from EVIDENCE to POLICY Learning what works for better programs and policies November 2017 MALAWI: Can steps to improve child centers help boost child development? EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT Children in disadvantaged families living in poor areas face nu- In Malawi, researchers supported by the Strategic Impact merous challenges, from lack of access to quality health care Evaluation Fund (SIEF) worked with the government to to insufficient nutrition and stimulation. By the time these study the impact of a pilot program to improve the quality children are supposed to start primary school, they often are of the country’s Community-Based Childcare Centers, which already behind in terms of cognitive, social-emotional, and serve children aged three to five years old in rural areas. The language skills. Develop- centers are free and they often have few play materials and rely ment organizations and on teacher volunteers with limited training. The impact eval- governments are looking uation measured the effectiveness of different approaches for at preschool programs as improving quality above and beyond providing centers with a route for improving the play and learning kits, including offering additional teacher skills and school readiness training, paying teachers a small stipend, and holding classes of children aged three to for parents on child development. The evaluation found that five in low-income coun- teachers who were trained did more learning activities in the tries. While studies of how classroom, and when teachers also received a stipend or par- to establish early childhood programs in low-income countries ents attended classes on child development, teachers did even and attract families have become more frequent, there’s also a more in the classroom with the children. However, initial need to examine how to improve quality in already function- cognitive gains, seen among children in the group that re- ing childcare centers, as is the case in Malawi. For policymakers ceived both teacher training and parenting classes, dissipated in others countries facing similar development challenges and after children moved to primary school. Researchers are now financial constraints, evidence on different programs and their working with policymakers in Malawi to see how the lessons impact will help identify promising approaches to consider in learned can be incorporated into planning for future early their own countries. childhood development programs. Context Poverty in Malawi is widespread—some 50 percent of the provide assistance to orphans and other vulnerable children population fall below the country’s national poverty level, and whose families had been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 70 percent live on less than $1.90 a day, according to 2010 The centers have since been expanded to serve as early learn- World Bank data—and close to half aren’t able to meet their ing centers and as part-time childcare for working parents, and basic daily food requirements. The poverty has taken its toll about a third of children aged three to five years in Malawi are on children. About half of children under the age of five are now enrolled. The centers are operated by community mem- stunted, a sign of chronic malnutrition. In addition, almost one bers themselves and don’t receive any funding from the govern- in five children is an orphan, often because parents have died ment. They generally stay open for a few hours every morning from HIV/AIDS. on weekdays. In addition to providing childcare for working The Government of Malawi and donors established com- parents, they are supposed to offer stimulating activities for munity-based childcare centers in rural areas in the 1990s to children and one nutritious meal a day, usually made from community gardens or provided by families that use the cen- In 2010, the World Bank, working with the Rapid Social ters. The quality of the centers, however, is mixed. The teachers Response Fund and the Government of Malawi, launched the are often community volunteers with limited and sometimes Protecting Early Childhood Development project. This two- no training. A 2010 government report estimated that less than year pilot was designed to support young children’s develop- half of the teachers had received the government-developed 14- ment by improving and strengthening existing early childhood day training module. The centers themselves are not housed in centers. The project included an impact evaluation to measure formal structures, and this contributes to the problems they the effectiveness of different approaches and help the Govern- face in staying open regularly. ment of Malawi consider future steps. EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT Evaluation The evaluation, carried out in four rural districts, was a cluster- ment group received the play and learning materials and the randomized control trial with three treatment groups and one training and mentoring coupled with 18 sessions for parents control group. on child development. Each hour-long session was delivered by The baseline survey took place between September 2011 one of the teachers trained through the program. and February 2012, prior to the randomization. As part of the From the 199 childcare centers in the study, about 10 chil- baseline, researchers identified 199 childcare centers that met dren per center were randomly selected to be surveyed for the the criteria for the study, including having a minimum number evaluation, after being divided by age and sex to ensure repre- of children and having some sort of shelter to operate in bad sentation. The total sample size was 2,120 children aged 36 weather. Participating centers, all of which received a kit of play months to 61 months at the start of the study and 2,009 pri- and learning materials that was developed by UNICEF, were mary caregivers, usually parents, of these children. Children’s randomly assigned to one of four groups. The centers in the language, social-emotional, fine motor, numeracy and other control group did not receive anything apart from the kit. The skills were tested as baseline, when they were between three first treatment group received the play and learning materials and five years old; then 18 months later, when the children and five weeks of training and then follow-up mentoring for were between four-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years old; and teachers. The second treatment group received the play and then again at the 36-month mark when they were between six learning materials, the training and mentoring, and also teach- and eight years old. Data were also collected on the caregivers, ers were given a monthly stipend of MK 2,000 (equivalent to the home environment, classroom infrastructure and materi- $12 initially but the value later declined to the equivalent of $6 als, the qualifications of teachers, and their interactions with due to an economic crisis) for seven months. The third treat- the children. Results Children whose parents received child development When measured 18 months later, when children in the child- classes and whose teachers received a special care centers were about five-and-a-half years old, those whose course of training and mentoring showed gains in parents received classes and whose teachers received training language skills and social behaviors when compared showed language skills improvements when compared with with the control group and with the other the control group, which only received play and learning ma- treatment groups. terials. They also showed more positive behavior, defined