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'Waste No More': A randomized evaluation of a digital waste segregation curriculum on school children in rural India

Last registered on May 27, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
'Waste No More': A randomized evaluation of a digital waste segregation curriculum on school children in rural India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005141
Initial registration date
February 01, 2020

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
February 07, 2020, 3:49 PM EST

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

Last updated
May 27, 2020, 11:14 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Maharashtra

Primary Investigator

Name
Shagata Mukherjee
Affiliation
Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-10-15
End date
2020-10-31
Keywords
Education, Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
sustainability, waste, digital curriculum
JEL code(s)
I210, Q56
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the effect of a digital waste segregation curriculum called 'Waste No More' on students of primary schools in the villages in Maharashtra, India. To establish causality, 118 schools from 52 Gram Panchayats (GPs) are randomly assigned to the treatment group who will receive the digital curriculum, while 125 schools from 53 GPs are assigned to the control group. A baseline and an end-line survey involving 1570 students from both treatment and control schools will be carried out to measure the impact of the digital curriculum on their knowledge, attitudes, and actions.
External Link(s)
Official Waste No More website

Registration Citation

Citation
Mukherjee, Shagata. 2020. "'Waste No More': A randomized evaluation of a digital waste segregation curriculum on school children in rural India." AEA RCT Registry. May 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5141-1.2000000000000002
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention consists of an 8-week interactive digital curriculum called 'Waste No More' that is designed to educate children about sustainability and waste segregation. The curriculum consists of 4 units where each unit focuses on a certain aspect of sustainability- dry and wet waste segregation, composting, recycling, etc. The curriculum follows a story-telling format for 16 episodes with animated characters. The episodes are complemented with a number of in-class and at-home activities. The curriculum is proctored by the teacher-in-charge of each treatment school. The curriculum is in the local Marathi language which is used by the Education Department of Kolhapur District, who is a key partner in the project.
Intervention Start Date
2020-02-01
Intervention End Date
2020-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Knowledge
Attitude
Behavior and action
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The study will test the impact on knowledge and attitudes of the students towards waste segregation through a series of questions in the baseline and endline surveys. It will also test the changes in behavior and action of students by trying to measure waste segregation in the treatment and the control schools.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
attitudes in teachers
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Impact on teachers, in terms of changes in knowledge, attitudes and actions due to the curriculum

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment will be conducted across 105 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in Shahuwadi region of Kohlapur district in the state of Maharashtra, India. The study excluded 9 GPs that were in remote areas and lacked accessibility or infrastructure. The 105 GPs were randomly assigned to Treatment and Control groups. The Treatment group consists of 115 schools from 52 GPs who will receive the 8-week 'Waste No More' curriculum. The Control group consists of 128 schools from 53 GPs who will not receive the curriculum. A baseline and end-line survey will be administered with 1570 students from all the schools. For the survey, 2 students from each standard (4th-7th) will be randomly chosen, on the basis of the random generation of a roll number via a computer software.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
A Stratified randomization was performed, dividing the total sample of 105 Gram Panchayats into 4 strata:
Gram Panchayats with 1 school
Gram Panchayats with 2 schools
Gram Panchayats with 3 schools
Gram Panchayats with more than 3 schools.

Randomization was done within each strata through random allotment of treatment and control groups using RStudio.
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit is Gram Panchayat (GP) which is an administrative unit consisting of a group of villages.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Cluster: 105 Gram Panchayats (53 Control and 52 Treatment Group)
Units: 243 schools (128 Control schools in 53 control GPs and 115 Treatment schools in 52 GPs)
Sample size: planned number of observations
1570 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
52 Treatment groups: 52 Gram Panchayats involving 115 schools
53 Control groups: 53 Gram Panchayats involving 128 schools
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institutional Review Board - Ashoka University
IRB Approval Date
2020-01-08
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials