Interrupted Learning, Fragile Attendance and 'Out of School' Children in India, 2023-2024

This project focused on children who are enrolled in school but attend irregularly, so their learning is interrupted in ways that negatively affect their learning outcomes. This form of 'learning poverty' is prevalent across government schools in southern Rajasthan’s Adivasi (tribal) belt where the project was located.

The project was a small, qualitative research study that addressed evidence gaps about the patterns and causes of interrupted learning and fragile attendance (ILFA), and about actors’ perceptions of accountability for children's learning in this context. It comprised three school sites purposively selected to include a primary school and elementary sections of a secondary and higher secondary school. The study focused on grades 2, 4 and 7. The study asked why, in any one school, some children are more or less regular in attendance, and what explains a child's pattern of presence and absence. It adopted a 'process tracing' approach anchored in analysis of daily attendance statistics to identify children’s attendance patterns, and how stakeholders understand and explain irregular attendance and its effects on learning progression. Using available school level quantitative data, the project generated a typology of learner attendance patterns that were more complex than actors had recognised. Using participant observation of classroom interactions and interviews with teachers, the project found that teachers’ pedagogical responses lacked the necessary nuance to be effective in response to differing attendance patterns. Observations and interviews also revealed that systemic monitoring of attendance was highly performative and focused on incentive schemes rather than learning progression. Profiles of households were generated using semi-structured interviews, and analysed to understand household priorities and factors positively or negatively associated with regular school attendance at the household level.