Uganda's primary school enrollment rates have increased spectacularly as a result of its policy of Universal Primary Education, which has eliminated most, though not all school fees.  Primary school enrollment has increased from 2.5 million children in 1996 to more than 7.3 million in 2004.  However, retaining students is a current challenge, as despite a net enrollment ratio for boys and girls of 93%, only 31% of boys and 28% of girls reach Primary 7. 

IPA is designing and implementing a program intended to decrease student dropout rates in Uganda.  By opening school and student bank accounts and encouraging children and families to save, this intervention could both incentivize and financially enable students to stay in school.  In addition to engendering a culture of savings amongst participating students, the program will smooth the payment of school registration fees, which are traditionally paid as a single lump sum.  It will also serve as an interesting comparison with other interventions addressing student dropout rates, such as conditional cash transfer, de-worming and free uniform programs.

The study is to be randomized by school, with four different treatments: pure savings, commitment savings, commitment savings with matching, and pure matching.  The goal is to determine which facet of the program has the greatest impact.  Does combining savings and education, alike in their dependence on long-term investment, prove to be an effective method to keep children in school?