before, because my parents havestopped pushing me to find jobs creased the number of $45 scholarships instead of raising to earnmoney to support the family," said one female recipient. the amount of each grant when additional money became available. The project now has been folded into the coun- try's national scholarship program, which also has been ad- Siblings did not have to make up the difference. justed to incorporate the project's design features. There was no sign that parents of students who re- ceived the grants to stay in school pulled their siblings Involvement in economic activity in Cambodia starts out of school to make up the difference in lost wages very early and rises sharply with age, inducing late school or other services. entry and early school dropout. About 16 percent of children are already economically active at age six years, and over half of all children are economically active by the age of 10 But while grants boosted enrollment among years. By the age of 15, the share of children working in eco- high-risk students, this did not translate into nomic activity surpasses that of children attending school. measurable better learning outcomes. School enrollment, on the other hand, peaks at 91 percent at age 11 years; thereafter, attendance declines as children Students who were offered a scholarship did not do any begin leaving school and working exclusively. better in math and vocabulary assessment tests than those --"Children's Work in Cambodia: A Challenge for Growth and Poverty Reducation," Inter-agency research project who were not offered a scholarship despite their higher en- with the World Bank, Dec. 2006 rollment and attendance rates. The reason may be that the Conclusion Making policy from evidence Development groups and policymakers are turning to dents, or specialized tutors may need to be mobilized. conditional--and sometimes unconditional--cash trans- At the same time, policymakers must keep in mind that fers as a way to encourage poor and otherwise disad- some of the poorest students may drop out even before vantaged groups to take better advantage of education, completing primary school. Scholarship programs might health and social protection offerings. The Cambodia have to target lower levels of education in order to cap- study shows that scholarships can be an effective tool for ture everyone. Cambodia is now exploring this through a encouraging students to stay in school after completing pilot scholarship program targeting the last three grades primary school--even in a low income setting. The re- of primary school. sults also indicated that, in Cambodia, boys and girls can The project's researchers plan a second round of data benefit equally and that encouraging greater school at- gathering to assess whether the students who benefited tendance does not mean that the students' siblings will be from the lower secondary school scholarships end up do- expected by their families to make up the lost household ing better on learning assessments once more time has or outside work time. passed. In addition, longer term impacts--such as on The study also showed that attending school is not labor market success or on the timing of marriage and always enough to ensure a good education. Policymakers childbearing--can be studied. intent on making a difference may need to complement Success depends on finding the optimal way to sup- such demand-side programs with interventions that fo- port children who might otherwise drop-out, both in cus on school and teacher quality. For example, teachers terms of encouraging enrollment and ensuring that once may need to be trained to better teach low-ability stu- in school, they can learn. The Human Development Network, part of the World Bank Group, supports and disseminates research evaluating the impact of development projects to help alleviate poverty. The goal is to collect and build empirical evidence that can help govern- ments and development organizations design and implement the most appropriate and effective policies for better educational, health and job opportunities for people in developing countries. For more information about who we are and what we do, go to: http://www.worldbank.org/hdchiefeconomist THE WORLD BANK, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK 1818 H STREET, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20433 Produced by Office of the Chief Economist, Human Development Network, Communications/Aliza Marcus