8 In,keasing-the education oft rls There is then an overwhelming case for increased investments in the education of girls. How can this best be done? Tihe first component of any efrort to raise female enrollment rates must be policies that promote economic growth and poverty alleviation. Comparisons of both countries and families demonstrate a strong impact of poverty alleviation on enrollment rates. Because parents **tre** more reluctant to send girls than boys to schol, poverty alleviation is especially important for raising female enrollment rates.

But female enrollments do not always rise as incomes grow. It takes the right policies to alter perverse incentives and provide the needed encouragement to let girls learn.

Ultimately, whatever laws legislatures enact, it is parents who decide whether or not to send their daughters to school. And although the social returns to educating girls far exceed the returns to educating boys, parents capture a larger fraction of the benefits of educating their sons. In a survey done some years ago, by far the largest single reason given by parents (over 45%) for not educating daughters was lack of financial gain to the family (Table 4).

What can be done to make educating girls more attractive t Darents? While the evidence is far from clear and there is a need for controlled experiments, current knowledge suggests enactment of an agenda which will recognize the external benefits of female education in determin ng financing policies and would seek to make educating girls more attractive given both cultural traditions and the many competing needs of poor families. As there auce greater social benefits to educating girls than boys, it is appropriate for females' education to cost less than male education. Scholarship funds should be established and more free books and other supplies provided fok girls. Because parents are more reluctant to educate their daughters, this is particularly important. One study in Peru found that rules requiring students to pay for textbooks had a large negative effect on female enrollment but almost no effect on males. Whatever the general merits of cost recovery in the case of basic education may be, the argument is much weaker where there are large external benefits, as there are with the education of females.

Providir.g schooling that responds to cultural and practical concerns is also essential. Female enrollment is heavily dependent upon schools not being too far away, upon the provision of appropriate sanitation facilities, and upon the hiring of female teachers. This, of course, is facilitated by raising female enrollment rates. Flexible hours and the provision of care for younger siblings can also be helpful in some cases.

These two measures-- reducing costs for girls and making special efforts to accommodate parents' practical needs-- will make a big difference in raising families' demand for female education. In the survey cited above, the largest single reason given by girls for their lack of enrollment was "there is no school for girls" (Table 5). A recent survey of households in four Pakistani districts shom s that enrollment rates for girls with a school in their village is equivalent to male enrollment (Table 6). The enrollment rate of girls with a school nearby, instead of in