81322 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Expanding Educational Opportunities in Remote Parts of the World: Evidence from a RCT of a Public-Private Partnership in Pakistan Author(s) Felipe Barrera-Osorio, David Blakeslee, Matthew Hoover, Leigh Linden, Dhushyanth Raju Contact draju2@worldbank.org Country Pakistan Organizing Theme Education and Skills Status Completed Intervention Category Public Private Partnership Sector Education We evaluate the effects of publicly funded private primary schools on child enrollment in a sample of 263 villages in 10 underserved districts of rural Sindh province, Pakistan. The program is found to significantly increase child enrollment and reduce existing gender disparities. Enrollment increases by 51 percentage points in treated villages; while girls show an increase 4-5 percentage points greater than boys. The gender gap is found to arise Abstract primarily in areas that have access to a government school; and this gap is eliminated by the introduction of a PPRS school. The introduction of PPRS schools crowds out enrollment in both public and private schools, with the impact being greater for public schools. We find no evidence that providing greater financial incentives to entrepreneurs for the recruitment of girls leads to a greater increase in female enrollment than does an equal compensation scheme for boys and girls. Gender Connection Gender Focused Intervention Gender Outcomes School enrollment IE Design Over subscription Clustered Randomized Control Trial (Clustered at Village Level) The intervention consisted of public private partnerships between entrepreneurs and schools. Private entrepreneurs were given the responsibility of establishing and running Intervention primary schools to which all children between the ages 5 and 9 were eligible for free enrollment. Half of the treatment villages received a higher subsidies for girls than boys. Intervention Period Summer 2009- Present 263 localities were eligible for the program. 200 were randomly selected to receive the Sample population treatment and 63 were kept as controls. Comparison conditions The control villages did not receive any treatment Unit of analysis Child Level Evaluation Period February 2009-April 2011 Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Overall the intervention increases enrollment 51% compared to control schools. This Results effect is significant. The effect is slightly larger for girls than boys. However the differential subsidy did not have a statistically significantly larger effect on female enrollment. There may have been different attrition rates between the survey and the school census. Primary study limitations Enrollment rates may be imprecisely measured. Funding Source Barrera-Osorio, F., Blakeslee, D. S., Hoover, M., Linden, L. L., & Raju, D. (2011, April). Reference(s) Expanding Educational Opportunities in Remote Parts of the World: Evidence from a RCT of a Public Private Partnership in Pakistan. In Third Institute for the Study Link to Studies http://www.iza.org/conference_files/childl2011/blakeslee_d6783.pdf Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2