from EVIDENCE to POLICY Learning what works for better programs and policies July 2020 BANGLADESH: Improving School Readiness with an Additional Year of Preschool Early learning experiences promote child development and help are particularly pronounced for disadvantaged children, who of- children get prepared for school, providing children with a foun- ten have limited access to learning materials and stimulation at dation for learning that can last into primary school and well be- home, and policymakers around the world have expanded access yond. Evidence suggests the positive impacts of these experiences to preprimary education. But how much preprimary education do children need? Is one year enough, or do children reap additional benefits from two years of preschool? In Bangladesh, the World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evalua- EDUCATION tion Fund supported a randomized evaluation to investigate these questions. Researchers measured the impact of offering families an additional year of preschool for children at age 4, compared to just the standard one-year of preschool starting at age 5. The program leveraged the classrooms and trained preschool teachers who taught the 5-year-old class to deliver the additional class for 4-year-olds (at a different time of day). After two years, children offered the additional year of pre- school had significantly higher literacy, numeracy, and social emo- tional development scores than children who only had public ac- cess to preschool starting at age 5. Gains in these school readiness measures were observed after one year, even though many families in the comparison group chose to send their children to other pre- schools. That gains persisted after two years, when most of the comparison group would have also benefited from the standard preprimary program for 5-year-olds, suggests the potential for high quality services delivered at age four to amplify the benefits of provision at age 5. The program cost approximately $145 per child, making it affordable enough to be scaled up. In June 2020, the Government of Bangladesh announced that it would extend its provision of preprimary school to two years. Source: Elizabeth Spier This policy note is based on, “Bangladesh Early Years Preschool Program Impact Evaluation: Endline Report for theWorld Bank Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund,” Elizabeth Spier, Kevin Kamto, Adria Molotsky, Azizur Rahman, Najmul Hossain, Zannatun Nahar and Hosneara Khondker, American Institutes for Research (2020) Context Over the last decade, Bangladesh has made considerable classrooms and with the same teachers, but the program has a progress in reducing poverty and improving health and educa- different curriculum and materials from what the 5-year-old chil- tional services, which has included expanding access to preschool dren would experience. Teachers are also tasked with carrying out education. In 2010, Bangladesh included two years of preschool monthly parenting sessions to build parents’ awareness about pro- education in its national education plan, starting with one year of viding a supportive and educational environment at home and preschool education in all primary schools, with the aim of gradu- providing materials and activities for home learning in literacy ally growing into a two-year program. In 2013, Save the Chil- and mathematics. dren supported the government’s preschool expansion effort by partnering with representatives from the Ministry of Women and Did you know… Children Affairs and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education In Bangladesh, access to preschool is expanding but: to develop the Early Years Preschool Program, which provides a second year of preschool to 4-year-old children in the two districts • The share of children aged 36 to 59 months who attended early childhood education is still small at 19 percent. of Meherpur and Barisal. • Less than a third of children aged 3-4 years are developmentally The Early Years Preschool Program’s curriculum was designed on track for literacy and numeracy. On the other hand, close to three-quarters are on-track socially and emotionally. to seamlessly feed into the current government-approved, one- • Only 6 percent of children aged 3-4 years have 3 or more books year pre-primary curriculum. Children receive instruction for at home. about two hours per day in government primary schools in pi- Source: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019 (UNICEF) lot communities. The lessons take place in existing preprimary Evaluation This study used a randomized controlled trial to measure the available to them the year before. impact of the Early Years Preschool Program on children’s learn- To measure impacts, researchers collected baseline, midline, ing and development. The evaluation sought to measure the pro- and endline data from both the treatment and comparison groups gram’s implementation, the effectiveness and cost of the program, over two years. This data included background information on and any gender differences in impact. communities and schools, household surveys, and direct assess- In December of 2016, the research team randomly assigned ments of children’s learning that used the International Devel- 100 schools in the Meherpur district of Bangladesh to either a opment and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool, which treatment group or a comparison group. In October 2017, the assesses children’s emergent literacy and language development, research team conducted a census around all 100 schools to iden- emergent numeracy development, executive function, and ap- tify children who lived within a 15-minute walk of the school and proaches to learning. Researchers also gathered qualitative feed- were in the target age range, that is children expected to enroll back about the program from the teachers themselves. The World in typical government pre-primary in 2019 and enter Grade 1 Bank also gathered cost information about the program. in 2020. In the 50 treatment school catchment areas, children The baseline was conducted from December 2017 to Janu- selected for the study were invited to participate in the program at ary 2018. The midline took place one year later, from November their local school during the 2018 school year. They