Abstract

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds experience overlapping barriers that affect not only access to schooling but also attendance, progression, foundational learning, and completion. These barriers include poverty, gender and social exclusion, disability, geographic isolation, inadequate health and nutrition, weak school resources, and unequal access to digital technologies. This narrative review examines these barriers and evaluates evidence-based strategies for improving educational equity, with particular attention to India and lessons from international experience. The review was structured around five research questions: which forms of disadvantage most strongly constrain educational participation and learning; which policy and programme mechanisms address these barriers; what empirical evidence demonstrates measurable effects; under what implementation conditions do interventions work; and what system-level actions are required to sustain equitable outcomes. Evidence was synthesized from policy documents, national survey data, peer-reviewed studies, randomized evaluations, and programme evidence. Empirical evidence shows that improved access alone does not guarantee learning. In rural India, ASER 2024 continued to document substantial gaps in basic reading and arithmetic despite high enrolment. Rigorous evaluations provide evidence for targeted instruction, sustained teacher coaching, school feeding, and selected financial incentives, although effects vary by implementation quality and outcome measured. Teaching at the Right Level interventions, for example, produced language gains of 0.15 standard deviations in Haryana and 0.70 standard deviations in Uttar Pradesh in large-scale evaluations. Evidence on conditional cash transfers indicates that they can improve enrolment and retention but may not automatically improve higher-order learning without complementary investments in school quality. Overall, the evidence supports a multidimensional, equity-oriented model combining targeted learning support, teacher development, nutrition and health services, social protection, community engagement, inclusive infrastructure, and appropriate technology. Future programmes should incorporate measurable outcome indicators, disaggregated monitoring, and implementation evaluation so that policies can be adapted to the needs of children furthest from educational opportunity.

Keywords

disadvantaged children, educational equity, inclusive education, foundational learning, social protection, teacher development, school nutrition, India