This paper investigates the effects of a remedial education programme
- the Roma Teaching Assistant Programme - targeting the
socially excluded and marginalised Roma ethnic minority in Serbia.
By using first-hand collected data, we find evidence that children exposed
to the programme went more to school. We do not find an effect
on dropouts or marks for all grades. An examination of heterogenous
effects suggest that children in the first grade benefitted more from the
programme as compared to their older peers through lower dropouts
and better grades. Overall, our results suggest that well-targeted remedial
education programmes can be successful in boosting outcomes
of low performers.