The impact of mother literacy and participation programmes on child learning: evidence from a randomised evaluation in India

While significant progress has been made in low- and middle-income countries towards the enrollment of children in schools, it has not led to an equivalent increase in their learning. A 2012 survey by the Annual Status of Education Report Centre in India found that 96 per cent of rural primary school-aged children were enrolled, but only 38 per cent could read a simple story. This study by Rukmini Banerji, James Berry and Marc Shotland evaluates whether child learning can be improved through interventions that focus on increasing a mother’s literacy and enhancing home learning. 

The impact evaluation found that all of the interventions had statistically significant effects on children’s maths scores. Only a combined intervention that focused on both a mother’s literacy as well as training for enhancing home learning had significant effects on language scores.