Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Dr Peter Boone
ORCID ID
Contact details
Effective Intervention
Room R430
Centre for Economic Performance
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7955 7408
pb@effint.org
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
N/A
Study information
Scientific title
Support To Rural Indias Primary Education System: the STRIPES Trial - a single-centre cluster-randomised controlled trial
Acronym
STRIPES
Study hypothesis
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
No ethics approval was sought as this trial focuses primarily on education and it does not involve any interventions that can directly affect health.
Study design
Single-centre cluster-randomised controlled trial with dual outcomes
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Other
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet
Condition
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
Phase
Not Applicable
Drug names
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 trial start date
10/07/2008
Overall trial end date
10/03/2010
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant 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
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Child
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
200 villages with 17 students/village
Participant exclusion criteria
Does not meet inclusion criteria
Recruitment start date
10/07/2008
Recruitment end date
10/03/2010
Locations
Countries of recruitment
India
Trial participating centre
Effective Intervention
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
Effective Intervention (UK)
Sponsor details
c/o Dr Peter Boone
Room R430
Centre for Economic Performance
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7955 7408
admin@effint.org
Sponsor type
Charity
Website
Funders
Funder type
Charity
Funder name
Effective Intervention in the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (UK) - UK registered charity no. 1111709
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Funder name
The Naandi Foundation (India) (ref: 1745/98)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
2010 protocol in: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20122153
2013 results in: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23874383
Publication citations
-
Protocol
Eble A, Mann V, Bhakta P, Lakshminarayana R, Frost C, Elbourne D, Boone P, The STRIPES trial--support to rural India's public education system., Trials, 2010, 11, 10, doi: 10.1186/1745-6215-11-10.
-
Results
Lakshminarayana R, Eble A, Bhakta P, Frost C, Boone P, Elbourne D, Mann V, The Support to Rural India's Public Education System (STRIPES) trial: a cluster randomised controlled trial of supplementary teaching, learning material and material support., PLoS ONE, 2013, 8, 7, e65775, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065775.