Study title

Pakistan

Individual

Organization

The majority of data collection took place on pen and paper, however some sections were collected on tablets using the program Open Data Kit (ODK).We arrived at the sample of schools included in this report through a multi-stage process, beginning with a complete listing of private schools from our previous work in the area. First, we limited this list to private schools in rural areas of Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Sialkot districts. These districts were chosen for logistical reasons since they are (or border) districts in which we have previously worked (randomly drawn from districts in the Punjab), and we restricted to rural areas primarily because the financial needs of urban schools are significantly larger than our partner can prudently offer. We then arrived at our final sample by further restricting to schools that had expressed interest in receiving financing, which was done to decrease our required sample size since we expect take-up rates to be close to 60% for this screened-in population (as opposed to 20% for the general population).Treatment/Control randomization was done after the non-interested schools had been screened out, so both groups are completely comprised of schools that expressed a need for financing. Thus, our treatment effect will be unbiased with respect to any school/school owner characteristics that interest in financial services may signal. Using this procedure, we have surveyed 999 schools (total enrolment of 176,030 students) over the course of 4 rounds, of which 908 remain in the final sample. Each round lasted roughly two months, with the exception of Round 2, which took significantly less time due to the smaller number of schools being surveyed.Great care was taken in collecting this data to ensure that it is accurate. For example, enumerators took revenue, enrolment, and posted fee figures directly from the registers whenever possible (registers were available in 94% of schools) rather than rely on school owner memory. Furthermore, enumerators were given manuals with detailed instructions on how to record data under a variety of likely register structures (e.g. how to record enrolment data by grade if the register does not group children by grade) to maintain consistency across schools. Throughout surveying, supervisors (1:3 supervisor to enumerator ratio) made random checks to verify that these procedures were being followed, and all registers were photographed at the time of surveying to ensure that data was accurately recorded. After data had been collected a number of backchecks were conducted to ensure internal consistency.