# **6. Student Retention**

As mentioned above, about 2.5 years following the intervention a student tracking survey was undertaken to determine which students were still in school. Assuming no repetition, these students would have been in Senior Secondary 1 grade (Grade 10). The methodology for tracking is laid out in Section 2.2. Note that this does not rely on speaking to students directly. Instead we rely on teachers and head teachers at the students’ Junior Secondary Schools.

We were unable to trace 11 percent of the original sample (55 of 497 students). Of the students we were able to trace, 365 were still engaged in some kind of educational activity (school, vocational training) while 78 were not. Impacts of eReader provision and informational provision on student retention are presented in **Tables 10** and **11** , respectively. To explore the potential influence of attrition (missing students) on our findings, we calculate Lee (2009) bounds on the potential treatment effect given extreme assumptions on attrition bias and report the results in **Table 12** .

Consistent with some of the predictions of the reciprocity literature, we find that, compared to the control group, assignment to receive an eReader with non-curriculum content (T1) has a positive impact on student retention of 13 percentage points (significant at the 5 percent level). This positive impact is mostly concentrated among the more disadvantaged students - those with lower than median baseline reading ability, low maternal education, and low wealth. On the other hand, compared to the eReader with just the digital library, receiving additional curriculum content _reduces_ retention in school ( **Table 10** ).

Finally, we document positive impacts of the information treatment on student retention ( **Table 11** ). Those who received the scripted message on returns to secondary education in Lagos were 11 percentage points more likely to continue their education (significant at the 5 percent level). These impacts are also more concentrated among students from poorer households. In addition, the observed gains from the information script are more than twice as large as the effect of assignment to receive an expensive eReader. Further, Lee Bounds analysis ( **Table 12** ) shows that student retention impacts from information treatment are robust to extreme assumptions regarding student attrition.

# **7. Conclusion**

We examine the impacts of a low-cost technology intervention (eReader provision) on student outcomes through a randomized control trial. Within the overall experiment, we investigate the marginal short-term impacts of different types of content on test scores. In addition, we benchmark longer term impacts on school retention against a low-cost non-technology-based alternative.

First, we establish that eReaders are a viable/feasible option for content delivery in urban contexts like Lagos. Second, we show that impacts are heavily mediated by content. When eReaders address input gaps – in this case providing curriculum material to students who do not have paper textbooks – they have a positive impact on student learning even with short exposure. On the other hand, when eReaders provide non-curriculum recreational books (age-appropriate English language fiction and non-fiction), student test scores in reading and math decline. Finally, exposure to eReaders appears to improve student retention. However, similar impacts can be achieved at much 11