Free primary education is promoted as a strategy to achieve universal primary enrollment in
developing countries by reducing costs to parents. However, many countries with policies to
provide free schooling still struggle to achieve universal enrollment. The purpose of this study
examine obstacles to schooling and gender equity that remain in Uganda and Nigeria, two countries
that have taken different approaches to free primary education policy. This paper builds on
previous research on determinants of schooling in developing countries by combining economic
models of school access with parent reports of reasons that children are out of school. The
comparative approach facilitates analysis of FPE across different development and policy contexts.