Impact of breaking the language barrier on school education — Evidence from West Bengal in India

This study examines the impact of reducing language barriers on educational outcomes in the state of West Bengal, India. Specifically, we analyze the effects of a policy reform that introduced question papers in Hindi for all subjects in grades 11 and 12 higher secondary examinations, aimed at suppo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomics of education review Vol. 107; p. 102678
Main Authors Agarwal, Sandip K., Dutta, Souvik, Naha, Maharnab
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2025
Subjects
Education policy
Grade enrollment
Grade repetition
Language barrier
Language mismatch
Language of assessment
Language of instruction
Grade repetition
Grade enrollment
Language of assessment
I21
I24
Language barrier
Language mismatch
Education policy
Language of instruction
I28
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0272-7757
DOI10.1016/j.econedurev.2025.102678

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Summary:This study examines the impact of reducing language barriers on educational outcomes in the state of West Bengal, India. Specifically, we analyze the effects of a policy reform that introduced question papers in Hindi for all subjects in grades 11 and 12 higher secondary examinations, aimed at supporting students in schools with Hindi as the language of instruction. Using school-level administrative data, we employ a difference-in-differences estimation strategy to identify the causal effects of the intervention on grade repetition and grade enrollment. Our findings reveal that the policy led to a decline in the share of repeaters and an increase in enrollment. This finding bears significant policy implications, particularly in educational settings where there is a mismatch between the language of instruction and the language used for assessment.
ISSN:0272-7757
DOI:10.1016/j.econedurev.2025.102678