Bridging the Gap: Evidence from a Large-Scale Cluster-Randomised Trial of English and Life Skills Training for Marginalised Girls in Karnataka, India

This study evaluates the impact of an innovative educational program designed for marginalised adolescent girls from grades 6 through 9 in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools in Karnataka, India. Implemented by a non-governmental organisation, the research employs a clustered-randomised controlled trial (RCT) design to measure the effects of activity-based English and Critical skills training (CSAG) on both educational outcomes and personal development. To further enhance the intervention, an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) is deployed to promote student–parent engagement and to positively influence schooling outcomes, parental attitudes, and overall involvement.

The intervention comprises two treatment arms:

Treatment Arm 1: School-Level Intervention - In this arm, an activity-based curriculum in English and Critical skills is delivered to students from grades 6 through 9. This component is implemented in 69 of the 205 KGBV schools.

Treatment Arm 2: School-Level plus IVRS Intervention - In addition to the student curriculum provided in Treatment Arm 1, this arm includes an IVRS-based component that educates parents on gender-equitable norms and fosters enhanced parental engagement. This treatment is implemented in 66 schools.

Control Group: 70 schools serve as the control group and receive no intervention.

This study investigates a multifaceted, theory-driven educational program designed to enhance academic achievement and non-cognitive skills among marginalised adolescent girls from grades 6 through 9 attending Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools in Karnataka, India. Utilising a clustered-randomized controlled trial with stratified random assignment across four administrative regions—Belgaum, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, and Mysuru—the intervention targets both student and parental domains to generate comprehensive improvements in educational outcomes.

A total of 205 KGBV schools are enrolled in the study, with 69 schools allocated to Treatment Arm 1, 66 schools to Treatment Arm 2, and 70 schools serving as controls. The program focuses on students in grades 6 through 9, aiming to improve not only immediate academic skills, such as conversational fluency and comprehension, but also broader personal development indicators, including self-awareness, health, hygiene, safety, and gender and social awareness.

Treatment Arm 1: School-Level Intervention -
This arm delivers an activity-based curriculum that integrates English language instruction with a comprehensive Critical skills module (CSAG curriculum). The curriculum is rigorously tailored to the students’ basic language proficiency, emphasising interactive pedagogy to foster both conversational fluency and deeper comprehension. The Critical Skills (CSAG) component systematically addresses topics related to self-awareness, health, hygiene, safety, and gender and social norms. Implementation is carried out by school wardens who are trained as facilitators through weekly coaching calls and directed supervision by NGO experts. The intervention protocol specifies two 40-minute English sessions and one 40-minute Critical Skills (CSAG) session per week, thereby ensuring consistent exposure to both academic and personal development content.

Treatment Arm 2: School-Level plus IVRS Intervention -
Building on the curriculum delivered in Treatment Arm 1, this arm incorporates an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) to engage parents directly. The IVRS component disseminates culturally tailored, evidence-based messages that emphasise gender-equitable norms and the importance of sustained educational engagement. These messages are transmitted once weekly at pre-scheduled intervals, with automated reattempts optimised to accommodate participants’ availability, thereby enhancing successful delivery. This strategic use of technology aims to reinforce positive parental attitudes and create a supportive home environment that contributes to improved academic performance and socio-emotional outcomes among the students.

The technical design of the intervention is underpinned by a robust Theory of Change, which delineates the causal pathways from intervention inputs—curriculum delivery, facilitator training, and IVRS messaging—to anticipated short-term and long-term outcomes. These outcomes are measured using a suite of standardised academic assessments, validated socio-emotional scales, and experimental elicitation of economic preferences, ensuring rigorous causal inference and high external validity.

In summary, the intervention employs a sophisticated, multi-component strategy that combines innovative educational content, rigorous facilitator training, and adaptive technological engagement with parents. This approach not only addresses the immediate educational needs of underprivileged girls but also aims to produce scalable improvements in educational and personal development outcomes, thereby providing a replicable model for similar contexts.

