Submitted by sep_admin on Fri, 2017-02-17 23:46
There has been a proliferation of non-state providersof education services in the developing world. InBangladesh, for instance, Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee runs more than 40,000 non-formal schoolsthat cater to school-drop outs from poor families oroperate in villages where theres little provision forformal schools. This paper presents a rationale forsupporting these schools on the basis of their spillovereffects on female enrollment in secondary (registered)madrasa schools (Islamic faith schools). Most madrasahigh schools in Bangladesh are financed by the sateand include a modern curriculum alongside traditionalreligious subjects. Using an establishment-level dataseton student enrollment in secondary schools andmadrasas, the authors demonstrate that the presence of madrasas is positively associated with secondaryfemale enrollment growth. Such feminization ofmadrasas is therefore unique and merits careful analysis.The authors test the effects of the Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee primary schools on growth infemale enrollment in madrasas. The analysis deals withpotential endoegeneity by using data on number of thenumber of school branches and female members in thesub-district. The findings show that madrasas that arelocated in regions with a greater number of BangladeshRural Advancement Committee schools have highergrowth in female enrollment. This relationship is furtherstrengthened by the finding that there is, however, noeffect of these schools on female enrollment growth insecular schools.