| Summary: | <p>This article-based thesis aims to study a range of mental health and education reforms and interventions addressing the overall mental health and educational success of young people in Global South countries.</p>
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<p><strong>Article 1</strong> studies the relationship between foundational learning and mental health. Using a Difference in Difference (DD) research design, this article leverages an ongoing pedagogical intervention -Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL)- to explore the effects of targeted instruction on the mental health and educational success among 1297 primary school students in Botswana. Relative to the learners yet to be exposed to the targeted instruction pedagogy, I find that the foundational learning intervention significantly improves the mental health outcomes of students. To my knowledge this is the first study to explore the impact of TaRL on mental health. This research bridges an important gap at the intersection of education and public health literature and underscores the importance of context-relevant policy reforms that prioritise pedagogic approaches fostering holistic learning and development. <strong>Article 2</strong> studies the impact of a mindfulness-based programme on the mental health and educational success of secondary school students in low-cost private schools in Pakistan. A sample of 214 students are randomly assigned to a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) group and a neutral class activity control group. I find that MBSR significantly improves student prosociality and behaviour change indicators such as improved mood and reduced stress at home. Additionally, students exposed to the MBSR intervention demonstrated higher levels of grit. These findings are particularly meaningful for Global South countries where fewer resources are typically allocated towards the mental health of young people. <strong>Article 3</strong> studies the impact of English Medium Instruction (EMI) policies on the education outcomes of upper primary school students in Ethiopia. This article studies EMI transition policies using a longitudinal dataset from Ethiopia, leveraging regional variation in education language policy reforms for causal identification. Employing a dynamic value-added model, I find that students in schools using EMI as a medium of instruction have significantly lower mathematics test scores compared to students in mother tongue education schools. Furthermore, English medium learners do not out perform their mother tongue education counterparts in their English test scores. Interestingly, treatment heterogeneity suggests some positive long-term effects of an early grade transition from mother tongue to EMI, relative to mother tongue-only instruction. However, the overall results support the prolonged utilisation of mother tongue instruction in primary school education. These findings add some nuance to the debate on the "right" grade to transition to English medium instruction and the results are particularly relevant for policy makers in linguistically diverse contexts.</p>
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<p>Together, these three articles improve our understanding on policies and interventions supporting the education and mental health outcomes for the whole child. Particularly in low-middle income countries where this data and research is sparse, this research bridges a significant gap.</p>
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