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The Effects Of Primary School Quality On The Educational Participation And Attainment Of Kenyan Girls And Boys, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In Kenya, adolescent girls fare poorly relative to boys in an educational system characterized by enormous growth, deteriorating quality, and rising costs. Girls are more likely than boys to drop out of school prematurely and are less likely to do well on the primary school leaving exams that come at the end of grade eight. Using data from nearly 600 adolescents aged 12-19 in combination with data collected from 36 primary schools in which those adolescents reside, this paper investigates the effect of school quality on the likelihood of dropping out from primary school in three districts of Kenya. In …