Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh

This paper documents the experience of incentive-based reforms in the secondary Islamic/madrasa education sector in Bangladesh within the context of the broader debate over modernization of religious school systems in South Asia. Key features of the reform are changes of the curriculum and policy re...

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Main Authors:	Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz, Chaudhury, Nazmul
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economics of Gender Non-labor Discrimination J160 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Cultural Economics: Religion Z120
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4721

id	okr-10986-4721
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-47212021-04-23T14:02:19Z Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz Chaudhury, Nazmul Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economics of Gender Non-labor Discrimination J160 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Cultural Economics: Religion Z120 This paper documents the experience of incentive-based reforms in the secondary Islamic/madrasa education sector in Bangladesh within the context of the broader debate over modernization of religious school systems in South Asia. Key features of the reform are changes of the curriculum and policy regarding admission of female students. In return to formal registration and curriculum modernization, madrasas receive financial aid from the government towards teacher salary. Using a cross-sectional census data-set (containing current and retrospective information) on formal secondary schools and madrasas, we first point out that a significant fraction of the existing post-primary registered madrasas today comprises of 'converts'; that is, formerly all-male, unregistered religious schools that previously offered traditional, religious education. Furthermore, these madrasas have embraced female students in recent years following the introduction of yet another incentive scheme, namely a conditional cash transfer scheme for secondary girls. Drawing upon school enrolment data aggregated at the region level, we show that regions that had more (modernized) madrasas were more likely to achieve gender parity in secondary enrolment during 1999-2003, holding the number of secular secondary schools constant. This finding highlights the previously undocumented role played by religious schools in removing gender disparity in rural Bangladesh. 2012-03-30T07:29:25Z 2012-03-30T07:29:25Z 2009 Journal Article Education Economics 09645292 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4721 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article South Asia Bangladesh
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economics of Gender Non-labor Discrimination J160 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Cultural Economics: Religion Z120
spellingShingle	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economics of Gender Non-labor Discrimination J160 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Cultural Economics: Religion Z120 Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz Chaudhury, Nazmul Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
geographic_facet	South Asia Bangladesh
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	This paper documents the experience of incentive-based reforms in the secondary Islamic/madrasa education sector in Bangladesh within the context of the broader debate over modernization of religious school systems in South Asia. Key features of the reform are changes of the curriculum and policy regarding admission of female students. In return to formal registration and curriculum modernization, madrasas receive financial aid from the government towards teacher salary. Using a cross-sectional census data-set (containing current and retrospective information) on formal secondary schools and madrasas, we first point out that a significant fraction of the existing post-primary registered madrasas today comprises of 'converts'; that is, formerly all-male, unregistered religious schools that previously offered traditional, religious education. Furthermore, these madrasas have embraced female students in recent years following the introduction of yet another incentive scheme, namely a conditional cash transfer scheme for secondary girls. Drawing upon school enrolment data aggregated at the region level, we show that regions that had more (modernized) madrasas were more likely to achieve gender parity in secondary enrolment during 1999-2003, holding the number of secular secondary schools constant. This finding highlights the previously undocumented role played by religious schools in removing gender disparity in rural Bangladesh.
format	Journal Article
author	Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz Chaudhury, Nazmul
author_facet	Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz Chaudhury, Nazmul
author_sort	Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz
title	Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
title_short	Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
title_full	Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
title_fullStr	Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed	Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh
title_sort	holy alliances : public subsidies, islamic high schools, and female schooling in bangladesh
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4721
_version_	1764392505433915392

Holy Alliances : Public Subsidies, Islamic High Schools, and Female Schooling in Bangladesh

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