Increasing Access by Waiving Tuition : Evidence from Haiti / Adelman, Melissa A.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Adelman, Melissa A.

Contributor:

Adelman, Melissa A.

Holland, Peter A.

Series:

Policy research working papers.

World Bank e-Library.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education.

Local Subjects:

Education.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (25 pages)

Other Title:

Increasing Access by Waiving Tuition

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C., The World Bank, 2015

System Details:

data file

Summary:

Despite impressive gains in increasing access to school over the past 20 years, an estimated 57 million children worldwide do not go to school. Abolishing school fees has increased enrollment rates in several countries where enrollments were low and school fees were high. However, such policies may be less effective, or even have negative consequences, when supply-side responses are weak. This paper evaluates the school-level impacts of a tuition waiver program in Haiti, which provided public financing to nonpublic schools conditional on these schools not charging tuition. The paper concludes that a school's participation in the program results in having more students enrolled, more staff, and slightly higher student-teacher ratios. The program also reduces grade repetition and the share of students who are over-age. Although the increase in students at participating schools does not directly equate to a reduction in the number of children out of school, it does demonstrate strong demand from families for the program, and a correspondingly strong supply response from the nonpublic sector.