Caregiver Support Towards School-readiness in India: An Intervention Study

• In Event: Educational Environments and Child Development in Low-Income Contexts

Abstract

Inadequate school-readiness often results in children falling behind throughout the school years. Long-term impacts on poor educational attainment is known to result in low employment opportunities, further perpetuating the cycle of poverty. In India, it is currently estimated that close to 50 million children have fallen behind in school (MHRD, 2019). There are growing concerns around the inadequacy of the public-school system in providing quality early childhood education. It has been found that a large portion of children, despite being enrolled in preschool, fail to reach critical developmental milestones. In addition to early childhood educators, caregivers in the home play a central role in the development of the child. However, caregivers in Indian households, particularly those from economically weaker sections, are often unaware of the importance of engaging with their young children to aid in their cognitive development. This study examined the effects of a parent led intervention in improving children’s school-readiness skills. Children (n= 431) across three states in India (Kerala, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh) who were attending local Anganwadi’s (preschools), and their parents took part in the study. Within each Anganwadi, children were randomly allocated to an intervention (n= 271) or a business-as-usual control group (n= 160) Parents in the intervention group were provided with an 11-week curriculum containing daily activities for them to engage in with their children. Parents were also invited for weekly training sessions during which they were instructed on the activities they were to complete with their child through the week. Researchers also made weekly home visits to monitor activity completion as well as provide support to the families. The children in both groups were pre and post tested using an assessment designed to test their competencies across four domains (cognitive development, early language, early numeracy, and social and emotional development), which have been globally identified as critical for school-readiness. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant time*group interaction effect (p< .001) (see Figure 1) on the assessment, with children in the intervention group showing faster development and greater posttest performance as compared to those in the control. In addition, there was a significant time*group*state interaction effect (p< .01) indicating that the effect of the intervention differed across states with the strongest effect seen in Telangana (partial eta= .17) and the smallest effect seen in Kerala (partial eta= .02). Information which was collected from the weekly home visits was used to examine the number of days parents used the curriculum, engaged in their own activities, or did no activities throughout the intervention period (see Table 1). Results of one-way ANOVA’s indicated that the number of days parents used the curriculum in Kerala was significantly below that of the other two states. However, parents in Kerala also indicated engaging in other activities a significantly a greater number of days and had a significantly less number of days where no activity was done as compared to parents in the other two states. Implications for the use of parent-led intervention programs to improve school-readiness in India will be discussed.

Authors

• Priyanka Patel, University of Jyväskylä
  Presenting Author

• Chris Glen Kollian, Indus action
  Non-Presenting Author