The Effects of a Secondary School Scholarship on School Progression and Youth Outcomes in Ethiopia: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Last registered on May 17, 2023

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010951

Initial registration date

February 23, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

March 03, 2023, 5:10 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

May 17, 2023, 9:31 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Ethiopia

Region

Amhara, Oromia

Primary Investigator

Name

Jessica Leight

Affiliation

IFPRI

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Daniel Gilligan

PI Affiliation

IFPRI

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Michael Mulford

PI Affiliation

World Vision

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-02-21

End date

2025-01-01

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The objective of this trial is to analyze the effect of a secondary school scholarship on secondary school enrollment and other youth outcomes of interest (academic performance, engagement in economic activities, and early marriage) among a sample of youth in households that are beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program (and thus among the poorest 10-15% of rural households) in Amhara and Oromia regions, Ethiopia. The evaluation is a randomized controlled trial implemented using randomization at the subdistrict (kebele level), including an estimated 2000 youth in 116 kebeles in 13 woredas. Eligible youth will be either youth in PSNP households currently enrolled in seventh or eighth grade and thus potentially eligible to enter secondary school in September 2023 or September 2024, conditional on successfully passing the primary school leaving exam (the grade seven and grade eight cohorts); or youth in PSNP households who passed the primary school leaving exam in 2021 or 2022 but subsequently failed to enroll in secondary school (the dropout cohort). The primary intervention is a scholarship valued at around $300 per year for two years, an amount designed to meet the costs of transportation to and/or boarding at school for students who, on average, reside at least eight kilometers (as the crow flies) from the closest secondary school. Students in treatment kebeles will have access to the scholarship conditional only on their enrollment in secondary school. Outcomes will be tracked for two years using both school-based administrative data collection and a detailed endline survey.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Leight, Jessica, Daniel Gilligan and Michael Mulford. 2023. "The Effects of a Secondary School Scholarship on School Progression and Youth Outcomes in Ethiopia: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial ." AEA RCT Registry. May 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10951-2.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The proposed intervention is a $300 scholarship per year ($150 per semester), available to youth from PSNP households who enroll in secondary school (ninth grade) in fall 2023 or fall 2024. This educational grant will be available for eligible students in ninth and tenth grade (two years). This includes any youth from PSNP households who may have passed the primary school leaving exam in 2022 and 2021 who wish to return to secondary school. Our formative work and programmatic experiences suggest that this cohort may be larger than usual given the substantial disruptions to secondary school progression experienced over the previous approximately 18 months, particularly linked to significant conflict and drought related shocks in the target regions of Ethiopia.

We do not plan on imposing any additional conditionality on the scholarship in terms of academic merit or academic progression such as attendance. The scholarship is conditional only on school enrollment by the youth and can be used for any expenses identified by households as relevant, including but not limited to accommodation for their secondary school students at a location proximate to the school; travel expenses associated with commuting to school; or school supplies or other supplementary expenses.

Intervention Start Date

2023-09-01

Intervention End Date

2024-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Enrollment in secondary school (ninth and tenth grade)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Passing rates on the primary school leaving exam; attendance and academic performance in secondary school; engagement in economic activities among youth; early marriage; mental health

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The objective of this trial is to analyze the effect of a secondary school scholarship for youth from the poorest households in a set of relatively remote and food-insecure kebeles in rural Ethiopia on secondary school enrollment and progression, as well as a set of related non-academic outcomes of interest.

More specifically, the trial seeks to address the following research questions:

1) What is the impact of a secondary school scholarship (announced in March 2023) on the primary outcome of interest, secondary school enrollment, for eligible students in the poorest 10—15% of households in rural Ethiopia (specifically, households eligible for the Productive Safety Net Program or PSNP)? Eligible students include the grade eight cohort, who will complete grade eight in spring 2023 and may be eligible to enroll in secondary school in fall 2023, conditional on passing the primary school leaving certificate exam; the grade seven cohort, who will complete grade eight in spring 2024 and may be eligible to enroll the following fall, conditional on passing the exam; and the dropout cohort, students who passed the exam in spring 2021 or 2022 but failed to enroll in secondary school (or enrolled and later dropped out), and who will now have an opportunity to return in fall 2023. (In all cases, students must also be in households currently receiving PSNP benefits to be eligible.)
2) What is the impact of the secondary school scholarship on secondary outcomes including passing rates on the primary school leaving exam; attendance and academic performance in secondary school, once enrolled; engagement in economic activities among youth; and early marriage?
3) Do the effects of the secondary school scholarship differ across cohorts? (Note, this comparison will not exploit a dimension of randomization, but will entail a comparison of the treatment effects for different cohorts; if there are other time-varying shocks to youth enrollment patterns in this period, that may be a source of bias in these comparisons.)

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization is conducted in Stata by the research team.

Randomization Unit

Kebele

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

116 kebeles

Sample size: planned number of observations

The baseline sample includes 2,141 youth.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

60 kebeles assigned to treatment, 56 kebeles assigned to control

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

The primary outcome is enrollment in secondary school. Data from screening surveys conducted part of the baseline suggests that among primary school graduates identified in the school listing process, around 52% are currently enrolled in school. Allowing for 10% attrition and a mean cluster size of 16 at endline, the minimum detectable effect ranges between 19 and 33 percentage points.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB