Computer aided instruction for out-of-school children in India: An impact study in Andhra Pradesh

India has the largest number of out-of-school children, the majority of whom are girls. Against this backdrop, the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI), a computer-aided instruction (CAI) intervention was launched in Andhra Pradesh to bring children back to school. The BFI used multimedia software to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills through interactive stories and activities, in the local language Telugu. The methodology employed in the study was a quasi experimental design on a sample of around 140 children (age range 7-19 years). The research study included BFI sites which offered two hours of CAI a day and comparison sites which provided five hours of teacher-based instruction (TBI) a day. According to several socio-economic indicators on the survey, the sample came from poor families with low literacy levels. Findings from the survey indicated that these out-of-school children had a positive attitude toward education and a favorable perception of educated people. A majority of the sample dropped out of school to assist with domestic tasks or family run businesses and did not earn wages. The impact analysis indicated that learning took place in both contexts and learners achieved similar learning gains between pretest and posttest. However, learners in the BFI intervention were learning at a faster pace per hour than learners in the comparison sites. Learners in the CAI intervention achieved similar gains as learners in the TBI intervention in one-third of the instruction time. As such, there is a strong case to be made for the BFI program being more efficient in raising levels of literacy and numeracy scores. Within the BFI intervention group, there was evidence to suggest that the number of days attended resulted in an increase in posttest scores, particularly in reading. Furthermore, older students in the BFI intervention had consistently shown higher gains in learning across reading, writing, math and information and communication technology (ICT) literacy domains. Finally, girls in the BFI sample outperformed the boys and the biggest difference in test scores was seen in Math. The impact of the BFI intervention could also be documented by the fact that approximately 45% of the BFI sample returned to school in the next academic year. In sum, this research was one of the first to explore the context of out-of-school children in poor communities and the use of CAI in Telugu (local language) to bring these learners back to school. The results support the use of ICT with marginalized sections of society in developing countries in order to improve literacy skills. The findings of this study have the potential to inform policy makers on educational and gender equity issues.