Supporting girls in their transition to secondary education: An exploratory study of the family, school and community environments of adolescent girls in Gujarat

Despite government commitment to universal secondary education in India, few adolescents transition to and successfully complete secondary education. In India, limited efforts have been directed at parents to promote positive attitudes toward education and school completion. Recognizing the need for identifying effective intervention strategies to engage parents and communities to promote secondary education for girls, the Population Council and partners are pilot-testing an intervention to support adolescent girls’ transition to and retention in secondary education. Located in the state of Gujarat, the intervention focuses on girls in the last year of primary school and first year of secondary school and their parents as well as teachers and the wider community. The school experiences of adolescent girls, and the family, school, and community environments in which they are pursuing their studies, described in this report, draw on a baseline survey conducted in 90 villages in Gujarat. The objective was to explore school experiences of adolescent girls in the last year of primary and first year of secondary school, and assess the extent to which a supportive environment for schooling was available to them at the family, school, and community levels