Madrasas and NGOs : Complements or Substitutes? Non-State Providers and Growth in Female Education in Bangladesh

Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz ; Chaudhury, Nazmul

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABSENTEEISM;    ACHIEVING GENDER PARITY;    ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION;    BASIC EDUCATION;    BOYS SCHOOLS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4511
RP-ID  :  WPS4511

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

There has been a proliferation ofnon-state providers of education services in the developingworld.In Bangladesh, for instance, Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee runs more than 40,000 non-formalschools that cater to school-drop outs from poor families oroperate in villages where there's little provision forformal schools. This paper presents a rationale forsupporting these schools on the basis of their spillovereffects on female enrollment in secondary (registered)madrasa schools (Islamic faith schools). Most madrasa highschools in Bangladesh are financed by the sate and include amodern curriculum alongside traditional religious subjects.Using an establishment-level dataset on student enrollmentin secondary schools and madrasas, the authors demonstratethat the presence of madrasas is positively associated withsecondary female enrollment growth. Such feminization ofmadrasas is therefore unique and merits careful analysis.The authors test the effects of the Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee primary schools on growth in femaleenrollment in madrasas. The analysis deals with potentialendoegeneity by using data on number of the number of schoolbranches and female members in the sub-district. Thefindings show that madrasas that are located in regions witha greater number of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committeeschools have higher growth in female enrollment. Thisrelationship is further strengthened by the finding thatthere is, however, no effect of these schools on femaleenrollment growth in secular schools.