CREATE Research Programme Overview

CREATE is a five-year programme of research funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with partner institutions in the UK, Bangladesh, Ghana, India, and South Africa. CREATE has developed a collaborative programme of research to analyse policy and practice designed to reduce educational exclusion and expand access to basic education for children between the ages of 5 and 15 years. The research is increasing knowledge and understanding of the reasons why so many children fail to access and complete basic education successfully.

The CREATE research programme is organised around thematic zones of exclusion which encompass children and young adults who are excluded, or at risk of exclusion, from access to basic education. It also uses an expanded vision of access that includes meaningful learning that is useful, equitable and sustainable.

CREATE has five sets of research questions. They are:

• What are current patterns of access and exclusion, who is currently excluded from basic education at different stages and why are they excluded?
• What strategies are most effective in meeting the basic educational needs of those who are excluded? To what extent are alternative forms of service delivery viable?
• What options are available to improve progression, completion and transition rates? How can drop before primary completion be reduced? How can re-entry of drop-outs be eased?
• What options exist to maintain and improve transition rates into lower secondary grades in pro-poor ways? What effects do declining transition rates have on primary completion?
• How have patterns of access been changing in low enrolment countries? What are the political, social and economic conditions under which EFA has been achieved? Where progress has faltered what are the reasons for this? Has expanded access improved equity?

CREATE’s programme of research has several parallel strands that include:

• Community and school studies (ComSS) - including household surveys, baseline school data, child tracking, and interviews with teachers, students, drop outs and community members. 
  
• Country Analytic Reviews (CARs) of educational access designed to identify critical areas for research and policy.
  
• National and cross national research monographs in the Pathways to Access Series.
  
• Analytic work on changing patterns of access and policy dialogue.  

CREATE’s communications and dissemination work is integral to the programme. Its target audiences include policy makers and people who influence policy makers. CREATE produces products adapted to target audience needs and works with key people to communicate findings as effectively as possible.