At the end of 2001, the Indian Supreme Court issued a directive ordering states to institute school lunches - known locally as "midday meals" - in government primary schools. This paper provides a large-scale assessment of the enrollment effects of India's midday meal scheme, which offers warm...

At the end of 2001, the Indian Supreme Court issued a directive ordering states to institute school lunches - known locally as "midday meals" - in government primary schools. This paper provides a large-scale assessment of the enrollment effects of India's midday meal scheme, which offers warm...

This paper examines the size, growth, salaries, per-pupil-costs, pupil achievement levels and cost-effectiveness of private schools, and compares these with the government school sector. Official data show a steep growth of private schooling and a corresponding rapid shrinkage in the size of the...

The promise of randomized controlled trials is that evidence gathered through the evaluation of a specific program helps us—possibly after several rounds of fine-tuning and multiple replications in different contexts—to inform policy. However, critics have pointed out that a potential...

Education reforms that allow new educational providers to supply schooling into a state system can improve parental satisfaction and raise learning outcomes through consumer choice. Choice provides children with schooling that matches their interests. A child engaged in school is more likely to...

Previous randomized studies have shown that addressing children's current learning gaps, rather than following an over-ambitious uniform curriculum, can lead to significant learning gains. In this study, we evaluate a series of efforts to scale up the NGO Pratham's approach to teaching children...