Publication:
Is Preschool Good for Kids?

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.23 MB)
367 downloads
English Text (16.43 KB)
31 downloads
Published
2012-03
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
How can we help kids reach their full potential? Experts know that the first years of life are crucial to healthy development. And that's just the start. Children need regular mental and physical stimulation along with healthcare and proper nutrition to keep their development on track. Preschool programs are a great way to give kids the educational building blocks to help them learn and prepare for primary school. But in low-income countries, parents don't always have the opportunity: governments haven't invested in preschools; private sector offerings may be too pricey or not close by; and parents may not understand the benefits. Children need regular mental and physical stimulation along with healthcare and proper nutrition to keep their development on track. Preschool programs are a great way to give kids the educational building blocks to help them learn and prepare for primary school. But in low-income countries, parents don't always have the opportunity: governments haven't invested in preschools; private sector offerings may be too pricey or not close by; and parents may not understand the benefits.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2012. Is Preschool Good for Kids?. From Evidence to Policy. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10415 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
  • Publication
    Kenya
    (Washington, DC, 2022-10) World Bank
    Before the COVID pandemic, more than half of children in low and middle-income countries suffered from learning poverty: they either were out of school or failed to learn to read with comprehension by age 10. At the same time, numerous studies have documented serious challenges related to the quality of education services, particularly for those serving poor students. In a country like Kenya, for example, teachers exhibit low levels of content and pedagogical knowledge. Previous research has shown that highly structured teaching guides could improve literacy, but scripted lessons are not without critics, who worry that teachers will not be able to adapt content to student’s needs. In places where teachers may be less prepared to tailor high quality lessons to their students, however, scripting may offer a way to standardize a minimum level of quality at scale.
  • Publication
    Rwanda
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11) World Bank
    Children need a safe, nurturing, healthy, and stimulating environment to thrive and reach their full potential. But millions of children living in poverty don’t receive enough stimulation or good nutrition in their first years of life, and poverty also makes them more likely to experience neglect and violence in the home. Domestic violence, however, is rarely addressed in programs promoting young children’s development, which also typically focus on mothers, with little attention on fathers. Previous research suggests home-based parenting programs can lead to positive improvements in children’s brain development. Can these programs be adapted to address family violence as well Can these services be effectively delivered through government social safety net programs which often target poor, vulnerable families
  • Publication
    Madagascar
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) World Bank
    Young children everywhere need sufficient nutrition and stimulation to grow and develop appropriately. A healthy, diverse diet and a supportive caregiving environment can help children grow and develop in their early years, and also make children more likely to succeed later in life. Across low income countries, however, hundreds of millions of children don’t get enough healthy food for their bodies and brains to develop fully, putting them at a disadvantage starting from an early age. With so many children at risk of stunted growth and development, policymakers are urgently seeking effective and scalable approaches to improve children’s outcomes.
  • Publication
    Armenia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04) World Bank
    More people around the world are dying from noncommunicable diseases than ever before. These diseases, which include cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and heart disease, prematurely kill more than 15 million people between ages 30 and 69 each year. Many of these health conditions also make individuals more susceptible to severe forms of other diseases like Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study targeted adults between the ages of 35 and 68 in Armenia who had not been screened in the preceding year. The baseline data suggests this population was not economically secure: half of participants responded that their income was sufficient for basic family needs, such as food, clothing, and utilities, but not enough for big purchases like a car, while 35 percent responded that their income is sufficient for everyday food but not for clothes and other basic needs. More than half of those in the study were unemployed. This research finds that conditional incentives and personalized invitations can substantially increase screening for diabetes and hypertension for those who haven’t been recently screened. Further research may be needed to evaluate these interventions at scale.
