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The authors report on a survey of primary public and private schools in rural Pakistan with a focus on student achievement as measured through test scores. Absolute learning is low compared with curricular standards and international norms. Tested at the end of the third grade, a bare majority had mastered the K-I mathematics curriculum and 31 percent could correctly form a sentence with the word "school" in the vernacular (Urdu). As in high-income countries, bivariate comparisons show that higher learning is associated with household wealth and parental literacy. In sharp contrast to high-income countries, these gaps decrease dramatically in a multivariate regression once differences between children in the same school are looked at. Consequently, the largest gaps are between schools. The gap in English test scores between government and private schools, for instance, is 12 times the gap between children from rich and poor families. To contextualize these results within a broader South Asian context, the authors use data from public schools in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Levels of learning and the structure of the educational gaps are similar in the two samples. As in Pakistan, absolute learning is low and the largest gaps are between schools: the gap between good and bad government schools, for instance, is 5 times the gap between children with literate and illiterate mothers.

Adult Literacy --- Adult Literacy Rate --- Children --- Curriculum --- Education --- Education for All --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Enrollment --- Formal Schooling --- Gender --- Gender and Education --- Girls --- Groups --- Human Development --- Knowledge --- Learning --- Literacy --- Net Enrollment --- Numeracy --- Participation --- Primary Education --- Primary School --- Primary School Completion --- Private Schools --- Public Schools --- Secondary Education --- Student Achievement --- Tertiary Education

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Are the large enrollment effects of conditional cash transfer programs a result of the conditions or simply the cash? This paper presents the first experimental evidence on the effectiveness of conditionality in cash transfer programs for schooling. Using data from an intervention in Malawi that featured randomized conditional and unconditional treatment arms, the authors find that the program reduced the dropout rate by more than 40 percent and substantially increased regular school attendance among the target population of adolescent girls. However, they do not detect a higher impact in the conditional treatment group. This finding contrasts with previous non-experimental studies of conditional cash transfer programs, which found negligible "income" effects and strong "price" effects on schooling. The authors argue that their findings are consistent with the very low level of incomes and the high prevalence of teen marriage in the region. The results indicate that relatively small, unconditional cash transfers can be cost-effective in boosting school enrollment among adolescent girls in similar settings.

Adolescent girls --- Adolescent Health --- Dropout from school --- Dropout rate --- Dropout rates --- Education --- Education For All --- Enrollment rates --- Health --- Learning --- Low educational attainment --- Net enrollment --- Nutrition and Population --- Population Policies --- Primary Education --- Primary school --- Regular school attendance --- Rural Education --- School children --- School dropout --- School enrollment --- School fees --- School year --- Schooling --- Schools --- Secondary school --- Secondary schools --- Tertiary Education