Incentives to Learn: A Girls’ Scholarship Program in Kenya

The project

The Girls Scholarship Program (GSP) was introduced in 2001 by ICS Africa, a Dutch NGO, in Busia and Teso districts in western Kenya. The program provided winning Grade 6 girls with an award for the next two academic years, Grades 7 and 8 (through the end of primary school). In each year, the award consisted of: (1) a grant of US$ 12.8 (1000 Kenyan shillings, KSh) paid to the girl's family, (2) a grant of US$ 6.4 (500 KSh) intended for the winner's school fees and paid directly to her school, and (3) public recognition at a school awards assembly organized by the NGO. The NGO restricted eligibility to those girls who were already enrolled in a program school before the program was announced. Scholarship winners were chosen based on their total score across all five subject tests in district grade 6 exams. The NGO awarded scholarships to the highest scoring 15% of Grade 6 girls in the program schools in each district.

The impact evaluation results

• The project raised test scores by 0.12 standard deviations (sd) overall, which is statistically significant. This effect breaks down into a statistically significant effect of 0.17 sd for girls (only girls could win the scholarship) and a statistically insignificant effect of 0.9 sd for boys.
• Overall, the project raised the likelihood of pupil attendance at school by 5 percentage points (pp) or about 6% of the mean attendance of 85%.
• The project raised the likelihood of teacher attendance by 5 pp (about 6% of the mean attendance of 87%) during 2002.
• The program raised textbook use at home among program girls in cohort 1 in Busia District by 6 pp (7% of the mean of 88%). The effect is not significant for the subsequent cohort, and results are not presented for boys or Teso district.

The impact evaluation method

The program used randomized allocation of 127 primary schools to treatment and control groups.

Please refer to the publication (pdf) for more information.