RECOUP

Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP)is a five-year multi-disciplinary research project on the outcomes of education for those in poverty. The study intends to understand the linkages behind the inferior outcomes of education for the poor, which, in turn, play an important role in determining future incidence and extent of poverty. The research also aims to identify the policies needed to make education more beneficial for disadvantaged groups. For more information see http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk

The project is part of a research project consortium of 7 institutions. The research is being conducted in four countries: Ghana, Kenya, India and Pakistan. The lead partner of the consortium is the Centre for Commonwealth Education, University of Cambridge.

Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD) is the partner institution for the project in India. In India, the research is being conducted in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The research has both a qualitative and a quantitative component, whereby the outcome of each is going to inform the other. The in-depth qualitative research is being conducted in one urban and one rural site in one district of each state (a total of four sites). The methodology includes in-depth semi-structured interviews with sample respondents for each sub-theme, group discussions, and visits to schools, training institutions, and offices. The qualitative research team will be engaging with the research sites over the 5-year project period with the intention of building up an authentic understanding of the research issues.

The quantitative component comprises a survey of more than 1000 households in 18 villages and 6 towns of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the same geographical sub region of each state in which the qualitative research sites are located. A coded structured questionnaire is designed to collect data along all three RECOUP themes – socioeconomic details of the households as well as details on education, employment, skills acquired, health and fertility status and beliefs and perceptions of all members between 15 and 60.

A mid term research dissemination conference was held on 3-5 December 2008 to share preliminary findings from some of the completed themes.

The final stages of the project were completed in October 2013.

Three dissemination events were held in Delhi (August 2013), Jaipur, Rajasthan (September 2013) and Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (November 2013).