Educational Grants Closing the Gap in Schooling Attainment between Poor and Non-Poor

The present work assesses the effectiveness of educational grants at raising schooling attainment of poor children in rural areas. The per grade gains in reducing drop outs cumulate in an additional half a year in total schooling. Progressive impacts are found along three dimensions: degree of poverty, parents’ education and distance to school. The children of uneducated fathers living far from school gain twice as much as their counterparts with an educated father or close to a school. The intervention successfully closes the schooling gap along the wealth dimension but falls short of achieving the same in the other dimensions of parents’ education and school distance.