Impact of Early Childhood School Intervention on Enrolment and Learning Outcomes: Evaluation of a Public Program in India.

We evaluate the impact of introducing a pre-primary schooling program in government schools in the Indian state of West Bengal in 2013 on children's enrolment in pre-primary level and subsequent test scores. Using difference-in-differences (DID), triple difference, and synthetic DID methods, we find...

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Publicado en:Journal of Development Studies Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 46 - 68
Autores principales: Bhattacharya, Nilanjan, Pakrashi, Debayan, Saha, Sarani, Sahoo, Soham
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jan2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jan2026
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/00220388.2025.2510637
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        atl: Impact of Early Childhood School Intervention on Enrolment and Learning Outcomes: Evaluation of a Public Program in India.
      aug:
        au:
          Bhattacharya, Nilanjan
          Pakrashi, Debayan
          Saha, Sarani
          Sahoo, Soham
        affil:
          Centre for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy & Environment, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, India
          Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
          Department of Economic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India
          Economics Group, Loughborough Business School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
          Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
      su:
        West Bengal (India)
        India
        Early childhood education
        School enrollment
        Social services
        Educational intervention
        Educational outcomes
        Test scoring
      sug:
        subj:
          Early childhood education
          School enrollment
          Social services
          Educational intervention
          West Bengal (India)
          India
          Other Individual and Family Services
          Educational outcomes
          Test scoring
      keyword:
        enrolment
        learning outcomes
        policy evaluation
        pre-primary education
        enrolment
        learning outcomes
        policy evaluation
        pre-primary education
      ab: We evaluate the impact of introducing a pre-primary schooling program in government schools in the Indian state of West Bengal in 2013 on children's enrolment in pre-primary level and subsequent test scores. Using difference-in-differences (DID), triple difference, and synthetic DID methods, we find that the program significantly increased enrolment in the pre-primary sections of the government schools. However, analysing the test scores, we find that after the program's introduction, both math and reading scores of treated children did not improve compared to the control group. Even in the long run, the rise in pre-primary enrolment did not translate into improved performance of the treated cohorts. We attribute this result to the deteriorating physical and learning infrastructure in the state government schools in West Bengal, compared to the control group, as the program was not complemented by a commensurate improvement in the availability of classrooms and teachers.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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