The Effect of Proximity on School Enrollment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in

We conduct a randomized evaluation to assess the causal effect of distance on children’s academic participation and performance. Based on estimates from a sample of 31 villages and over 1,500 children in rural northwestern Afghanistan, the program significantly increases enrollment and test scores amongst all children and dramatically improves the existing gender disparities. The intervention increases formal school enrollment by 47 percentage points among all children and increases test scores by 0.59 standard deviations. For those children who enroll in school, average test scores increase by 1.2 standard deviations. Overall, children prove very sensitive to changes in the distance to the nearest school. Enrollment falls by 16 percentage points for every mile that children must travel to school and test scores fall by 0.19 standard deviations. Girls prove more sensitive than boys to changes in the distance to the nearest school. So much so that providing a community based school virtually eliminates the gender gap in enrollment (from 21 percentage points in control villages) and reduces the test score disparity by a third after a single year. 1 This project could not have been completed without the assistance of many individuals. Neil Boothby, Kathry