Scalable Strategies to Improve Pre-school Quality: Experimental impacts of “Lively Minds” Low-cost Community-run Playschemes in Rural Ghana

• In Event: 2-166 - Effective Scalable Models for Interventions to Improve Center-based Care and Education for Preschool-Age Children in LMICs: Progress and Future Directions

Integrative Statement

Key to improving ECCE in LMICs and achieving SDG 4.2 are scalable intervention implementation models that can be integrated into existing government services to reach large numbers of children in a sustainable way (The Lancet, 2016). There is good evidence on what works in early childhood intervention (Britto et al., 2016; Engle et al., 2007), but much remains unknown about how to adapt implementation models to be scalable and sustainable especially in remote, low resource, rural LMIC settings where need is greatest and available infrastructure is poorest.
This study addresses that gap. We conducted a cluster-randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of a low-cost community-run playscheme implemented by the NGO Lively Minds in rural Ghana. As part of the intervention, caregivers were trained to run educational Play Schemes in local preschools with children ages 4-6 years and were offered a monthly parenting workshop. Play Schemes are conducted by non-specialist local women; use only locally available materials; and are integrated with the government preschool service. Sessions take place in the preschool, the teachers train and oversee the volunteer caregivers. The programme has the unusual feature of combining improvements in preschool quality with improvements in parenting skills.
As part of the trial, 80 schools were randomly assigned to the Lively Minds programme (treatment, N=40) and pure control group (N=40). Study participants are a random sample of 2,400 children (30 per school) eligible for the Lively Minds programme (all children 3-5 years) living in the vicinity of the participating schools. We assessed impacts on child school readiness using the IDELA assessment (Pisani et al., 2015) for a sub-sample (N=800) of children 6 months after the start of the intervention. The main impacts were estimated using intent-to-treat analysis with ordinary least squares regression. Per the study protocol, our basic specification included controls for a baseline measure of the outcome, randomization strata fixed effects, and baseline values of child/household/caregiver and school level variables for which we observed imbalances at baseline. We clustered standard errors allowing for arbitrary correlation of the errors at the school level.
After 6 months (12 group play sessions), we found a moderate statistically significant improvement in children’s school readiness which disaggregates into statistically significant improvements in most constituent domains including moderate increases in numeracy and literacy and a small increase in executive functioning. There was no impact on socioemotional skills.
Our results constitute a promising indication that non-negligible improvements in child development can be achieved through a comparatively low-intensity intervention that utilises only locally available resources and existing government services. The results also suggest, that in rural settings, engaging even very low-educated parents in improving preschool quality may be an effective implementation model.

Authors

• Sonya Krutikova, Institute for Fiscal Studies
  Presenting Author

• Peter Leighton, Institute for Fiscal Studies
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bet Caeyers, Institute of Fiscal Studies, London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Orazio Attanasio, University College London & Institute for Fiscal Studies
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Cattan, Institute for Fiscal Studies
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lina Cardona Sosa, Central Bank of Colombia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marc H. Bornstein, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development & Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, UK
  Non-Presenting Author