Research Seminars @ Illinois

Abstract: We present experimental evidence from Kenya on the effects of educational television on children's literacy, socio-emotional skills, and gender attitudes. Using a pre-registered encouragement design with 4,300 primary school children, we evaluate the impact of Nuzo & Namia, a literacy-focused television show broadcast free over the air. We find strong evidence the show increased curiosity by 12% of a standard deviation and suggestive evidence it increased reading comprehension by 9% of a standard deviation, with no spillovers onto other literacy outcomes. These gains are concentrated among children from English-speaking households, suggesting the English-language broadcast may exacerbate rather than narrow existing gaps. We also find suggestive evidence the show reinforced traditional gender attitudes. Evidence on mechanisms suggests the effects are driven by its informational content rather than by changes in children's time use, preferences, or parental investment. At a cost of $1.66 per child, the show would remain highly cost-effective for improving reading comprehension even if the true effects were substantially smaller than our estimates. Taken together, the findings highlight both the promise and the limits of educational television as a scalable intervention.