First Girls' Education Life Skills Evaluation in a Developing Country Context

Randeep Kaur from Room to Read in India will evaluate a program that teaches life skills, provides mentoring, and establishes community support to ensure girls complete secondary school education and can build healthier lives for themselves and their families. Life skills such as self-confidence and relationship building have recently been shown to boost adult economic outcome. Their Girls' Education Program will be tested in a randomized control trial with over 100 schools in Rajasthan, India, where there is a high incidence of child labor and relatively few girls enroll in school. They will evaluate its impact on academic output and development of life skills after one and two-years. They will also investigate how women who have previously participated in the program perceive its longer-term effects on their lives.