Access

Economic factors are a major reason for children missing out on education even where provision is available. Demand-side incentives have become increasingly popular as a means to drive attendance. But for such incentives to be successful, they must address the real barriers that families face.

Although a shortage of school buildings is still a problem in a few countries, access to education is far more complex than providing and maintaining school facilities close by. Issues such as gender, ethnicity, location, health status, disability, and language all continue to influence the likelihood of a child accessing education.

Perhaps the dominating factor, however, remains economic: parents make schooling choices based on their income. Even where school fees have been abolished – something that has had a dramatic effect on demand – there are still indirect costs of schooling, not least the opportunity cost of having a child in education rather than work. The perceived returns on schooling, in terms of how it affects labour market opportunities, can also discourage parents.

As a result, efforts to increase access to education are increasingly moving towards providing incentives that would make educational participation more attractive. What OPM’s experience proves is that such demand-side incentives need to be carefully designed to respond to the actual barriers on the ground, rather than centrally perceived barriers to participation. If not, they can become expensive programmes with no discernible impact on the numbers of children in school. This requires deep analysis of what would help raise attendance – and a willingness to consider conditional or targeted incentives to address particular groups, as a means of reducing inequality and reaching the most excluded.