as This policy note is based on “Combining Preschool Teacher Training with Parenting Education: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial,” Berk Ozler, Lia C.H. Fernald, Patricia Kariger, Christin McConnell, Michelle Neuman, Eduardo Fraga, Development Research Group, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7817. caring, sharing, following rules, and other similarly positive also found that these teachers were more likely to do activities social traits. with the children related to learning numbers, letters, problem The gains weren’t just when compared with the control solving, and fine and gross motor activities. Interestingly, giving group. The children showed better language skills and social parents information about the importance of child stimulation behavior when compared with the group that received only also had an impact on what teachers in these childcare centers teacher training and mentoring, indicating that the parent- did with the children, leading to similar increases in activities ing education added value over and above teacher training at for learning and fine and gross motor skills, when compared the childcare center level. Sub-group analysis, which should both with teachers who also received only training and with be treated with caution, indicates that the gains in language the control group that only received the play and learning kits. skills were concentrated among children whose main caregiver Nonetheless, gains in children’s language and social-emo- had completed primary school. The finding is suggestive of the tional skills were seen only among the group whose parents parenting intervention and primary caregiver’s education being received the combined intervention of parenting support and complements to each other, which is consistent with another teacher training. study* in the literature. At the 18-month mark, After 18 months, parents who received child enrollment also had risen in development classes reported improvements in how childcare centers that received they interacted with their children. two of the three programs. Parents were asked about activities they did with the children to The childcare centers are free but encourage learning, such as reading books, telling stories, sing- parents don’t always send their chil- ing, playing with them, and helping them learn numbers, let- dren. Interestingly, enrollment in- ters, shapes, and other things. The group assigned to receive the creased significantly in two of the parenting classes 18 months earlier were significantly more likely three treatment arms—training, than the other two treatment and control groups to report that and training and parenting classes— they read, played, and chatted with their children. This is in line which may indicate that parents with the improved language skills seen among children whose value improvements in school quality over and above the basic parents received the childhood development classes. learning and play materials received by the control schools. In centers where teachers received small stipends, there also Teachers who received training and mentoring were was a higher likelihood that teachers would have at least com- better at engaging and communicating with the pleted primary school. Teachers who hadn’t completed primary children than teachers who only received the play school were more likely to leave and they were more likely to and learning materials… be replaced by teachers with a primary school education. How- ever, the incentives (in the form of monthly stipends) didn’t Surveyors turned up unannounced at the childcare centers to increase retention of trained teachers over and above teacher observe what was happening in the centers and the activities the training alone. teachers were leading. In terms of supervising the children, dealing with their behaviors, and communicating with them, teachers who Nonetheless, 36 months after the program was received the training were more engaged than the control group. implemented, when children in the initial group were about seven years old, almost all gains had …but the biggest gains were seen among teachers disappeared. who were paid a stipend and among teachers in the group in which parents received parenting classes on Children in all the centers were tested for various cognitive and child development. socio-emotional skills related to school readiness. Those that had gone to centers that received the teacher training and any of the Providing small payments to teachers, along with the training, additional treatments didn’t show any sustained gains compared resulted in teachers doing more with the children, and the survey with children who had attended centers that received only the * Banerji, Rukmini, James Berry, and Marc Shotland. 2017. “The Impact of Maternal Literacy and Participation Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 9 (4): 303–37. play and learning materials. The positive effects on teacher are of very low quality: There can be upwards of 75 or more behaviors also largely disappeared. children in a classroom and the overall situation for learning is There was also no impact on children’s primary school poor. It’s possible that the primary school not only holds back attendance or grade progression. Parents in the group that a child from progressing, but can be a factor in causing a child received the parenting classes were still more likely to report to lose previous gains. doing more stimulation and learning activities with their chil- dren, but the standardized effect sizes were somewhat smaller. One hypothesis for why the gains seen among children Although primary education is free and almost all children enroll, only 55 percent of boys and 45 percent of girls finish primary school. disappeared is that by age seven, children have spent one or World Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy Report (2012) EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT two years in primary school. Rural primary schools in Malawi Conclusion The impact evaluation sought to measure improvements in Questions to be considered for future research include what children’s development at the critical age period of three to five steps would help sustain the gains seen at 18 months, and what years, when there’s an opportunity to improve school readiness should be done to ensure more children benefit? The interven- skills that can help with a successful start to primary school. tions were relatively short in terms of training—five weeks for The World Bank program to support Malawi’s extensive net- teachers, and 12 classes for parents. Would it help to have re- work of early childcare centers was a good opportunity for im- fresher courses for both? Do we need to take a closer look at pact evaluation researchers to test different approaches by set- the primary schools to see what needs to be reinforced in the ting up three treatment arms around teacher training, teacher formal school setting to maintain and enhance child develop- stipends, and classes for parents on child development. ment gains? The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund, part of the World Bank Group, supports and disseminates research evaluating the impact of development projects to help alleviate 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 developing 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 Development and the London-based Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). THE WORLD BANK, STRATEGIC IMPACT EVALUATION FUND 1818 H STREET, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20433 Series editor and writer: Aliza Marcus