Accountability from the Grassroots: children's foundational reading and arithmetic in Sitapur District, Uttar Pradesh

The project Accountability from the Grassroots aims to investigate if Pratham’s community-based interventions could be more effective at raising learning outcomes when they work in both schools and communities. As part of the study, the team assessed foundational literacy and numeracy levels using the ASER assessment test to establish the baseline learning levels of children. The data from this assessment reinforce the findings that large proportions of children in rural Sitapur, as in much of the country, begin to fall behind curriculum expectations in their very first years of schooling. Particularly, girls from Scheduled Tribe families, living in less affluent homes, with mothers who have never been to school face larger learning disadvantages compared with other children.