2024-11-01

2025-11-30

Student-Level Outcomes

- Schooling Outcomes (e.g., attendance, foundational literacy—including reading, writing, comprehension, and school exam scores)
- Cognitive Skills (e.g., critical thinking, verbal reasoning, logical reasoning, numerical aptitude)
- Non-Cognitive Skills (e.g., goals/aspirations, self-efficacy, self-perceived barriers to education)

Parental-Level Outcomes

- Parental Aspirations and Expectations
- Parental Engagement

Student-Level Outcomes

- Other Cognitive Engagement Measures (e.g., engagement in deep or meaningful activities such as reading newspapers or books)
- Affective Engagement (e.g., liking for learning and for school)
- Behavioural Engagement (e.g., effort in learning and involvement in school activities)
- Higher-order cognitive Skills (e.g., self-confidence, curiosity)
- Socio-Emotional Skills
- Gender Attitudes and Beliefs
- Communication Skills
- Time Use

Parental-Level Outcomes

- Parental Beliefs and Attitudes

Warden-Level Outcomes

- Warden’s Beliefs and Attitudes
- Warden Motivation
- Level of Effort

We conducted a large‐scale randomised controlled trial across Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools in Karnataka. Spread across four regions (Belgaum, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, and Mysuru), 205 schools were selected for the study. These schools comprise four distinct institutional types (adhering to the nomenclature established by the Department of School Education, Government of Karnataka) based on their residential and grade configurations:

- Type 1: Residential schools enrolling students in Grades 6–8.
- Type 3: Residential schools enrolling students in Grades 6–12, with our evaluation restricted to Grades 6–9.
- Type 4: Hostel-based schools enrolling students in Grades 9–12, with only Grade 9 students targeted.
- Type 5: Hostel-based schools enrolling students in Grades 6–10, with the evaluation focusing on Grades 6–9.

To ensure the proportional representation of all KGBV types, we employed a stratified random sampling approach based on school type and administrative region. Because there were only seven Type-3 schools statewide, we merged them with Type-1 schools since both are residential and serve the same grades. Schools were then stratified by type (merged Type-1/3, Type 4, and Type 5) and administrative region (Belgaum, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, and Mysuru). This produced 12 strata. Within each stratum, an equal number of schools were randomly assigned to one of the three arms:

⁃ 69 schools in Treatment Arm 1
⁃ 66 schools in Treatment Arm 2
⁃ 70 schools in the Control Group

We administered surveys across three target groups: students, parents, and wardens. Within each selected school, for each targeted grade (Grades 6–9), all students in the baseline survey were included. This procedure resulted in a final student sample of approximately 13k. For the parental intervention, we randomly selected 10 students per grade (or included all students if a grade had 10 or fewer students) and tracked their primary caregivers for the parental survey. This selection yielded a final parent sample of approximately 5k households. Additionally, each school’s warden was surveyed, resulting in a sample of 205 wardens.

Our evaluation employs an extensive suite of assessments across students, parents, and wardens. Students are administered standardised tests measuring both cognitive domains (English, Mathematics, and Critical Skills) and non-cognitive skills—including self-efficacy, growth mindset, grit, and locus of control—using validated instruments. Parents are surveyed using multi-module questionnaires that capture household socioeconomic status, educational aspirations, gender norms, and engagement practices. Wardens completed a detailed survey that assesses institutional infrastructure, managerial competencies, and perceptions of student performance. The warden survey instrument also includes experimental modules—such as economic games and preference elicitation tasks—to measure risk attitudes and other economic preferences. Together, these assessments enable us to evaluate rigorously the impact of our interventions on educational outcomes and the broader ecosystem.

