Operations Research on Keeping Girls in Schools to Reduce Child Marriage in Rural Bangladesh

  • R Research Project/Report/Study

I Inactive

Key Information

The Population Council, with UNICEF funding, implements an intervention research study to test a life-skills and tutoring support model to reduce school drop-outs among secondary-school girls and build aspirations for livelihood skills of unmarried girls who have dropped out of school with the goal of delaying marriage in Bangladesh. This project is part of UNICEF’s “Education for Adolescents” and “UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage”. The Global Programme promotes the rights of adolescent girls to avert child marriage and pregnancy and enables them to achieve their aspirations through education and alternative pathways. The research study is intended to test for scale-up the success of BALIKA project2 in the intervention schools along with a control group to reduce school dropouts.: The study implications will be monitored systematically throughout the period for future scale up of intervention components. In the intervention schools, a blend of remedial educational support to in-school girls, skills-based livelihood training for out-of-school girls, strengthening school management committees (SMCs), community mobilization, and school improvement activities are being tested in contrast to the control groups where no interventions will be introduced. The program is being implemented in three districts of Bangladesh during the period of year 2018- 2021.

Lead Implementing Organization(s)
  • Population Council
Location(s)

South Asia

Bangladesh

Activity URL

https://www.popcouncil.org/research/balika-bangladeshi-association-for-life-skills-income-and-knowledge-for-ado

Government Affiliation
Non-governmental program
Years

2018 - 2021

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation
Unknown
Funder(s)

COVID-19 Response
Unknown
Geographic Scope
National
Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  
Unknown
Areas of Work Back to Top
Education areas
Attainment
  • Secondary completion
Other
  • Transition from school to work
Other skills
  • Financial literacy
  • Life skills/sexuality education
  • Rights/empowerment education
  • Social and emotional learning
  • Vocational training
Quality
  • Curricula/lesson plans
  • Teacher training
Skills
  • Civics education
  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
Cross-cutting areas
  • Adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
  • Community sensitization
  • Early/child marriage
  • Empowerment
  • Gender equality
  • Menstrual hygiene management
  • Mentorship
  • Other aspects of sexual and reproductive health
  • Sexual harassment & coercion
  • Social and gender norms and beliefs
  • Violence (at home, in relationships)
Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Girls (both in school and out of school), Youth

Age

12 - 19

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

  • Lower secondary
Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top
Access to school
  • Alternative learning centers/mobile schools/home schools
  • Extending school hours
Community engagement/advocacy/sensitization
  • Community mobilization
Life skills education
  • Gender, rights and power
  • Negotiation skills
  • Sexual and reproductive health (including puberty education)
Mentoring/psychosocial support
  • Adult (non-teacher) mentors
Reducing economic barriers
  • Financial literacy training
  • Income-generating activities
Social/gender norms change
  • Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents
  • Group activities with students or school-age children/adolescents
Tutoring/strengthening academic skills
  • Literacy - in the classroom
  • Literacy - outside the classroom
  • Numeracy - in the classroom
  • Numeracy - outside the classroom
Women's empowerment programs
  • Empowerment training
  • Leadership training
  • Self-help groups (non-financial)
Program Goals Back to Top
Education goals
  • Improved academic skills (literacy and numeracy)
  • Improved social and emotional learning/skills and mindsets
  • Increased grade attainment
  • Increased progression to secondary school
  • Increased secondary school completion
  • Increased years of schooling
  • Reduced grade repetition
Cross-cutting goals
  • Changed social norms
  • Improved critical consciousness
  • Improved financial literacy and savings
  • Improved sexual and reproductive health
  • Improved understanding of sexual harassment, coercion, and consent
  • Increased agency and empowerment
  • Increased employment/job-related skills
  • Increased knowledge of HIV, puberty, and sexual and reproductive health
  • Increased knowledge of rights
  • More equal power in relationships
  • More equitable gender attitudes and norms
  • Reduced adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
  • Reduced child marriage
  • Reduced school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV)
Additional Information Back to Top
Primary Contact
Sigma Ainul
Population Council
Senior Program Officer
sainul@popcouncil.org