Does Scholarship Scheme Contribute to Gender Parity in Female Education? The Case of Secondary Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

Gender parity in education plays an important role in socio-economic development of a country where the government policies and procedures are paramount factors for its sustainability. Although Bangladesh has been working to improve the female students enrolment at secondary education since its independence; the achievement is considered insignificant. Recently the country has introduced female secondary education enhancement policy to increase and ensure female students’ enrolment. The paper has analysed the impact of this policy regarding the female secondary education in Bangladesh. Using secondary data, the paper analysed the policy-impacts through changes in the pattern and trend of female secondary student enrolment, the indices of gross enrolment ratio (GER), net enrolment ratio (NER) and net attendance rate (NAR). It also analysed gender disparity index (GDI) and gender parity index (GPI) in secondary education. The paper found that the undertaken policy has positively impacted on female secondary education in Bangladesh but the rate of drop-out and failed students is much higher for female than those for male which raises a question of the effectiveness of the policy. The government should formulate a complementary education policy to achieve desired quantity and quality female secondary education. The findings of the paper might be of interest for researchers, development practitioners and policy makers. Key words: Gender; female; secondary education; education policy; Bangladesh