Publication: Investing in School Readiness: An Analysis of the Cost-Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education Pathways in Rural Indonesia
Date
2016-09
ISSN
Published
2016-09
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper presents evidence on the
cost-effectiveness of early childhood education pathways in
rural Indonesia. It documents the existence of substantial
differences in school readiness between 6 to 9 year old
children. Using detailed enrollment histories, it unpacks
whether and how early education experiences explain these
gaps. The analysis considers not only the sequence of
services children enroll in, but also the age at which they
enroll and the duration for which they enroll. The
differences in primary school test scores between a child
who has no early education exposure and a child who
completes a full sequence at the developmentally appropriate
age are 0.42 standard deviations in language and 0.43
standard deviations in mathematics, roughly equivalent to an
additional 0.9 to 1.2 years of primary schooling. The paper
analyzes the cost-effectiveness of various early education
pathways in Indonesia to show that providing access to both
playgroups and kindergartens to young children at
developmentally appropriate ages can optimize public
investments in early childhood education. The paper subjects
the analysis to a variety of robustness checks, and
concludes that children enrolled in play-based early
education programs (playgroups) at age 3 or 4, followed by
the country's more academically structured programs
(kindergartens) at age 5 or 6, are more likely to be ready
for primary school than children who do not follow this
sequence. Compulsory pre-primary education policy should
consider incorporating both playgroups and kindergartens.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Nakajima, Nozomi; Hasan, Amer; Jung, Haeil; Brinkman, Sally; Pradhan, Menno; Kinnell, Angela. 2016. Investing in School Readiness: An Analysis of the Cost-Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education Pathways in Rural Indonesia. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7832. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25148 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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