Publication Details

Description:

This publication presents the findings from a randomized controlled trial conducted in 200 villages in rural Bangladesh. The study evaluates the impact of a tele-mentoring intervention aimed at supporting primary school children and their mothers during the Covid-19 school closures. The intervention involved university student volunteers providing weekly tutoring sessions and homeschooling support through phone calls and text messages. The results show significant improvements in children's learning outcomes, with treated children scoring 35% higher on standardized tests post-intervention and their mothers increasing their homeschooling involvement by 26%. The positive effects persisted one year later, highlighting the effectiveness of this low-cost intervention in mitigating learning losses during prolonged school closures. This research contributes to the understanding of how volunteer-driven educational support can enhance learning in low-resource settings and provides valuable insights for policymakers and educators in similar contexts.

Key Findings:

• Treated children scored 35% higher on standardized tests post-intervention.
• Homeschooling involvement of treated mothers increased by 22 minutes per day (26%).
• The intervention forestalled learning losses, with effects persisting one year later.
• Academically weaker children benefited the most from the intervention.
• The cost of the intervention was USD 20 per child.

Contact Information:

• Contact Person: Asad Islam
• Email: asadul.islam@monash.edu
• Affiliation: Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability (CDES), Monash University, Australia

Related Projects:

• Impact of IRI based mobile lessons on educational outcome of primary graders: A randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh

Journal:

The Economic Journal, Advance Access Publication Date: 11 March 2024

DOI:

10.1093/ej/ueae014

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).

Acknowledgments:

This research was supported by the Global Development Research Initiative (GDRI) and funded by the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability (CDES), Monash University, Australia. Special thanks to the volunteer mentors and participating families.