Early childhood education in Africa: A synthesis of research on the impact of ECE/pre-primary on school readiness and foundational learning

• In Event: Systemic aproaches to ECD

Proposal

Abstract: The pre-school years, often referred to as the second 1,000 days of a child’s life, are critical for fostering healthy brain development and school readiness among children. In this paper, we synthesize evidence on the impacts of pre-primary education programs on foundational learning outcomes that include language, early literacy and numeracy, and social emotional skills. In doing so, we mostly draw on rigorous experimental work that was implemented in low- and middle-income African countries. However, there are few studies that directly measure the impact of pre-primary programs on learning outcomes in the primary grades. This review includes fifteen studies that employ rigorous research designs in which all studies measure children’s cognition/foundational learning. Similarly, we find that, on average, pre-primary interventions are also successful in improving children’s socioemotional development. These findings provide robust evidence for the importance of early childhood education for preparing young children for successful achievement in the primary grades. We recommend that future research include longitudinal panel studies following children to adolescence to study the long-term impacts of investments in quality preprimary interventions.
Introduction: Nearly 250 million children from low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not fulfilling their potential for growth in physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development (Black et al., 2017). To mitigate the long-term costs associated with early-life developmental failures, a wide range of nutrition, health, and early-learning interventions have been implemented in LMICs.
The primary aim of this research review is to examine the impact of interventions that focus on building school readiness among children in low- and middle-income countries in Africa during the pre-school years on foundational learning and language outcomes. There is a dearth of research that directly examines the impact of pre-primary programs on children’s foundational learning and language, including cognition and social-emotional learning skills.
This research synthesis focuses exclusively on studies that examine programs implemented in low- and middle-income countries in Africa. The purpose is to examine the impacts of a variety of pre-primary education programs on child development, drawing evidence from rigorous experimental evaluations of pre-school or pre-primary education programs that focus on improving child cognition and pre-school foundational learning readiness in Africa.
We examined the following research questions: a) What are the different types of pre-primary education programs offered in low- and middle-income African countries? b) What is the effect of these programs on children’s early learning, language, and social emotional skills? and finally, c) What are the exact mechanisms that help explain the main findings observed in the literature?
This review includes 15 programs/interventions implemented across 13 low- and middle-income countries in Africa which include Ethiopia (Dowd et al., 2016), Gambia (Blimpo et al., 2022), Ghana (Attanasio et al., 2019; Wolf et al., 2017, 2018, 2019, McCoy and Wolf, 2020), Kenya (Ngware et al., 2018); Liberia (Puffer et al., 2015); Madagascar (Galasso et al., 2019); Malawi (Özler et al., 2018); Mozambique (Martinez et al., 2021); Niger (Premand and Barry, 2022); Rwanda (Jensen et al., 2021; Desmond et al., 2023; Justino et al., 2023), Sierra Leone (Chandra et al., 2021); Uganda (Singla et al., 2015); and Zambia (Rockers et al., 2016). The primary criteria for study inclusion included published studies from 2000-2024, programs implemented in LMICs in Africa, and studies that used rigorous counterfactual approaches. Additional criteria included sample size, the focus of the intervention, and the primary outcomes.
The types of programs included in this review include center/school-based programs taught by certified pre-primary teachers, and programs taught in centers/schools by caregivers/parents/community volunteers.
This presentation will address the main findings of this research synthesis and highlight some of the unexpected findings that may inform our understanding of the broader implications of supporting pre-primary education programs.
Results from this research review include findings with important implications for investing in pre-primary education programs. First, the average treatment effect size across all studies on children’s cognitive/foundational learning outcomes is 0.23 SD. We further disaggregate the studies’ effects on cognitive outcomes and find that, on average, there is a 0.34 SD effect size for numeracy, literacy, and problem-solving skills and an effect size of 0.11 SD on children’s fine motor, gross motor, communication, and language skills.
The findings from this synthesis indicate that a) most pre-school education programs focus on improving caregiver-child interactions through training parents or teachers, b) these programs are quite successful in improving positive parenting practices and teaching practices except when inexperienced community members are hired to serve as teachers, c) the programs have almost no impact on children’s health and nutrition, d) the interventions are quite successful in improving children’s cognitive outcomes, especially outcomes related to numeracy, literacy, and social emotional skills.
Despite the encouraging findings, much remains to be learned. First, we need more detailed information on program costs to be able to comment on the cost-effectiveness of these interventions. Second, there is almost no data on the impact of these programs on primary school enrollment, performance in primary school and the association with participation in pre-primary programs, as well as enrollment and performance in more long-term educational outcomes such as secondary schooling. Third, there is also limited detail on program features such as the kind of teacher-child interactions (active vs. passive engagement), the role of supplies and teaching-learning environment, length of interactions, and their impact on early-childhood developmental outcomes. Experimental work varying some of these key program features is needed for assessing the long-term gains of these programs. Finally, one must bear in mind that without addressing some of the pressing challenges in primary schools (e.g., teacher absenteeism), classroom quality (space and learning materials) and increasing access to primary school, may not result in long-term gains for children exposed to pre-school programs.

Author

• Marcia Davidson, USAID, Africa Bureau/SD