Save the Children India’s Early Childhood Program Demonstrates Significant Increases in Children’s Early Learning
An endline survey using IDELA
Introduction
This report presents the results of a methodologically strong impact evaluation on the effect of a Save the Children intervention in Karnataka, India. The intervention sought to improve the quality of children’s early learning opportunities in Anganwadi centers (preschools) in rural Bangalore. . A “heavy touch” group received the same material support, and in addition received the Ready to Learn Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) teacher training intervention, school supplies for children, a mobilization campaign, and educational material support to parents and mother’s groups. The study revealed that the addition of the “heavy touch” components of programming had a statistically significant and substantively meaningful effect on children’s developmental outcomes. Children in the “heavy touch” group gained, on average, over 50% more on the IDELA assessment than children in the “light touch” control group, an effect size of 0.39 standard deviations.