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Abstract
In Bangladesh, pervasive poverty has kept generations of families from sending
their children to school, and without education, their children's future will be a
distressing echo of their own. Many children from poor families in Bangladesh do not
attend school either because their families cannot afford books and other school
materials, or because the children contribute to their family's livelihood and cannot be
spared. In some areas, there is also a lack of schools. Among those who enter primary
school, only about 40 percent of them complete it. The commendable success of the
Food for Education (FFE) program of the Government of Bangladesh has led to larger
classes, but do these crowded classrooms crowd out learning?
How does FFE work?
The Government of Bangladesh launched the FFE program in 1993. The FFE
program provided a free monthly ration of foodgrains to poor families in rural areas if
their children enrolled in primary school, and maintained an 85 percent attendance rate.
The family could consume the grain or sell it and use the cash to meet other expenses.
Before the program was terminated in June 2002, the FFE program covered about 27
percent of all primary schools and enrolled about one-third of all primary school students.
FFE beneficiary students accounted for about 13 percent of all students in primary
schools in Bangladesh. The cost of the program (including the value of foodgrains) was
approximately US$37 per beneficiary student per year. A two-step targeting mechanism
was used, selecting poor areas, then poor households within those areas.
Data from school and household surveys conducted in Bangladesh by the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in September-October 2000 were
used to evaluate the FFE program. The surveys included primary schools with and
without the FFE program, and a cross section of households including program
beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries. The sample includes 600 households in 60 villages in
30 unions in 10 thanas, and 110 schools in the same 30 unions from which the household sample was drawn. In addition, a standard academic achievement test, designed to assess
the quality of education received by students, was given to students in both FFE and non-
FFE schools.
What was the impact of FFE on learning?
IFPRI analysis showed that the FFE program led to increased enrollment and
class attendance rates, particularly among girls. However, classrooms of FFE schools
became more crowded: on average, classrooms in FFE schools had 22 percent more
students (67 students) than classrooms in non-FFE schools (55 students). Within FFE
schools, the average test score is lower for FFE beneficiaries than nonbeneficiary
students, which brings down the aggregate score in FFE schools. In non-FFE schools,
average test scores of all students are comparable to nonbeneficiaries in FFE schools.
Boys consistently outperformed girls in the achievement test in all subjects in all types of
schools, regardless of FFE beneficiary status.
Does classroom crowding (resource dilution) or the lower ability of FFE children
(peer effect) affect test scores of non-FFE students in FFE schools? IFPRI's multivariate
analysis does not support the resource dilution hypothesis. Class size has no effect on
student achievement.
Results of the peer effect analysis, however, show that the learning performance
of non-FFE students in FFE schools is negatively affected when an average of 44 percent
of the students in class are FFE beneficiaries. This is probably due to the teachers having
to go more slowly to accommodate poorly performing FFE students. These students
come from poorer families. Evidence from household surveys show that children from
poor families are less likely to have educated parents who could help them in their studies
at home, afford study materials, and find enough time to do the homework, as many of
them must contribute to their family's livelihood. Moreover, from birth, these children
are often deprived of the basic nutritional building blocks that they need in order to learn.
Nevertheless, there are benefits to non-FFE beneficiaries from being in an FFE
school because FFE schools must meet certain minimum educational quality standards to maintain FFE eligibility. For example, in FFE schools, at least 10 percent of Grade 5
students must qualify for the national annual scholarship examination. No such
performance standards are required for the non-FFE primary schools. These benefits to
non-FFE beneficiaries outweigh the negative peer effects up to the point when FFE
beneficiaries reached 69 percent of the students in the classroom. After 69 percent, the
benefits derived from minimum performance standards vanish.
The overall effect at the community level is measured by the Minimum Learning
Achievement; the percentage of children in a community who attain a minimum
achievement score, weighted by the enrolment rate in that community. The minimum
learning achievement in FFE communities is higher than in non-FFE communities
(despite the latter tending to be richer) due to the increased enrollment from FFE.
Particularly, major benefits accrued to the children from poor families who would not
have attended school without the FFE program.
Implications for food assistance programming
As a food-based social safety net, the FFE program in Bangladesh served a wider
purpose than simply providing the poor with immediate sustenance through take-home
food rations, important as that is. It has empowered children from poor families with
education, thereby paving their pathway out of poverty.
The FFE enrollment increase was greater for girls than boys, yet boys consistently
outperformed girls on the achievement tests. Having drawn them into school, improving
the quality of girls' education will ultimately strengthen the beneficial effects of women's
education on various family-level outcomes, such as children's schooling, child health
and nutrition, and women's fertility.
The concern that learning performance of non-FFE students in FFE schools may
be adversely affected by increased class size generated by the FFE program appears to be
unfounded. But unchecked, the negative peer effect could hinder student achievement.
In the FFE program, this was offset by the requirement that FFE schools must meet
certain minimum educational quality standards in order to maintain their school-level eligibility for the program. Setting clear standards for performance is important, even at
the primary level. Minimum performance standards should be incorporated in the design
of the recently implemented Primary Education Stipend program (a cash-for-education
program that has replaced the government's FFE program), as well as in the ongoing
pilot testing of the school-feeding program launched by the Government of Bangladesh
with support from the World Food Programme.