26 Skill-based Health Education Modules.

This paper evaluates the impact of skill-based health education (SBHE) on children’s hygiene practices and health in rural Bangladesh. Over one year, SBHE was delivered weekly to primary schools through a randomised-controlled trial (RCT) by locally recruited trained para-teachers. The SBHE and soap provision interventions, provided in a cross-cutting manner, were randomly assigned to 180 schools stratified by two school types. Data were collected at both the school and child levels, involving 40 students in grades 1–4 at baseline and expanding to 50 students in grades 1−5 at endline, ten students per grade. The study tracked the same pupils, supplemented by additional and replacement students, resulting in effective sample sizes of 7,192 at baseline and 8,992 at endline. The results indicate that SBHE significantly improved hygiene practices; the average treatment effects on overall hygiene practices was 0.22 SD [0.14–0.31] (p