Good practice

Female Secondary School Assistance Programme (FSSAP) — Conditional Stipend for Girls' Education, Bangladesh

Bangladesh · Dhaka · See the Bangladesh profile

Bangladesh's FSSAP (1994) provides conditional stipends and fee waivers to rural girls in secondary school. It supported 2 million+ girls annually, cutting dropout from 14.7% to 3.5%, raising age at first marriage by one year, and achieving gender parity in enrolment.

14.7% → 3.5%

Dropout rate in programme areas

30% → 48%

Girls' share of secondary enrolment (1990–1997)

2,000,000+

Girls supported annually

+1 year

Age at first marriage

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Government of Bangladesh — Ministry of Education (with ADB co-financing)
Period: 1994–ongoing
Keywords: education, government, rural development, gender

Context

Launched in 1994 by Bangladesh's Ministry of Education with Asian Development Bank co-financing, FSSAP provides conditional cash stipends and school-fee waivers to rural girls in grades 6–10, conditional on at least 75% attendance, passing grades, and remaining unmarried.

Results

Girls' share of secondary enrolment rose from 30% (1990) to 48% (1997); dropout in programme areas fell from 14.7% to 3.5%; the programme supported over 2 million girls annually across 460 districts. A 24-year World Bank longitudinal study (Khandker et al.) found age at first marriage rose by one year, fertility declined, and employment prospects improved. Gender parity in secondary enrolment was achieved ahead of many peer countries.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-23
Government of Bangladesh — Ministry of Education (with ADB co-financing) — accessed 2026-06-23
World Bank: Net Impact of FSSAP (Khandker et al.) — accessed 2026-06-23
UNESCO FSSAP documentation — accessed 2026-06-23
PMC review — social exclusion framework — accessed 2026-06-23
ADB video feature — accessed 2026-06-23

Quality score: 100/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 1% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability3/3

The conditional-stipend model has been explicitly documented by the World Bank and ADB as replicable and has been adopted in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries — demonstrating wide transfer.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Girls' secondary enrolment rose from 30% to 48% of total enrolment (1990–1997); age at first marriage rose 1 year; fertility declined — direct, measured impacts on gender equality outcomes.

Effectiveness1/1

13% annual increase in girls' enrolment vs 2.5% for boys; dropout rates fell from 14.7% to 3.5%; 24-year longitudinal study confirms sustained effects on marriage, employment and fertility.

Efficiency1/1

Conditional cash transfer achieved national-scale enrolment gains at relatively low per-student cost; the government expanded it nationally ahead of schedule due to early results.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

World Bank (Khandker et al. longitudinal study), UNESCO, ADB, and PMC peer-reviewed publications provide independent multi-decadal evaluations from multiple organisations.

Sustainability1/1

Operating continuously since 1994 at national scale; embedded in Bangladesh's education budget and reflected in SDG 4 reporting as a core policy instrument.

Achievement / evidence1/1

Gender parity in secondary enrolment achieved; 2 million+ girls supported annually; dropout halved; marriage delayed — all verified by independent studies.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Programme explicitly targets the gender gap in secondary education; eligibility conditions, monitoring and budgeting are all framed around girls' access and retention.

Curator validation1/1

Independently evaluated by the World Bank, UNESCO, ADB and multiple academic journals; cited in SDG 4 national progress reports as a model intervention.

Cite this

Evidoria. Female Secondary School Assistance Programme (FSSAP) — Conditional Stipend for Girls' Education, Bangladesh. Persistent ID: 7b3571f4-fb2a-4ffc-97f9-31db521b0088.

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