Investing in School Readiness : An Analysis of the Cost-Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education Pathways in Rural Indonesia

Nakajima, Nozomi ; Hasan, Amer ; Jung, Haeil ; Brinkman, Sally ; Pradhan, Menno ; Kinnell, Angela

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: early childhood development;    sequence;    primary education;    rural schools;    effectiveness;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7832
RP-ID  :  WPS7832

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper presents evidence on thecost-effectiveness of early childhood education pathways inrural Indonesia. It documents the existence of substantialdifferences in school readiness between 6 to 9 year oldchildren. Using detailed enrollment histories, it unpackswhether and how early education experiences explain thesegaps. The analysis considers not only the sequence ofservices children enroll in, but also the age at which theyenroll and the duration for which they enroll. Thedifferences in primary school test scores between a childwho has no early education exposure and a child whocompletes a full sequence at the developmentally appropriateage are 0.42 standard deviations in language and 0.43standard deviations in mathematics, roughly equivalent to anadditional 0.9 to 1.2 years of primary schooling. The paperanalyzes the cost-effectiveness of various early educationpathways in Indonesia to show that providing access to bothplaygroups and kindergartens to young children atdevelopmentally appropriate ages can optimize publicinvestments in early childhood education. The paper subjectsthe analysis to a variety of robustness checks, andconcludes that children enrolled in play-based earlyeducation programs (playgroups) at age 3 or 4, followed bythe country's more academically structured programs(kindergartens) at age 5 or 6, are more likely to be readyfor primary school than children who do not follow thissequence. Compulsory pre-primary education policy shouldconsider incorporating both playgroups and kindergartens.