ERIC Number: EJ879904
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Feb
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-9080
EISSN: N/A
Can Non-Formal Education Keep Working Children in School? A Case Study from Punjab, India
Sud, Pamela
Journal of Education and Work, v23 n1 p1-26 Feb 2010
This paper analyses the effectiveness of non-formal schools for working children in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, in mainstreaming child labourers into the formal education system through incentivised, informal schooling. Using a family fixed effects model and sibling data as an equivalent population comparison group, I find that the non-formal schools effectively provide an alternative to formal primary education and also show high success rates of mainstreaming and maintaining children into post-primary education relative to the control group. I find that the children within the non-formal schools are 40.47-50.07% more likely to still be studying relative to the sibling-inclusive control group, and have 1.976 to 3.389 years less of a gap in educational attainment. I conclude that the child labour schools are serving a useful function in helping poor children attend school, regardless of their labour status. The policy implications explored suggest that aspects of the techniques used in the non-formal schools should be applied more broadly to the formal schooling system. (Contains 8 tables and 14 notes.)
Descriptors: Control Groups, Siblings, Mainstreaming, Elementary School Students, Educational Attainment, Child Labor, Foreign Countries, Nontraditional Education, Poverty, Educational Policy, School Holding Power, Case Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A