BRAC started in 1984 with only 22 pilot schools. BRAC’s education program began in rural areas where there were no alternative education options<sup>4</sup> . Today there are more than 40,000 BRAC schools covering 50,000 out of 84,000 Bangladeshi villages.

BRAC schools have a number of hallmarks. First, they cater to children who have never attended school as well as those who have dropped out of government or other schools. Similar to madrasas, BRAC (instead of the child’s family) bears most of the educational expenses<sup>5</sup> . A majority of the students in BRAC primary schools are from the poorest 20% of the population. Second, 70 percent of children attending BRAC schools are female. Third, 97% of teachers in BRAC schools are married women and come from the same village where the school is located.

Today, BRAC schools are regarded by many as a success story. First, BRAC students are found to have higher test scores when compared to students from government primary schools (Sukontamarn, 2005). Second, 90% of students who complete their primary schooling though BRAC continue into secondary education. Third, BRAC schools have been instrumental in retaining female students from poorer families in school (Sukontamarn, 2005).

At the secondary level, on the other hand, there is no NGO school. Rather, education is provided by government schools, aided schools and madrasas. According to government census records for the year 2003, there are 8,406 institutions at post-primary level against 17,389 secondary schools constituting approximately 26% of all post-primary education and 32.5% of all secondary educational institutions respectively. Madrasa enrollment accounts for 15% of total PPE enrollment<sup>6</sup> . Most madrasa education takes place in rural locations and rural learners account for 90.9% of madrasa enrollment, compared with around 77% in mainstream education.

There is an important stylized fact about the secondary madrasa sector in Bangladesh. More than 90% of the registered secondary madrasas in Bangladesh today admit girls and half of the students enrolled in these schools are girls (Asadullah and Chaudhury, 2007). This ‘feminization’ of the secondary madrasa system in Bangladesh is a recent phenomenon. Female enrollment boom in religious schools has been driven by the conversion of formerly all-male, un/registered madrasas into registered centers for coeducation. This reflects the confluence of two hybrid (supply and demand side) conditional cash incentive schemes. First, the government took over responsibility over teacher pay in madrasas conditional upon formal registration and introduced of modern subjects (math, science, etc). Then the government introduced the FSP project which allowed rural females to go to any registered school (public, private, religious) of their choice (payment was conditional upon enrolling in secondary school). Furthermore any

> 4 However, since 1992 BRAC additionally began constructing schools in urban slums.

> 5 Whilst BRAC bears majority of the expenses, the cost of maintaining the classrooms are the responsibility of the community. Communities are involved in deciding locations and schedules of schools as well as providing labor and materials to build schools.

> 6 In contrast, Madrasas in Pakistan account for less than 1% of total school enrollment (Andrabi et al., 2006).

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