In Guinea, a PTA member leads the monitoring effort, and in Haiti the school management committee and school staff collaborate to follow up on absences. In Malawi, monitoring absence is a partnership between community, teachers and children who follow up with the families of girls who are frequently absent. SC and its Ministry partners offer training for these participants in guidance and counseling techniques for use with girls as well as their parents during such visits. A family often perceives direct and indirect costs to a girls' schooling. If a girl's labor ensures economic survival or the family values it more highly than her education, her education gets second priority.
Direct costs arise from the government's formula for educational cost-sharing with families.
This formula most often calls upon parents to contribute to the school financially by paying tuition fees, or to purchase uniforms, books or other stationery materials. In Egypt and Nepal, SC has removed this economic obstacle to girls' enrollment and persistence by providing scholarships to girls who attend regularly. Similarly in Afghan refugee camps, edible oil is given as an allowance to girls who attend school regularly. While the use of such incentives can be somewhat controversial due to issues of sustainability, gender equity and management, the strategy can remove, in the short term, an economic barrier to girls' education, allowing time for other benefits to surface. The indirect costs of education comprise the loss of wages or otherwise valued work that the family would experience if a girl attends school.