Deworming pills are one of the most cost-effective ways to increase school attendance. Deworming tablets cost only a few cents for governments or nonprofits to purchase, but can be highly effective. Each child who benefited from deworming tablets attended almost 6 additional weeks of school. Given the low cost of deworming, this means every US$100 spent on school-based deworming resulted in a whopping 11.9 years more schooling across all of these students.

In communities with many severe worm infections, policymakers should consider not only short-term health impacts but also long-term educational and economic gains. In Kenya, mass school-based deworming generated benefits to society, like higher earnings later in life, that were larger than the cost of the program.

Targeting deworming to places where worm infections are very common and more severe is important to see educational gains. While studies in China and Sri Lanka showed that infections declined, deworming did not impact school performance, as fewer children had worms and/or their infections were milder.

Schools are a good venue to cost-effectively and conveniently give kids deworming treatment. Schools aren’t just places for learning—they’re also hotspots for infection. Preventing kids from spreading intestinal worms is a smart way to lower overall infection rates. As seen in Kenya, giving some school kids deworming pills also benefits their peers by stopping sick kids from contaminating the surrounding soil and water. Delivering a health program at school is also smart logistics: health workers can reach hundreds at once rather than tracking kids down one by one, and parents can avoid the hassle and costs of bringing their children to a clinic.