The Schooling Incentives Project Evaluation

Abstract

This report describes the first randomized evaluation of an education initiative aimed at children vulnerable to child labor. The promotion of education had been at the core of anti-child labor efforts for over a decade. Based on a survey of children aged 10-16 whose guardians worked in export-oriented carpet-weaving establishments in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, the authors found that a scholarship for education fees and expenses did not have a detectable impact on attendance. Adding economic support conditioned on school attendance to the scholarship significantly increased school attendance, improved test performance, and discouraged weaving among girls. That combination of scholarship and support reduced the prevalence of children living without a parent present.