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The Effect of Islamic Secondary School Attendance on Academic Achievement

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  • Asadullah, Niaz

    (University of Reading)

Abstract

Using unique survey data on rural secondary school children, this paper evaluates the relative quality of Islamic secondary schools (i.e. madrasahs) in Bangladesh. Students attending registered madrasahs fare worse in maths and English than students attending non-madrasah schools. However, failure to account for non-random sorting over-estimates the negative influence of madrasahs on student achievement. Evidence on the magnitude of this bias is presented. Once selection effect is taken into account, madrasah disadvantage in English is small while that in maths becomes insignificant. Given the overall low level of achievement, this suggests that madrasah students perform just as poorly as those from non-madrasah schools in rural Bangladesh.

Suggested Citation

  • Asadullah, Niaz, 2014. "The Effect of Islamic Secondary School Attendance on Academic Achievement," IZA Discussion Papers 8233, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8233
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    1. Stephen Gibbons & Olmo Silva, 2011. "Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(3), pages 589-635.
    2. M. Niaz Asadullah & Rupa Chakrabarti & Nazmul Chaudhury, 2015. "What Determines Religious School Choice? Theory And Evidence From Rural Bangladesh," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 186-207, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Niaz Asadullah & Alain Trannoy & Sandy Tubeuf & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2018. "Fair and unfair educational inequality in a developing country: The role of pupil’s effort," Working Papers 474, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Trannoy, Alain & Tubeuf, Sandy & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2021. "Measuring educational inequality of opportunity: pupil’s effort matters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    madrasahs; school quality; Bangladesh; instrumental variable;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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