would then 2018 to December 2018, and the endline took place exactly one go on to government preprimary school as usual in 2019. In the year after that, from November 2019 to December 2019. Of the 50 comparison school catchment areas, children selected for the 1,856 children and families enrolled in the study, 1,801 (97 per- study were eligible to enroll in government preprimary school as cent) participated at all three points in time. usual in 2019 but did not have the Early Years Preschool program Findings Overall the program greatly increased enrollment While some effects, such as motor development and approach- rates and reached children without access to other es to learning, faded out by year two, the positive impacts options. About half of families offered the program on literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional development re- enrolled their children in the program. mained––with impacts of 18 percent, 26 percent and 38 per- cent, respectively, compared to children in comparison areas. In the program group, around 50 percent of children attended These impacts were similar after one and two years. Research- the program, while 40 percent attended other preschool pro- ers did not find any impacts of the program on children’s ex- grams, and 10 percent did not attend preschool in 2018. In the ecutive function at either the one- or two- year mark. comparison communities, 42 percent did not attend any pre- The impacts on school readiness appear to be driven by school. In other words, the program led to a large increase in the the program providing an additional year of preschool to chil- proportion of children who were enrolled in preschool at age 4 dren who would otherwise not have had it, rather than being and brought communities close to universal coverage. Notably, better than other available preschool programming. Because parents who were offered the program but sent their children many children across Bangladesh don’t have access to two years to other preschools instead were more literate on average than of preschool, researchers believe the impacts would persist at parents whose children attended the EYPP. Taken together, these scale. findings suggest the EYPP was not only successful in increasing access to preschool but reached children who needed it most. Girls reaped the largest benefits from the program, gaining more than boys in literacy, numeracy, and After one year, when children were entering govern- social emotional development, though boys also ment preprimary school at age 5, those in the program benefitted. group were developmentally more advanced than children in the comparison group, even though many At both the one- and two-year marks, researchers found girls children in the comparison group also attended pre- experienced larger benefits than boys in literacy, numeracy, and school. social emotional development, even though boys were equally likely to take-up the program. The reason for the larger impact At the time of the midline, researchers found that children from for girls is not clear, however, and will therefore require further communities offered the program had significantly higher lit- study. eracy, numeracy, and social emotional development scores than children in the comparison group. They also had better motor The program was affordable to implement, costing ap- development and displayed better approaches to learning. The proximately $145 per child. impacts on approaches to learning were roughly equivalent to bridging the gap between children whose mothers completed Based on calculations from the World Bank, the cost to imple- primary education compared to those who did not. ment the program in the 50 communities was US$157,300 to- tal, or $3,146 per community. There were 1,084 beneficiaries, The positive effects on learning and development meaning the annual cost was approximately $145 per child. persisted into year two, right before the children These estimates capture the total costs of providing the pre- entered primary school––a remarkable finding given school program, including administrative and support costs, as that nearly all children in both study groups had just well as use of classrooms and school and community contribu- completed the one-year government pre-primary tions to teacher’s salaries, not just the expenditures by Save the class. Children. Conclusion Overall, this evaluation reveals that providing young children an additional year of preschool is an effective way to improved school readiness for both girls and boys (and especially girls). The program benefitted children’s school readiness skills, an ef- fect that persisted to the start of Grade 1, and the program was very effective in getting 4-year-old children, who would not have enrolled otherwise, enrolled in a second year of preschool. Teachers were very positive about the program and had only minor suggestions for improving the curriculum. Given the high level of success of the program, the research team recommended scaling it up in Bangladesh and keep- ing the existing program structure and curriculum. Because the intervention leverages existing resources––using the same classrooms and teachers as the government’s preprimary school––the program would be relatively straightforward to scale. Indeed in June 2020, the Government of Bangladesh announced that it would extend its provision of preprimary school to two years. The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund, part of the World Bank Group, supports and disseminates research evaluating the impact of development projects to help allevi- ate poverty. The goal is to collect and build empirical evidence that can help governments and development organizations design and implement the most appropriate and effective policies for better educational, health, and job opportunities for people in low and middle income countries. For more information about who we are and what we do, go to: http://www.worldbank.org/sief. The Evidence to Policy note series is produced by SIEF with generous support from the British government’s Department for International Devel- opment and the London-based Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). THE WORLD BANK, STRATEGIC IMPACT EVALUATION FUND 1818 H STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20433