Financial Constraints and Girls'Secondary Education: Evidence from School Fee Elimination in the Gambia

32 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2016

See all articles by Moussa Blimpo

Moussa Blimpo

University of Toronto - Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Ousman Gajigo

World Bank - African Development Bank

Todd Pugatch

Oregon State University; IZA

Date Written: December 6, 2016

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of large-scale fee elimination for secondary school girls in The Gambia on the quantity, composition, and achievement of students. The gradual rollout of the program across geographic regions provides identifying variation in the policy. The program increased the number of girls taking the high school exit exam by 55 percent. The share of older test takers increased in poorer districts, expanding access for students who began school late, repeated grades, or whose studies had been interrupted. Despite these changes in the quantity and composition of students, there are robustly positive point estimates of the program on test scores, with suggestive evidence of gains for several subgroups of both girls and boys. Absence of learning declines is notable in a setting where expanded access could strain limited resources and reduce school quality. The findings suggest that financial constraints remain serious barriers to post-primary education, and that efforts to expand access to secondary education need not come at the expense of learning in low-income countries like The Gambia.

Keywords: Inequality, Educational Sciences

Suggested Citation

Blimpo, Moussa and Gajigo, Ousman and Pugatch, Todd, Financial Constraints and Girls'Secondary Education: Evidence from School Fee Elimination in the Gambia (December 6, 2016). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7908, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2881701

Moussa Blimpo (Contact Author)

University of Toronto - Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy ( email )

Toronto, Ontario
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/mpblimpo/

Ousman Gajigo

World Bank - African Development Bank

15 Avenue du Ghana
P.O.Box 323-1002
Tunis-Belvedère
Tunisia

Todd Pugatch

Oregon State University ( email )

Corvallis, OR 97331
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/toddpugatch/

IZA ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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