Structural and process quality in public and private pre-schools: evidence from Cote d’Ivoire

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Gender issues and equity

Proposal

I. Context: The challenges of pre-primary education in sub-Saharan Africa
Despite growing international advocacy, access to pre-primary education remains a challenge in developing countries. Half of the world’s children currently do not have access to pre-primary education, with sub-Saharan Africa showing the lowest levels of access at 18 percent. In Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), official figures suggest that fewer than 10 percent of children aged 3-5 are enrolled in pre-primary education.
Yet, growing evidence, including from developing countries, shows that children benefitting from good quality pre-primary education are: more likely to enrol in primary school at the right age; more likely to transition smoothly through primary school – reducing children repeating year and reducing overcrowding in primary schools; and are more likely to make successful transitions to secondary school.
However, there is very little data on pre-primary provision in Low Income countries. The little existing evidence suggests that access to pre-primary education is low, and that quality is uneven and generally unsatisfactory. For this research, the Cote d’Ivoire government asked our team to conduct research on pre-primary quality and provision to help inform future policies.

II. Theory and key research questions
The framework we use for this research construes quality in pre-primary settings as composed of structural and process quality factors. Structural quality refers to the more distal and regulatory aspects influencing classroom quality (e.g., school resources, child-teacher ratios), while process quality relates to children’s direct experiences and interactions with teachers (e.g. pedagogical practices, dialogue and play). The channels through which structural quality indicators influence child outcomes, especially in the context of developing countries, are not well understood. Our paper examines the following possible mechanisms:
1. Structural quality → Process quality → Child outcomes;
2. Structural quality → Child outcomes;
3. Structural → Teacher well-being → Child outcomes.

The main goals of this paper are to:
1. Provide a mapping of the pre-primary education providers serving children between 3 and 5 years in two selected districts of Cote d’Ivoire (Abidjan 3 and Bouaké 2) that reflects the reality on the ground;
2. Examine elements of structural and process quality of the provision for each type of providers (for example, public, private, and home-based) and how these are related to each other and to child outcomes; and
3. Examine determinants of teacher well-being and its relationship to process quality.

To address these goals, we pose the following specific research questions:
Goal 1
• What types of pre-primary providers operate in the selected regions of Cote d’Ivoire and who are the children attending these centres?
Goal 2
• How are structural quality factors (teacher qualifications, available resources) associated with process quality and child outcomes?
• What are the differences between providers types regarding structural and process quality indicators, and child outcomes?
Goal 3
• How are structural quality factors related to teacher well-being and how does this relate to process quality?
• What are the differences between providers types regarding teacher well-being?

III. Data
The data collection took place in Abidjan 3 and Bouaké 2, the two most densely populated urban and peri-urban districts of Côte d’Ivoire. The government selected these areas as the country has seen a dramatic increase of its population in the recent years, and for equity purposes. It is therefore a pressing challenge to adapt the education system to the recent demographic, and socio-economic trends. The study is composed of five distinct but related elements:
1. A complete mapping of pre-primary education centres in Abidjan 3, and Bouaké 2. Overall, 492 centres were recorded. To gather more in-depth information on structural and process quality, 165 centres were sampled to reflect all types of providers in each region. We conducted mixed-methods of primary data collection from a multitude of sources, specifically:
2. A quantitative survey of centre leaders (n=160)
3. A quantitative survey of teachers (n=162)
4. Observational assessment of centre structural and process quality (n=145)
5. Quantitative assessment of child outcomes (n=2023): including measures of numeracy skills, language skills, fine motor skills, socio-emotional skills, and behavioural measures in random samples of 15 children per centre. The assessment tool also included question about home background.
The data collection was undertaken between May and June 2018. The research team used tablet to collect the data.

IV. Methodology
In addressing our first goal, we provide descriptive statistics for all independent variables, broken down by provider type.
To investigate the indirect relationship between structural and learning outcomes, we develop four process quality indices, namely learning stimulation (LS), expression development (ED), diversity indicator (DI), and teacher practices (TP). We use OLS regressions to look at quality differences between providers.
We aim to provide robust evidence on the determinants to pre-primary child outcomes. More precisely, we expect to use process quality indices as a channel to explain the influence of structural variables on children outcomes. We also expect teacher well-being to be determined by better structural indicators, and explain process indices.

V. Preliminary findings
During the mapping, four types of schools were identified; public, private formal secular, private formal confessional, and private informal centres. Preliminary findings suggest significant differences in structural quality variables across providers. For instance, 50% of informal pre-schools do not have hand-washing stations nor toilets against 20% in public and private formal centres. Classroom environment also differs significantly across providers. Less than 50% of classroom in informal centres have an interaction-friendly set-up for children. Regarding teacher well-being, teachers report being overwhelmed by their workload and receiving limited support, especially in informal schools and in Abidjan. Our first findings suggest differences in process indices across provider type. Teachers in formal private centres are more likely to adopt play-based approaches. Data on learning outcomes indicates that children in private formal pre-schools out-perform their peers in public and informal centres.

Authors

• Laura Helene Moscoviz, Ark Education Partnerships Group

• Julie Bélanger, Ark Education Partnerships Group