the Balsakhi programme (Mumbai and Vadodara), Computer Assisted. Learning programme (Vadodara), and the Balwadi Health P
Children Learn when Mothers get involved By Priyanka Chakravarty, Communication Associate, ASER Centre Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)1 and Pratham have now had a decade long relationship. Pratham with JPAL, has conducted many randomised evaluations to measure the impact of its programmes, such as the Balsakhi programme (Mumbai and Vadodara), Computer Assisted Learning programme (Vadodara), and the Balwadi Health Programme (Delhi), to name a few. In July 2010, J-PAL, ASER Centre and Pratham kicked off an exciting and ambitious new venture to explore how mothers’ literacy, education and the home environment can effectively influence children’s learning. Starting from a ‘theory of change’, a set of interventions will be operationalised and evaluated as a part of this effort. Even more ambitious is the fact that an ongoing capacity building and learning program will accompany the programme intervention and impact. To initiate the capacity building and learning component of this effort, a four day long workshop (July 13 to July 17, 2010) was jointly organised by ASER Centre, J-PAL and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in Ajmer. The workshop was attended by Pratham State heads, members from other Pratham programmes, Pratham people from Rajasthan and Bihar, ASER Centre team members, JPAL Research Associates and staff from other affiliates such as AID India, Accountability Initiative and Pratham Books. The objective of the workshop was to design a new intervention as well as an impact evaluation on how mother’s literacy and education can influence children’s learning. The envisaged intervention is based on the premise that improvement in the environment at home and engagement of mothers will act as a catalyst in improving learning levels of children. The workshop was an attempt to incorporate diverse ideas into the intervention and integrate evaluation into the programme from the beginning, rather than at the intermediate and terminal stage. This participatory strategy is meant to maximise investment in both programme and evaluation design.
1
Randomized evaluation constitutes the mainstay of JPAL. Headquartered within the Economics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it is a network of 46 professors around the world who have come together to approach poverty alleviation through randomized evaluations. J-PAL’s South Asia office is located at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in Chennai.
Several sessions of field work, lectures and group discussions were also a part of the workshop. Brainstorming sessions were held on the components that are apparently missing in children’s education, specially of children from underprivileged backgrounds. These ideas were subsequently piloted by the participants by visiting several villages, namely Nareli, Rasoolpura, Ghughra, Bhudol and Laadpura. The field visits involved visiting the prominent people in the village, such as the sarpanch, the anganwadi worker, the teachers and the head master. Several findings emerged Participants felt that there was a need to enhance mother and children interactions in different ways. The interaction between mothers and children is limited due to intensive involvement in economic activities besides the agricultural and household chores. Often the elder sibling is the one who spends the most time with the younger children and leaves school or has discontinuous attendance due to this. A need was felt for designing an out-of-the-box curriculum for mothers, focusing on everyday experiences instead of conventional initiation to
,
,
, . Teaching them basic mathematics to
enable them to carry out hisab (accounting), how to fill the NREGA forms and ensure that they are receiving the correct wages, imparting to them the confidence to interact with school teachers, to seek accountability for any apathy towards their duty, to take interest in their children’s education, and creating awareness on basic hygiene and child health issues were few ideas that came forward. Ms Nina Singh, IG Police, Rajasthan spoke about her project on police reform in association with JPAL. Ms. Sharada Jain from Sandhan spoke about the broader context of women’s education in Rajasthan and India and shared her experiences of engaging women in literacy and learning. This workshop was a precursor to a comprehensive four-part course/series of workshops focused on how to design and implement randomised evaluation, and to evaluate the efficacy of such interventions. A grant from 3ie is funding the research and capacity building component. A pilot for the intervention is beginning in one block each in Ajmer and Purnia. Alongside, tools and data collection will also be piloted. After a three-four month long pilot, we hope to roll out after December 2010.
