Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the policy and trends in rural education in China over the past 40 years; and also discuss a number of challenges that are faced by China’s rural school system. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use secondary data on policies and trends...

A key challenge in developing countries interested in providing early childhood development programs at scale is whether these programs can be effectively delivered through existing public service infrastructures. We present the results of a randomized experiment evaluating the effects of a...

Objectives: To test the impact of provider performance pay for anaemia reduction in rural China. Design: A cluster randomised trial of information, subsidies, and incentives for school principals to reduce anaemia among their students. Enumerators and study participants were not informed of...

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China's Ministry of Education embarked on an ambitious program of elementary school mergers by shutting down small village schools and opening up larger centralized schools in towns and county seats. The goal of the program was to improve the teacher and...

This article studies whether or not health education programs targeting childhood anemia are sufficient for changing health behavior and nutrition in rural China. We conducted three different randomized-controlled trials of single and multiple face-to-face education sessions with parents and...

Objectives: To test the impact of provider performance pay for anaemia reduction in rural China. Design: A cluster randomised trial of information, subsidies, and incentives for school principals to reduce anaemia among their students. Enumerators and study participants were not informed of...

A key challenge in developing countries interested in providing early childhood development programs at scale is whether these programs can be effectively delivered through existing public service infrastructures. We present the results of a randomized experiment evaluating the effects of a...