Using a randomized control trial, this paper studies an at-scale preschool construction program that serves poor communities in rural Mozambique. In addition to the construction of preschools, the program hired local instructors and provided parenting education sessions. The findings show that the program had high take-up rates, significantly increasing access to preschool education. Compared to a small base of 2 percent of children in control communities enrolled in preschool, the intervention increased preschool enrollment rates in treated communities by 73 percentage points. The program also had significant positive effects on enrollment in and progression through primary school, with an increase of 6 percentage points in enrollment in first grade at age 6, and a 0.16 standard deviation impact on an index of cognitive and social-emotional skills. Using machine learning tools, the paper estimates substantial heterogeneity by child development skills at baseline. Moreover, the program caused parents in treated communities to invest more time in supporting their primary school-aged children.
Authors
Bassi,Marina, Besbas,Bruno Azzedine, Dinarte Diaz,Lelys Ileana, Ravindran,Saravana, Reynoso,Ana Maria
- DOI
- https://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10814
- Disclosure Date
- 2024/06/24
- Disclosure Status
- Disclosed
- Doc Name
- From Access to Achievement : The Primary School-Age Impacts of an At-Scale Preschool Construction Program in Highly Deprived Communities
- Originating Unit
- Off of Sr VP Dev Econ/Chief Econ (DECVP)
- Product Line
- Advisory Services & Analytics
- Published in
- United States of America
- Rel Proj ID
- MZ-Impact Evaluation Of Scaled-Up Early Childhood Development Act -- P132355
- Sector
- Early Childhood Education
- Series Name
- Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 10814; PEOPLE; RRR; Impact Evaluation series;
- TF No/Name
- TF013397-Randomized Impact Evaluation of integrated ECD (Early Childhood Develop
- Theme
- Nutrition and Food Security,Human Development and Gender,Nutrition,Skills Development,Labor Market Policy and Programs
- Unit Owning
- Education AFR 1 (HAEE1),DECRG: Human Development (DECHD)
- Version Type
- Final
- Volume No
- 1
Table of Contents
- Introduction 4
- The DICIPE Program: Components and Implementation 9
- Experimental Design 11
- Data 14
- Data Collection 14
- Survey Instruments and Outcomes 15
- Baseline Summary Statistics 18
- Treatment-control Balance and Attrition 20
- Estimation Framework and Inference 20
- Main Results 22
- First Stage: Preschool Enrollment 22
- Overall effects on primary-school success and skills 23
- Heterogeneous Impacts 28
- Parental Time Investments 32
- Impact on Siblings 35
- Robustness of the Results 36
- Discussion and Concluding Remarks 36
- Appendices 36
- Process evaluation 45
- Objective and approach 45
- Selection of participants 46
- Main Results Across Domains 46
- Figures 50
- Tables 51
- Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) Estimates of Primary School Success and Skills 53
- Impact on Siblings 54
- Double LASSO for Selection of Controls 55
- Randomization Inference Adjusted p-values 59