  • Publication
    Philippines
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11) World Bank
    The World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund supported a randomized controlled trial from 2015-2018 to assess the extent to which subsidized microloans can enable households to build and use improved toilets. The loans, which carried zero interest, included toilet installation and were offered to poor beneficiaries who also received sanitation behavior change promotion as part of a social safety net program. The large financial subsidy led to modestly higher coverage of improved toilets, better toilet quality, and greater satisfaction, while the small subsidy did not improve access to improved sanitation. Among those who took out the subsidized loans, 59 percent already had improved toilets, which explains the limited effects on improved sanitation and open defecation. Overall, these findings suggest that subsidy programs hold promise, but need to be better targeted.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Is Preschool Good for Kids?
    (Washington, DC, 2013-04) World Bank
    How can we help kids reach their full potential? Experts know that the first years of life are crucial to healthy development. And that's just the start. Children need regular mental and physical stimulation along with healthcare and proper nutrition to keep their development on track. Preschool programs are a great way to give kids the educational building blocks to help them learn and prepare for primary school. But in low-income countries, parents don't always have the opportunity: governments haven't invested in preschools; private sector offerings may be too pricey or not close by; and parents may not understand the benefits. Children need regular mental and physical stimulation along with healthcare and proper nutrition to keep their development on track. Preschool programs are a great way to give kids the educational building blocks to help them learn and prepare for primary school. But in low-income countries, parents don't always have the opportunity: governments haven't invested in preschools; private sector offerings may be too pricey or not close by; and parents may not understand the benefits.
  • Publication
    Stepping Up Skills for More Jobs and Higher Productivity
    (Washington, DC, 2010-06) World Bank
    This report presents a framework - Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP), that provides a simple yet comprehensive way to look at skills development. It brings together research evidence and practical experience from a range of areas-from research on the determinants of early childhood development and learning outcomes, to policy experience with the reform of vocational and technical education systems and labor markets-and provides a set of powerful messages to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. The report's emphasis on performance measurement and benchmarking, policy and program evaluation, and cross-sectoral approaches focusing on individuals throughout their lifecycle provides a solid platform for developing countries to start exploring reforms.
  • Publication
    Impact Evaluation of Three Types of Early Childhood Development Interventions in Cambodia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-07) Bouguen, Adrien; Filmer, Deon; Macours, Karen; Naudeau, Sophie
    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.
  • Publication
    Turkey
    (Washington, DC, 2009-02) World Bank
    This report is a part of larger welfare and social policy work agenda which the Turkish State Planning Organization and the World Bank are carrying out collaboratively. The work agenda includes the preparation of a number of conceptualized, and in part of co-authored, analytical studies on topics ranging from examines the equity determinants to investigating the links between poverty, employment creation, and growth. Further, the work agenda comprises a number of human development dialogues for which we are inviting international experts and practioners to share their experiences about social policy reforms with the Turkish government and the wider academic and non-governmental public. This report examines life chances. Life chances for today Turkish people, most importantly future generation, today's children. The results presented in this report show that life chances differ in important dimensions today, and that Turkey could immensely improve its human and economic development potential by maximizing such opportunities.
  • Publication
    Early Child Development, From Measurement to Action : A priority for Growth and Equity
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Young, Mary Eming; Richardson, Linda M.
    The World Bank recently hosted a symposium on the priority of early child development (ECD) for economic growth and equity. The participants urged application of population-based tools and measures to assess the outcomes of children's early years and children's readiness for school. This study is derived from the symposium and is a valuable resource for policy makers, economists, donors, and investors, as well as researchers and practitioners in early child development. It summarizes the current neuroscience on early child development and major longitudinal studies, the rationale and urgency for greater investment, and countries' innovative funding strategies. The report consists of 15 chapters authored by ECD experts and leaders in the field. The chapters are grouped into five main parts relating to the: business imperative and societal benefits of ECD investments; lessons from evaluation of longitudinal ECD interventions; countries' experiences in monitoring ECD interventions; innovative approaches to countries' financing of ECD initiatives; and next steps on the ECD agenda for the next 5 years. A theme highlighted at the symposium and enlarged upon here is the urgent need for evidence- and population-based instruments and measures to monitor, evaluate, and compare ECD interventions over time and across settings.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022
    (Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank
    The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.