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Uganda continues to face barriers in equal access to education across gender, with girls experiencing lower educational attainment compared to their male counterparts. These barriers are even more severe for female orphans compared to non-orphans. Female orphans often face educational barriers such as, prohibitive costs and fees, gender norms which place boys’ education above girls’, caregiving and household responsibilities, and higher risk for early pregnancies and marriage, gender violence and sexual exploitation. Programs and policies utilizing family financial inclusive programs, including asset ownership and development may have potential to positively impact girls’ educational outcomes, beyond the current universal primary and secondary education inclusive policies which focus on free tuition, but maintain other educational related fees (such as school uniforms, notebooks and text-books fees).
Methods:
This paper evaluates a 5-year NIH funded savings-led family financial inclusion program called Bridges to the Future (2011-2016; N=1383), with implications for bridging the gender gap in educational outcomes for female orphaned children. In the Bridges to the Future study, participants were randomized at the school level into one of three arms; two treatment arms, (Bridges and Bridges Plus) receiving matched savings for post primary education, with a 1:1 and a 2:1 match respectively or the control condition receiving usual care. Comparisons between male and female school achievement were measured through Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) scores, a national standardized examination taken by all students completing primary school in Uganda. PLE scores are divided into five groups from the highest performance (Division 1) to the lowest (failure), and are used to determine whether a child advances to secondary school. Comparisons between male and female school attainment were measured through participants’ transition from primary school to secondary or vocational school.
Results:
Results indicated overall higher achievement and school attainment for girls across arms. Out of all the participants who sat for the PLE (n=856), 43% of girls obtained a Division 3 or higher compared to 30% of boys. Within the treatment groups, girls also out-performed boys. Thirty-six percent of girls in the Bridges (n=273) arm, and 54% of girls in the Bridges Plus (n=238) arm obtained a Division 3 or higher versus 27% and 33% of boys respectively. Additionally, school attainment was higher for girls. By the fifth year, of those participants who progressed to secondary or vocational school (n=571), 60% were females.
Conclusions & Implications:
Girls out-performed boys in both school performance and school attainment. Girls who received the Bridges Plus 2:1 match intervention obtained higher PLE scores and were more likely to transition to secondary or vocational school compared to the Bridges arm. This may indicate a greater impact of the 2:1 match over the 1:1 match on girls’ education. Given the barriers to female educational attainment including cost, this economic empowerment intervention should be taken into consideration when developing programs and policies targeting equal access to education for girls in Uganda and beyond.