Support To Rural Indias Primary Education System: the STRIPES Trial

ISRCTN	ISRCTN69951502
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN69951502
Secondary identifying numbers	N/A

Submission date: 17/04/2009
Registration date: 26/06/2009
Last edited: 24/02/2014

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Other

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Dr Peter Boone
Scientific

Effective Intervention
Room R430
Centre for Economic Performance
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Phone	+44 (0)20 7955 7408
Email	pb@effint.org

Study information

Study design	Single-centre cluster-randomised controlled trial with dual outcomes
Primary study design	Interventional
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study setting(s)	Other
Study type	Other
Participant information sheet	Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet
Scientific title	Support To Rural Indias Primary Education System: the STRIPES Trial - a single-centre cluster-randomised controlled trial
Study acronym	STRIPES
Study objectives	The trial will assess whether additional educational instruction and learning materials, when compared to the Indian governments usual provision of education, is effective at raising childrens educational performance in rural areas of India. It will also assess the impact on girls education of providing a supplementary kit, which supplies a uniform, bag and other materials often found in education interventions, in addition to the package of instruction and learning materials, relative to providing only the additional educational instruction and learning materials. This question is particularly relevant given the expense of providing such an additional kit to children and the popularity that doing so enjoys in the charity community. This trial targets low educational achievement in rural Indian schools. Effective delivery of primary education, particularly to girls, is a priority across the developing world and certainly to the Indian government. Indias 86th Constitution Amendment Act, passed in December 2002, made free and compulsory education to children of ages 6 - 14 a fundamental right protected by the government. Unfortunately, the programme is falling short of its mandate. There is consensus that the primary education system, particularly in rural areas, is beset with problems of attrition, low attendance and, for those students who do attend, low achievement relative to grade level.
Ethics approval(s)	No ethics approval was sought as this trial focuses primarily on education and it does not involve any interventions that can directly affect health.
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Primary education in rural communities
Intervention	In intervention villages, we will deliver one of the following two packages of interventions: 1. Supplementary teaching + learning material: For each eligible school, the trial will identify a "Community Activist" (henceforth "CA") who will be trained to deliver supplementary lessons to all children in standards 2, 3 and 4 for year 1 and in standards 3, 4 and 5 in year 2 of the trial. In each village, the intervention will begin with a community meeting in which all parents are brought together to suggest potential CAs for interview and recruitment. The CAs will then be trained by the Naandi Foundation's Education Research Group team. After training, the CA will take responsibility for ensuring children's attendance at these sessions through engaging families of eligible children. The family will enter an oral agreement with the CA that they will ensure their children attend. This process of community involvement is intended to galvanize families to take responsibility for their children's attendance and performance in school. After this initial period of introduction and community sensitisation, the CA will commence providing remedial instruction, in schools if possible, after normal school hours on a daily basis. The subject matter covered in these sessions will reinforce the curriculum covered in school and will be tailored to students' grade-specific needs and learning levels. The material to be used in the programme has been developed and tested by education experts from both the Naandi Foundation and external consultants and used extensively in the Naandi Foundations education programmes over the last four years. A bundle of learning materials, including a pen, four pencils, two notebooks, a ruler and an eraser, will be provided to each participating child for use in these supplementary classes. 2. Supplementary teaching + learning material plus, for girls only, additional material support: For each eligible village in this group, the trial will provide the services outlined above and will also provide each girl with a kit of materials intended to improve her attendance and, through increased attendance, performance in school. The kit includes a uniform, shoes, socks, undergarments and a school bag. As detailed in the background section, this aspect of the intervention is provided primarily with the goal of increasing the likelihood that girls attend and stay in school. The logic of this intervention is that increased attendance translates to increased exposure to the material taught in school and through this exposure improved performance on tests. Furthermore, girls face greater obstacles in attaining education than boys and educating girls has greater leverage on generating income, improving productivity and reducing family size than does educating boys. Control group In the control group no education initiatives will be implemented. The health interventions these villages will be offered are discussed in more detail in the CHAMPION Trial Protocol. The programme will involve community education for mothers, safe home deliveries and contracting out to the private sector for complicated deliveries that cannot be safely handled at home. It is anticipated that these interventions in the STRIPES control group will have negligible impact on academic performance of children enrolled in or eligible for the second, third and fourth standard at the start of the trial. Total duration of interventions: two academic years.
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure	Composite maths and language score from a test designed by an external agency. The primary analyses will be by intention to treat, adjusting for baseline test scores and taking account of clustering. All primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed during January - March 2010.
Secondary outcome measures	1. Children's individual test scores in maths and language 2. Costs of the programme All primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed during January - March 2010.
Overall study start date	10/07/2008
Completion date	10/03/2010

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Child
Sex	Both
Target number of participants	200 villages with 17 students/village
Key inclusion criteria	Village eligibility for the STRIPES trial is restricted as follows: 1. The village must be one of the 464 villages involved in the CHAMPION trial (registered with ISRCTN24104646) 2. The village must have at least one public primary school serving boys and girls operating in the 2007-2008 academic year and which is likely to continue operations during the following two years 3. There must be at least 15 children in standard 2, 3, and 4 in the school present on the day of baseline testing A child is eligible for inclusion in analysis for the trial if s/he satisfies the following criteria: 1. S/he is resident in an eligible village 2. S/he has been recorded in the enumeration as planning to be enrolled in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th standard at the government school located in her/his village in the in 2008/9 academic year 3. After the explanation of the trial, her/his parent or guardian does not choose to opt out
Key exclusion criteria	Does not meet inclusion criteria
Date of first enrolment	10/07/2008
Date of final enrolment	10/03/2010

Locations

Countries of recruitment

England
India
United Kingdom

Study participating centre

Effective Intervention

London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Sponsor information

Effective Intervention (UK)
Charity

c/o Dr Peter Boone
Room R430
Centre for Economic Performance
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Phone	+44 (0)20 7955 7408
Email	admin@effint.org
Website	http://www.effint.org
"ROR"	https://ror.org/00a1wp308

Funders

Funder type

Charity

Effective Intervention in the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (UK) - UK registered charity no. 1111709

No information available

The Naandi Foundation (India) (ref: 1745/98)