Publication: Impact Evaluation of Three Types of Early Childhood Development Interventions in Cambodia
Date
2013-07
ISSN
Published
2013-07
Author(s)
Abstract
Scaling up early childhood development
services has the potential to increase children's
cognitive and socio-emotional development and promote school
readiness in a large segment of the population. This study
used a randomized controlled trial approach to evaluate
three scaled-up programs designed to widen access to early
childhood development services: formal preschools, community
preschools, and home-based services. The impacts of all
three programs fell short of expectations because of two key
flaws in how they were scaled up. First, implementation did
not receive due attention; as a result, school facilities
were not completed as planned, community-based programs were
not always established, and low, irregular stipends created
difficulties in hiring and retaining teachers. Second, the
services that were available were not promoted and thus not
used as widely as anticipated. The results imply that the
quality of programs supplied is critical, as is attention to
the demand side of the problem. The finding that these
programs fell short of expectations does not mean that
interventions such as these are ineffective. Rather, it
indicates that quality and demand require careful attention
in attempts to scale up early childhood development
interventions, and any problems should be addressed prior to
evaluating effectiveness.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Bouguen, Adrien; Filmer, Deon; Macours, Karen; Naudeau, Sophie. 2013. Impact Evaluation of Three Types of Early Childhood Development Interventions in Cambodia. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6540. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15900 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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