We conducted our study in Kwanza Sul, a province of almost 1.8 million inhabitants and one of the poorest among the 18 provinces of Angola. In a recent report by the National Statistics Office and UNICEF, based on survey data collected in 2016, the headcount of deprivation in education for children 5-11 years of age is 62.9 percent, only higher than in two other provinces of Angola.
Geographic location sample schools
Location Sumbe, capital of Kwanza Sul province
Within the province of Kwanza Sul, we involved 126 primary schools, distributed across nine municipalities. Most of these schools were either constructed by FAS or received another type of support through FAS. The 126 schools were randomly allocated across the three treatment groups and one control group. The T1: Information treatment is a highly intensive information campaign through household visits. In the T2: Meetings treatment parents’ meetings are facilitated without providing any exogenous information. Finally the T3: Combined treatment includes all activities from both T1 and T2. All interventions consisted out of 8 rounds, during a period of 13 months.
Project timeline
Initial talks and preparations started in 2010. A collaboration between the World Bank, FAS and researchers was formed.
All these activities were made possible by the tremendous effort and teamwork of our local field teams and coordinators.
During the information campaign 74 home visits were made per round per school on average, with a total of 35,047 visits for all T1 and T3 schools.
On average, almost 50 parents per school per round participated in the parent meetings and each meeting lasted about 60 minutes, for all T2 and T3 schools.
In both data collection rounds we conducted interviews of: parents, teachers, school directors, and school administration employees. We also collected measures of school management recorded by enumerators through direct observations.
During the data collection rounds we conducted standardized Mathematics and Portuguese Language tests with students. In total 78,783 tests were conducted.
We conducted a set of lab-in-the-field experiments involving about 10 parents and 5 teachers per school. In particular, we implemented a dichotomous Public Good Game, a standard Trust Game, and a modified Dictator Game.
