Under this project, psychosocial support will be integrated into BRAC’s non-formal education program in South Sudan to assess whether this improves students’ mental health and learning outcomes using a randomized control trial (RCT) design. Existing evidence suggests that adverse childhood experiences are associated with negative life-long outcomes such as impaired cognitive and non-cognitive abilities and lower wages. This study will help understand to what extent such disadvantages can be negated via additional psychosocial support from teachers. It will also produce first estimates of the prevalence of depressive symptoms among children in South Sudan. Finally, potential implications for scaling up the interventions will be discussed.
Researchers: Dr Saurabh Singhal; Dr Munshi Sulaiman; and Dr Catherine Porter
Partners: The British Academy and ESRC
Timeline: 2021–2021
Status: Ongoing
Contact: Denise Ferris
denise.ferris@brac.net
Context
The main BRAC’s non-formal schooling program in South Sudan aims to expand access to education and learning opportunities for 10,350 marginalized and vulnerable out of school children, especially females, by addressing institutional, social and cultural barriers to quality basic education. This study will focus on 150 communities where schools are currently being set up by BRAC in three states of South Sudan. These schools will teach community girls’ school (CGS) curriculum to children aged 8–12. BRAC will recruit 240 women from local communities as paraprofessional teachers and develop their capacity in child-centred, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive pedagogy. They will also receive training on how to deliver age-specific life-skills education on gender discrimination, sexual and reproductive health, child protection, and all core subjects covered by the government’s curricula. Within these schools, this research project will assist BRAC to assess whether providing children psychosocial support to reduce the effects experienced as a result of the prolonged war can improve well-being and learning outcomes.
Research Questions
Methodology
An RCT method and econometric analysis of quantitative data will be used to rigorously estimate the causal effect of the intervention. This study will randomize the provision of psychosocial support at the school level. In each of the 150 BRAC community schools, it will allocate half the schools (75) to the psychosocial support and the other half to a control group that will not receive the psychosocial support in the first year of the program. To estimate the effects of the intervention, the study will assess the short-term effects using survey data collected six months after the start of the program. Longer-term effects will be identified using student surveys conducted one year after the start of the program. It will also assess whether female students respond differently to these interventions. A cost-benefit analysis will be implemented and potential implications for scaling up the interventions will be discussed.
Findings
Study ongoing.
