Long term impacts of a successful foundational literacy program in South Africa

Last registered on October 06, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Long term impacts of a successful foundational literacy program in South Africa

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0016934

Initial registration date

October 02, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

October 06, 2025, 11:43 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

South Africa

Region

North-West Province

Primary Investigator

Name

Jacobus CILLIERS

Affiliation

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2015-02-02

End date

2028-04-28

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

literacy, long term impacts, structured pedagogy

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.

Abstract

We estimate the long-term impacts of a foundational literacy program, the Early Grade Reading Study I (EGRS I), implemented in South Africa between 2015 and 2017. The project seeks to understand whether initial improvements in literacy skills from early-grade interventions translate into sustained academic progress and completion of high school. We will track students approximately 10 years after the program began, measuring outcomes in 2025 when non-repeating students would be in Grade 11, augmenting this data with administrative data on grade attainment and high school completion.

Research questions.
1. What is the long-term impact of the early grade literacy intervention on the probability of completing high school with university eligibility?
2. What is the cost-effectiveness of the intervention? Specifically, does the intervention generate positive net present value when accounting for program costs and estimated lifetime earnings impacts based on improved educational attainment?

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

CILLIERS, Jacobus. 2025. "Long term impacts of a successful foundational literacy program in South Africa." AEA RCT Registry. October 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16934-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS) I, implemented between 2015 and 2017, was a randomized evaluation of a structured pedagogy program aimed at improving the teaching of home-language literacy. The intervention provided teachers with curriculum-aligned lesson plans and learning materials, such as graded booklets, flash cards, and posters. Teachers also received support through an external reading coach who would visit the school at roughly a monthly basis to observe teaching, provide constructive feedback, and sometimes demonstrate effective teaching practices.

Intervention Start Date

2015-03-30

Intervention End Date

2017-12-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Participat obtained a "bachelor's pass" or higher in the end of high school exam by 2027.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

This outcome captures whether a student achieved the minimum qualification required to apply to any university degree program in South Africa. This is the most policy-relevant outcome as it determines access to tertiary education, which has substantial labor market returns. This outcome implicitly captures both reaching Grade 12 and passing the exam at the requisite level.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Family A. Learning:
1. Setswana Literacy
2. English Literacy
3. Math literacy
4. Science literacy
Family B.
1. Student engagement
2. Aspirations
3. Self-esteem
4. Love of reading

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Family A outcomes measured from student assessments. In each case the outcome will be the proportion of questions asked correctly.
All the Family B outcomes are indeces constructed from a series Lickert scale questions administered during the written questionnaire. Indices will be constructed by taking the mean across the constituent indicators.

Experimental Design

The intervention was implemented in 130 Quintile 1–3 schools, serving primarily poor communities in North-West province. Schools were assigned to treatment using stratified randomization across 10 strata of 13 schools each, based on school size, socio-economic status, and prior performance in the Annual National Assessments. Within each stratum, five schools were randomly assigned to treatment and eight to the control group. Overall, 50 schools were assigned to treatment and 80 were assigned as control. Randomization achieved balance across treatment and control groups on baseline characteristics, validating the experimental design (Cilliers et al. 2020).

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

By the computer

Randomization Unit

School

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

130

Sample size: planned number of observations

2,600

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Roughly 20

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Georgetown University IRB

IRB Approval Date

2024-03-26

IRB Approval Number

STUDY00009014

Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

EGRS Long term Impacts Pre-Analysis Plan

MD5: 2af0fd64326454f0afacb05ec99ffd36

SHA1: 2271ac4b2aef47d0ed540a78db554a5c45a751fb

Uploaded At: October 02, 2025