Around 250 million children in South Asia cannot read, write or do basic maths. A range of different education interventions have been implemented to resolve what is being seen as a learning crisis. But do these interventions work? To answer this question, AFDC carried out the most comprehensive systematic review to date on education effectiveness. The review examined the impact of 216 education programmes in five south asian countries. It synthesised evidence on the effects of 21 different types of education interventions on children’s school enrolment, attendance, completion and learning.

To distil the main findings and key implications for policy, programming and research, our client has published a summary report of this comprehensive systematic review, The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in South Asia , which offers governments and international agencies several useful pointers for helping them identify effective education programmes to meet the education Sustainable Development Goal.