Combatting Caste based Discrimination in the Education Sector

Last registered on February 20, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Combatting Caste based Discrimination in the Education Sector
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008654
Initial registration date
December 02, 2021

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
December 03, 2021, 10:33 PM EST

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

Last updated
February 20, 2023, 8:49 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
South Asia

Primary Investigator

Name
Rajesh Ramachandran
Affiliation
Monash University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Devesh Rustagi
PI Affiliation
Nottingham University
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PI Name
Emilia Soldani
PI Affiliation
Goethe University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-12-02
End date
2023-04-30
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Discrimination, Caste, India, Education, Human Capital
JEL code(s)
I24, J15, J18
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
There are sizable gaps on indicators of human capital between the caste groups in India. Evidence suggests that such gaps, in part at least, are affected by discriminatory attitudes of school teachers towards students from the group called the Scheduled Castes. Our study intends to provide evidence on the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes a large sample of school teachers from India. We then design a treatment to mitigate discrimination that operate through empathy towards the schedule castes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ramachandran, Rajesh, Devesh Rustagi and Emilia Soldani. 2023. "Combatting Caste based Discrimination in the Education Sector." AEA RCT Registry. February 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8654-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The experiment will be conducted online on an intended sample of 1500-3000 primary school teachers.
Intervention Start Date
2021-12-02
Intervention End Date
2023-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We have two sets of primary outcomes:

Teachers’ behavior in two tasks: (i) bias in grading exams attributed to SC and GC students, where the objective quality of the exams is experimentally engineered; and (ii) donations to NGO’s promoting welfare of caste groups.

Measures of teachers’ attitudes towards SC individuals. We collect six intertwined and complementary measures: (i) willingness to forego monetary payoff to avoid supporting initiatives to employ more SCs in the capacity of cooks in schools; (ii) perceptions of gaps in cognitive outcomes between primary school children from scheduled caste (SC) and general category (GC); (iii) differences in perceived perseverance of SC and GC primary school children; (iv) associations between castes and work occupations; v) attitudes towards the use of caste slur; and vi) caste-based implicit association test scores
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Baseline measures of teachers’ attitudes towards SC individuals in the control group. We collect six intertwined and complementary measures: (i) willingness to forego monetary payoff to avoid supporting employment of SCs as cooks in schools; (ii) perceptions of gaps in cognitive outcomes between scheduled caste (SC) and general category (GC); (iii) differences in perceived perseverance of SC and GC; (iv) associations between castes and occupations; v) attitudes towards the use of caste slurs; and vi) possibly caste- based implicit association test scores

We assess treatment impacts using two outcomes: (i) scores in exams of SC and GC students; and (ii) behavior in a third party punishment game.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
As a baseline measure, we intend to provide evidence on the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes a large sample of school teachers from India.

We then design a treatment to mitigate discrimination that operate through empathy towards the schedule castes.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization is done using a computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual teacher.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500-3000 Teachers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50% Treatment; 50% Control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Goethe University
IRB Approval Date
2019-02-18
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