Educational and Health Impacts of Two School Feeding Schemes : Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Rural Burkina Faso

Kazianga, Harounan; de Walque, Damien; Alderman, Harold

Educational and Health Impacts of Two School Feeding Schemes : Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Rural Burkina Faso

Autores

Kazianga, Harounan

de Walque, Damien

Alderman, Harold

Descripción

This paper uses a prospective randomized trial to assess the impact of two school feeding schemes on health and education outcomes for children from low-income households in northern rural Burkina Faso. The two school feeding programs under consideration are, on the one hand, school meals where students are provided with lunch each school day, and, on the other hand, take-home rations that provide girls with 10 kg of cereal flour each month, conditional on 90 percent attendance rate. After running for one academic year, both programs increased girls enrollment by 5 to 6 percentage points. While there was no observable significant impact on raw scores in mathematics, the time-adjusted scores in mathematics improved slightly for girls. The interventions caused absenteeism to increase in households that were low in child labor supply while absenteeism decreased for households that had a relatively large child labor supply, consistent with the labor constraints. Finally, for younger siblings of beneficiaries, aged between 12 and 60 months, take-home rations have increased weight-for-age by .38 standard deviations and weight-for-height by .33 standard deviations. In contrast, school meals did not have any significant impact on the nutrition of younger children.

Palabras clave

ABSENTEEISM RATES, ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, ACADEMIC YEAR, ACCOUNT, ADOLESCENTS, ARITHMETIC, ATTENDANCE RATE, ATTENDANCE RECORDS, CHILD HEALTH, CHILD LABOR, CHILD MALNUTRITION, CHILDREN START SCHOOL, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOMS, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS, COGNITIVE TESTS, EARLY CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION OUTCOMES, EDUCATION PROGRAMS, EDUCATION STATISTICS, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES, ENROLLMENT, ENROLLMENT INCREASES, ENROLLMENT RATE, ENROLLMENT RATES, ETHNIC GROUPS, FOOD SECURITY, GIRLS, GIRLS IN SCHOOL, GLOBAL EDUCATION, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, INTERVENTIONS, INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION, INVESTMENTS IN EDUCATION, LEARNING, LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT, LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, LEARNING MATERIALS, LEARNING OUTCOMES, LITERACY, LITERATURE, LOW ENROLLMENT RATES, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NUTRITION, NUTRITION PROGRAMS, NUTRITIONAL STATUS, NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN, OLDER CHILDREN, OLDER GIRLS, ORPHAN, ORPHANHOOD, PAPERS, PARENTS EDUCATION, PATERNAL ORPHAN, PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, PRIMARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT, PRIMARY SCHOOL FEES, PRIMARY SCHOOL PARTICIPATION, REASONING, REGISTRATION FEES, REGULAR ATTENDANCE, REPRODUCTIVE AGE, RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SCHOOL ACTIVITIES, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, SCHOOL AGE, SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN, SCHOOL BREAKFAST, SCHOOL CANTEENS, SCHOOL DAY, SCHOOL DAYS, SCHOOL FEEDING, SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMS, SCHOOL HOURS, SCHOOL LEVEL, SCHOOL MEALS, SCHOOL NUTRITION, SCHOOL YEAR, SCHOOL-AGE, SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN, SCHOOLCHILDREN, SCHOOLING, SCHOOLS, TEACHER, TEACHERS, TEACHING, VILLAGE LEVEL, YOUNG GIRLS, YOUNGER BOYS, YOUNGER CHILDREN, YOUNGER SIBLINGS