What's the Long-Term Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Education?
Cash transfers are used around the world to better encourage poor families to take advantage of educational offerings by offering financial incentives that can boost their income. The Colombia study shows that these can be an important tool not onl...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/17940872/whats-long-term-impact-conditional-cash-transfers-education http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17019 |
| Summary: | Cash transfers are used around the world
to better encourage poor families to take advantage of
educational offerings by offering financial incentives that
can boost their income. The Colombia study shows that these
can be an important tool not only for encouraging families
to enroll their children in school, but also keeping them
there. Indeed, the results indicate that students whose
families received the cash transfers were more likely to
graduate high school, an educational milestone that opens
doors to higher education and in developing countries
especially, increases employment opportunities. The study
showed that higher enrollment, and improved graduation
rates, didn't necessarily translate into better
learning. Students whose families received the cash
transfers didn't show improvements in test scores when
compared with students whose families didn't receive
the money. It may be that teachers need better training to
address the needs of low-income students, or more resources
may be required for struggling students. Future research
could consider linking cash transfers to school performance,
to see whether this incentive encourages students (and their
parents) to pay more attention to learning. As part of this,
researchers would have to consider what support low-income
households might need to monitor and assist their children
in school. The Colombia study makes an important
contribution to the body of evidence on the effectiveness of
cash transfers in keeping kids in school and raising
graduation rates. The next step is to understand how cash
transfers, or other programs, can successfully be used to
boost learning too. |
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