Educating Out-of-School Children in India: Questions for Leigh Linden
Educating Out-of-School Children in India: Questions for Leigh Linden
Q: You are currently working with Pratham, an Indian NGO, to evaluate an informal community based model of education. How does this program work?
A: The program takes kids that are not attending school, because they either were never enrolled or because the dropped out, and attempts to mainstream them into the regular public education sector. There are two phases to the program. In the first phase, the kids attend a community based program lead by a locally trained instructor, the purpose of which is to get them used to coming to class every day and to start getting them to basic language and mathematics skills. This lasts from six month to a year, and then the students are enrolled in school at the start of the next academic year. At this point, the locally trained community teacher will hold classes after or before school to tutor the children, and will go to the kids' homes and literally take them to school. This assistance will also last for a year. After the program ends, the kids are supposed to support themselves. Part of the purpose of the project is to see if this actually happens-though this is a long-term outcome.
Q: What is the nature of your project, and what are some of the questions you hope to answer from undertaking this research?
A: My project involves a randomized evaluation of this program designed to test the effectiveness of the basic model. Can the program get these kids to come to a community based program? Will they learn anything if they do? Can Pratham then get them to enroll in school? And will they stay in school and continue to learn things once they are enrolled?
Q: What are the major factors keeping children out of school in India?
A: India has been relatively successful at enrolling kids in primary school. Most of the public schools are free. So, user fees are not an issue. However, there are still barriers. Migrants, for example, often have trouble enrolling their kids in the schools in a new location because they lack the necessary documents. And if the family moves often, then it can be very difficult for the child to continue with his or her studies. Otherwise, I think the major issues are quality of education and lack opportunities to move past the primary or secondary schools. In India, the norm seems to be that kids by and large start school, they just don't finish. So, the kids that we are working with are either kids that slipped through the cracks or kids that dropped out early.
Q: There are obviously a number of different models of and approaches to educational reform. For instance, in this issue, Miguel Urquiola discusses the voucher system in Chile. Other programs offer free meals, subsidize course materials, or provide other incentives to increase enrollment. Under what conditions is the Pratham mode of intervention appropriate?
A: It certainly depends on the circumstances in each country, but I suspect that a program like this is going to be useful in many countries as enrollment levels increase. Many of the incentive programs and programs that reduce the costs of education are great ideas but difficult to target at specific children. Our kids are kids who, despite free education, mid-day meals, and well resourced schools, still don't attend school. This model provides a means of targeting resources directly at families that do not respond to other more general programs.
Q: What are your preliminary findings at this point?
A: The classes just started a few weeks ago. So, we don't have any formal findings yet. But we do know that the population with whom we are working moves around a lot. We are going to have to be very careful about limiting attrition as we follow the kids over time.
Q: What are your next steps in this project?
A: Since Pratham's team just started the classes, my team is monitoring enrollment and making sure that the right kids are selected for and enrolled in the program. We will track attendance for the first few weeks to check the take up rate amongst those offered entry into the program, and in a month or so, we will do our first follow up survey to see if the kids are learning anything.
Leigh Linden is an Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University. He specializes in the fields of development and labor economics, exploring the microeconomic determinants of income inequality and poverty. He is particularly interested in the use of social programs to improve the wellbeing of children from poor communities.
