Evaluation of an Intervention Supporting Adolescent Girls From Marginalized Communities to Complete Secondary Schooling

This cluster Randomised Control Trial is evaluating an intervention to support adolescent girls from marginalised communities in northern Karnataka State, South India to complete secondary school, thereby reducing their vulnerability to HIV infection from early marriage and entry into sex work at young ages. The intervention will test innovations to address both supply and demand side barriers to girls' completion of secondary school, and will have long-term educational and livelihood benefits, in addition to reducing vulnerability to HIV.

School-based constraints will be addressed by improving academic outcomes through teacher training and academic support to students; addressing gender-related and skill-based gaps among teachers; training of local female teachers; and increasing the content knowledge of secondary school teachers. Demand side barriers will be addressed by reducing economic pressures that households face to withdraw girls' from school; building appreciation and value of girls' education; building family and community accountability for school attendance; creating safe spaces for girls and strengthening their agency; and engaging boys in promoting and supporting girls' education.

Primary stakeholders will include teachers and students, especially adolescent girls in the school (7th to 10 the standard) from marginalized communities. Secondary stakeholders will include school development and management committees (SDMCs), families, boys and the communities that are served by the schools. 80 village clusters (40 intervention; 40 control) were randomly selected from 125 village clusters in Bagalkote and Vijayapura districts. The intervention will be implemented with village communities and high schools in 40 village clusters in Bagalkote and Vijayapura districts. The intervention will be implemented in collaboration with the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT), Karnataka; the Adolescent Education Cell, Government College of Teachers' Education (CTE), Jamkhandi; and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Education (IASE), Gulbarga.