Publication: Do Scholarships Help Students Continue Their Education?
Date
2010-10
ISSN
Published
2010-10
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The World Bank is committed to assisting
developing countries raise their educational standards, part
of the United Nations millennium development goals. The work
includes supporting projects that explore how best to
support children staying in school. One recent project was
in Cambodia, where boys and girls from poor families were
offered scholarships if they continued beyond primary
school. The project's evaluation, which ran over two
school years, showed that scholarships worked as a way of
getting children to stay in school. But it also found that
children who were offered scholarships did not do measurably
better on vocabulary or math tests than peers who were not
offered scholarships-despite the fact that the former group
had higher enrollments and attendance. Cambodia has had
numerous scholarship programs funded by the government and
outside donors. One project, funded by the Japan fund for
poverty reduction, tried to keep girls in school by giving
their families annual cash 'scholarships'-which
could be used for any purpose- during the first three years
of secondary school. The project covered the 2003- 2006
school years and raised school attendance rates by 20 to 30
percentage points. Building on that experience, a government
program supported by the World Bank's Cambodia
education sector support project was launched in such a way
as to test the optimal scholarship amount and measure the
effect on both boys and girls.
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. Do Scholarships Help Students Continue Their Education?. From Evidence to Policy. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/8b9918aa-60ec-571d-898f-543d44e88a12 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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