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.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
2,457
Receive multi-level, structural and norms-based intervention
Bagalkot and Bijapur Districts
Bagalkot, Karnataka, India
Number of Participants Completing Secondary School [Sit 10th Standard Exam]
This outcome will be assessed using data collected from all study participants at end-line, using the face-to-face questionnaire.
Time frame: May-August 2016 (cohort one) and May-August 2017 (cohort two)
Number of Participants Married [by Trial End Line]
This outcome will be assessed using data collected from all study participants at end-line, using the face-to-face questionnaire.
Time frame: May-August 2016 (cohort one) and May-August 2017 (cohort two)
Number of Participants Entering Into 8th Standard [Start Secondary School]
Due to delays at the start of the cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial, the intervention had not started when cohort one girls were interviewed. This outcome will be assessed using data from cohort two girls only, using the face-to-face questionnaire. To reduce recall bias, we will use data collected at the first interview (baseline) to measure this outcome.
Time frame: March-May 2014
Number of Participants Passing 10th Standard [Pass 10th Standard Exam]
This outcome will be assessed using data collected from all study participants at end-line, using the face-to-face questionnaire.
Time frame: May-August 2016 (cohort one) and May-August 2017 (cohort two)
Number of Participants Having Sexual Debut [by Trial End Line]
This outcome will be assessed using data collected from all study participants at end-line, using the self-completed questionnaire.
Time frame: May-August 2016 (cohort one) and May-August 2017 (cohort two)
Number of Participants Married and Co-habiting With Husband [by Trial End Line]
This outcome will be assessed using data collected from all study participants at end-line, using the face-to-face questionnaire.
Time frame: May-August 2016 (cohort one) and May-August 2017 (cohort two)
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