In Senegal, too many children are struggling to master the foundational skill of reading. Only one in three students achieve basic proficiency in reading by the end of primary school, and by lower secondary school, just 9 per cent are reading at the minimum proficiency level. One of the major barriers to improving literacy outcomes is the lack of…

We evaluate the effects of teaching negotiation skills to adolescent girls in economically vulnerable compounds in Lusaka, Zambia ten years later. Treated participants complete 0.27 more years of education. Consistent with greater relational empowerment, they also begin sexual activity later, marry later, have smaller age gaps with their husbands,…

The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a comprehensive intervention program (including PA and RAN interventions) on improving early literacy skills in preschoolers from low socioeconomic backgrounds while exploring participant perspectives. The experimental group showed significant improvements in PA, RAN-object, and RAN-color performance…

A diagnosis of autism typically depends on clinical assessments by highly trained professionals. This high resource demand poses a challenge in low-resource settings. Digital assessment of neurodevelopmental symptoms by non-specialists provides a potential avenue to address this challenge. This cross-sectional case-control field study establishes…

Diminishing civic vitality has been reported in numerous societies, irrespective of democratic maturity. Mandatory community service initiatives in schools have garnered attention as a strategy for fostering long-term civic engagement. However, methodological challenges such as selection bias and observation timing have led to inconsistent…

This research study examined the leadership awareness and understanding of Open Educational Resources (OER) for educational access and affordability of teaching and learning resources in Malawi, Africa. According to UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (2023) low-income countries, like Malawi, have limited…

This study aims to examine Child-Centered Play Therapy's effect on reducing behavioral problems in five- and six-year-old children living in Istanbul. The study was conducted with 20 children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Families applied for support to a play therapy room established in a primary school. A pre-test and post-test…

Research Findings: In this study, we examined the short- and long-term effects of Reading Express, a home-visiting intervention in which volunteers encourage low socio-economic status and ethnic minority parents to engage in interactive shared reading with their child. Outcomes of a quasi-experiment involving 176 children in the Netherlands (mean…

Background/Context: Access to education is seen as a critical aspect of personal success, with substantial implications for education systems and social well-being. In this context, the effectiveness of free college tuition is a hot topic in current higher education research (Bell, 2020), as there is no clarity on whether the benefits outweigh the…

Abstract Households with children eligible for Free School Meals are at risk of food insecurity. This paper reports on a rapid-response study that investigated the impact of the school food voucher scheme during the COVID-19 crisis on young people, families and schools. It pays close attention to the reliance of the state on the goodwill of…

We examined an intervention in kindergarten using an e-book for vocabulary enrichment. In programme (a), the children read the e-book with a dictionary and the teacher's support. In programme (b), the children read the e-book with the dictionary independently. In programme (c), the children read the e-book without a dictionary (control). The…

In the past three decades, a variety of policies and programs have been created and implemented globally to promote Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). However, millions of adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are unable to fully exercise their SRHR, becoming victim to early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and…

The benefits of active music participation and training for cognitive development have been evidenced in multiple studies, with this link leveraged in music therapy approaches with clinical populations. Although music, rhythm, and movement activities are widely integrated into children's play and early education, few studies have systematically…

In many countries, opportunities for higher education are reduced for some under-represented groups in society. One such group are young women from rural and underdeveloped areas who due to traditional, patriarchal lifestyles have much less chance to go to college and get education that their peers from urban areas have much more access to. Online…

Ninety percent of brain development takes place before the age of five, and while universally agreed to be pivotal in defining the trajectory of a child's life, access to high-quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is often inaccessible for the world's most vulnerable populations. For the 2.5 million children living in East Africa's…