Growing up in poverty affects children’s skills development. In Episode 3, Kath Ford and Sarah Lane Smith discuss what policies and programmes can make a real difference to children’s future opportunities. Early life circumstances are important in later outcomes. Young Lives latest longitudinal analysis shows that poverty and exposure to early climate shocks impacts skills in later childhood – but these effects are not inevitable, and support from social protection and school feeding programmes can make a real difference. Kath Ford and Sarah Lane Smith discuss what this means for policy, arguing for an holistic, intersectoral approach to provide an enabling environment to support equitable skills development and education outcomes.

Sarah Lane Smith is Education Research Adviser in the Research & Evidence Directorate of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. The views expressed here are the authors’ own and are not a representation of official UK government policy.

Why do more girls in India drop out of higher education, despite having similar skills to boys? Sharing her personal journey from Montessori teacher to education research and policy expert, and highlighting findings from Young Lives’ latest research, Renu Singh teases out how patriarchy continues to prevent girls completing their education compared to boys. Highly experienced in the policy field, Renu offers practical ways to influence policy makers and deliver meaningful change.

Children’s skills are a broad field and consistent terminology is elusive. In this episode, Matthew Jukes focuses on social and emotional skills, in particular how they are valued in the Global South. Matthew discusses Young Lives latest research on socio-emotional skills which shows how gender differences emerge in adolescence, what this means for girls’ and boys’ life chances and how policies and programmes can support future opportunities.

Speakers:

Cath Porter, Director, Young Lives, University of Oxford

Matthew Jukes, Fellow in International Education at RTI International

Julia Tilford, Communications Manager, Young Lives.