Are scholarships and grants effective when it comes to the continuity and improvement of educational results at primary and secondary school level?

One of the elements on which the educational debate has been focusing over the last years is the large number of individuals who do not continue their studies beyond the compulsory education level, quantified by a high rate of premature school dropouts. Literature indicates that this phenomenon is the result of the cumulative action of a series of vulnerability factors (individual, family- and environment-related). In this framework, the present review raises the question whether scholarships and study grants can act as a stimulating factor for the continuity in the school centre and/or the improvement of educational results and, moreover, tries to find out which design produces the biggest effects.