Street smart or school smart? The arithmetic skills of working children in two Indian cities

This package contains the dataset and code used in the study investigating whether intuitive and school-taught skills build on each other. According to large-scale surveys, most children and adolescents in India perform poorly in “abstract” arithmetic (i.e., the arithmetic operations typically taught in school). Yet, those employed in informal markets seem to perform relatively complex arithmetic operations mentally when handling transactions (e.g., to calculate amounts due or change). Is it possible to leverage the skills that these children already have to help them succeed in abstract arithmetic? We will conduct a study to address this question, by surveying children and adolescents selling in markets in and around Delhi in order to understand why they might succeed at “market” arithmetic but struggle with abstract arithmetic.