In addition to the baseline information described above, our evaluation framework is designed to capture a rich, multi-dimensional set of outcomes:

Student Assessments

Students’ outcomes are evaluated using a dual assessment framework that captures both cognitive and non-cognitive domains. The cognitive battery comprises standardised tests in English, Mathematics, and Critical Skills. For English, assessments focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar; for Mathematics, the assessments evaluate numeracy, problem-solving, and applied arithmetic; and for Critical Skills, the tests measure decision-making and social interaction competencies. To ensure reliability, three parallel test booklets per subject were developed—each sharing 80% common items with variations in the remaining 20% and item ordering to mitigate cheating and measurement error.

In addition, non-cognitive skills are measured using a revised Type 3 battery, which includes validated scales assessing:

- Self-Efficacy (adapted from Schwarzer and Jerusalem’s General Self-Efficacy Scale),
- Growth Mindset (a three-item measure capturing implicit theories of intelligence),
- Grit (using the Short Grit Scale by Duckworth and Quinn),
- Locus of Control (a 10-item scale adapted from Rose and Medway).
- Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for Adolescents.
- Gender Attitudinal Scale (a 9- item scale)
- Social Norms (Likert-scale items adapted from J-PAL Guide to Measuring Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in Impact Evaluations (J-PAL, 2018))
- Aspirations Scale (3-item scale)

Parent Assessments

The parent survey is structured into multiple modules to document both the socioeconomic and psychosocial factors that shape children’s educational experiences. Key modules include:
- Socioeconomic Status and Household Assets – capturing detailed information on family income, asset ownership, and overall living conditions.
- Educational Aspirations and Expectations – measuring the level of formal education parents ideally desire for their daughters and the level they realistically expect, along with expected proficiency in subjects such as English and Mathematics.
- Gender Norms and Attitudes – measuring parents’ views on gender roles, including attitudes toward girls’ education, marriage, and employment, as well as perceived returns to education. This module includes items adapted from the G-NORM scale and related frameworks.
- Parental Engagement – evaluating the extent and nature of parental involvement in academic support, including home-based learning activities.
- Social Norms - Assessed using Likert-scale items adapted from the J-PAL Guide to Measuring Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in Impact Evaluations (J-PAL, 2018).

Warden Assessments

Every KGBV school’s warden is surveyed with a detailed instrument designed to assess the institutional environment and managerial competencies. The warden survey comprises of following parameters:
- Institutional Infrastructure – gathering objective data on school and hostel facilities, such as cleanliness, security, availability of learning resources, and overall maintenance.
- Professional Competence and Administrative Responsibilities – documenting the wardens’ demographic background, training history, years of experience, and the time allocated to administrative and student-support tasks.
- Perceptions of Student Performance – an experimental module where wardens provide performance expectations for students using a standardised scale across different subjects.
- Non-Cognitive Attributes – using scenario-based questions to evaluate leadership, problem-solving, stress management, and other soft skills that are critical for effective school management.
- Economic and Decision-Making Modules - Incorporates interactive tasks and hypothetical scenarios (e.g., multiple price list tasks) to assess wardens’ risk preferences, perceived returns to education, employment attitudes, and decision-making behaviours.
- Psychological and Behavioral Attributes - using validated scales to measure growth mindset, locus of control, and related non-cognitive skills, which are critical for effective school management and their role in shaping student outcomes.

Together, these assessment components form a comprehensive evaluation framework, enabling us to rigorously measure the multifaceted impact of our interventions on students, parents, and the institutional environment.

Randomisation was conducted in the office by the Principal Investigator using STATA software on a computer.

Randomisation is conducted at the school (cluster) level.

Schools were then stratified by type (merged Type-1/3, Type 4, and Type 5) and administrative region (Belgaum, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, and Mysuru). This produced 12 strata. Within each stratum, an equal number of schools were randomly assigned to one of the three arms: Treatment 1, Treatment 2, and Control.

Yes

205 Clusters (Schools) in 12 Strata

Planned observations include approximately 13k students from 205 KGBV schools (clusters), 5k parent observations, and 205 warden observations.

The sample size by treatment arms was 69 schools in Treatment Arm 1, 66 schools in Treatment Arm 2, and 70 schools in the Control Group.