Lighting the path to learning: Can electricity boost children’s test scores?

When households gain access to electricity, children are more likely to be enrolled in school. But do they also perform better? Based on West Bengal’s universal household electrification programme and nationally representative data, this article shows that children in families with electricity access score higher on reading and math tests. The key mechanisms are identified as longer study time, higher household incomes, and reduced need for fuel collection.

Electrification has long been viewed as a crucial aspect of development, enabling industrialisation, productivity, and improvements in household welfare (Rud 2012, Bridge et al. 2016).

When it comes to education, electrification may have several effects. One, with the availability of better lighting, children are able to conduct study activities for extended periods at home, particularly at night (Cabraal et al. 2005). Two, most homes also experience a decrease or complete removal of the time children spend in gathering other means of fuel (Khandker et al. 2012). Third, indirect benefits may result from an increase in household incomes (Bridge et al. 2016), or where exposure to light and media enhances the availability of improved teaching materials or influences parents’ education choices (Barron and Torero 2017).

Until recently, there has been little work connecting electrification with student learning outcomes. While past research demonstrates that electricity access can enhance school enrolment (Kumar and Rauniyar 2018, Lipscomb et al. 2013), studies attempting to find its effect on actual test scores frequently produce either null (Seo 2017) or negative effects (Dasso et al. 2015). One reason for this could be that most studies look at school-level electrification. However, access to electricity in schools may not really be a binding constraint for learning because there is daylight and less requirement for lighting via electricity.

In our recent research (Chatterjee et al. 2023), we examine the impact of having electricity at home on the reading and math education of children. We deploy two sources of evidence. First, we take the case of the state of West Bengal, where the government’s Sabar Ghare Alo (SGA)¹ programme sought to introduce universal household electrification in specific districts – providing a ‘natural experiment’ to assess the impact on children’s learning. Next, to check the replicability of the findings beyond the study context, we reproduce our empirical results at the national level by analysing a large representative household dataset.

West Bengal’s Sabar Ghare Alo

The West Bengal government launched SGA in 2012 to bring complete household electrification in its 11 (then) ‘backward’ districts out of a total of 19 districts (Figure 1). The scheme – funded by a large outlay under the Backward Regions Grant Fund – targeted over two million below-poverty-line households in these districts, among others. Execution involved strengthening the distribution infrastructure so that unserved rural locations received regular electricity connections.

Figure 1. Districts targeted by the Sabar Ghare Alo programme

Study design and findings

To examine how SGA affected children’s learning, we use Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) data (2007-2014, 2016, and 2018). ASER measures basic reading and arithmetic abilities of rural Indian children (aged 5-16 years) at their doorsteps. Each child’s reading/math skill is scored from 0 (cannot recognise letters/numbers) to 4 (can read grade 2 text or perform division). We compare the scores of children in SGA-covered districts (‘treated’ or subjected to intervention) and non-SGA districts (‘control’ or not subjected to intervention), both prior to and following 2012. The key assumption is that in the absence of SGA, test score trends would have changed in parallel in the two sets of districts.

We see that from pre- to post-policy, SGA increased electrification significantly: household-level access to electricity in SGA districts went up by approximately 8-9 percentage points relative to other districts. As a result, children’s reading scores were around 0.05 standard deviations² higher in SGA districts than in non-SGA districts. The effect is larger among younger children in the 5-8 years age group (Figure 2), likely due to the fact that they benefit more from greater study time or better-quality lighting in earlier foundation years. However, we find no visible effect on math achievement, perhaps a sign that math skills rely more heavily on teacher quality, classroom materials, or more interactive instruction methods, which longer evening hours of home study were not necessarily supplements of.

Figure 2. Effect of household electrification on children’s reading scores, across age groups

National-level evidence and mechanisms

To ensure that the experience of West Bengal is not an outlier, we use the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) – a nationally representative panel dataset of over 40,000 rural and urban Indian households. In this survey, reading and arithmetic tests were administered to children in the age group 8-11.

Controlling for demographic, household, and village factors, and using econometric methods such as instrumental variables, the consistent finding is that having access to electricity is causally linked with improved learning outcomes. The data confirms that children in families that have access to electricity perform better on reading and math tests compared to those that do not.

The following are possible mechanisms by which household electrification impacts children’s learning:

Longer study time: We find that children spend more time hours doing homework and in receiving private tutoring as a result of household electrification. Better light in the evenings has a positive influence on the ability of children to complete homework and enhance the study environment within the home (Bamanyaki and Harsdorff 2009).

Higher household income: We find that electrified households are able to earn more. This may be due to enhanced employment and entrepreneurship opportunities as a consequence of electrification (Dinkelman 2011, Bridge et al. 2016). Consequently, greater financial resources may be invested in education activities, such as private tutoring.

Less time devoted to fuel collection: We find that children in electrified households devote less time to the collection of firewood or other fuels.³ Instead, their time allocation, as seen before, is more focused on academics.

Policy implications

Our findings imply that universal electrification of households could have significant spillover effects on educational outcomes and hence, complement ongoing efforts to improve school infrastructure or teacher quality. Given that India achieved village-level electrification in 2018, the current challenge is in getting reliable and household-level connections, particularly among the poorest households who may have difficulties with upfront costs or encounter political hurdles (Chatterjee and Pal 2021).

In sum, electricity is more than a convenience – it can also provide additional study time, reallocate children’s responsibilities, and ultimately enhance education outcomes. As such, policymakers can consider rural electrification projects a key component of a broader strategy for increasing both enrolment and achievement. Guaranteeing a secure supply and low price may yet contribute to these educational gains.

Notes:

This translates to ‘Light in Every Household’.
Standard deviation is a measure used to quantify the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values from the mean (average) value of that set.
Caveat: This result is underpowered.