The adolescent impacts of massive literacy and numeracy gains in primary school: Evidence from rural West Africa

This project studies how to achieve lasting literacy and numeracy gains among the tens of millions of underserved children in rural areas of very low-income countries. To do so, it will measure the persistence or fadeout of massive literacy and numeracy gains among primary-aged children in rural Gambia and Guinea Bissau. These gains were achieved by bundled, teacher-focused interventions combining scripted lessons, teacher coaching, and other best practices, as documented in two previously published RCTs. The researchers follow these children into adolescence, measuring whether their early literacy and numeracy gains persisted or faded out, whether this affected later learning, and whether it affected their beliefs, gender norms, aspirations, and early family formation. By comparing estimates for two modalities of intervention – one less invasive and less costly, one more so – they will also inform efforts to scale up and learn from these results for efforts targeting underserved children in similar contexts.