Working paper
The effects of pre-school attendance on the cognitive development of urban children aged 5 and 8 years
- Alternative title:
- Evidence from Ethiopia
- Abstract:
-
This paper, using data from the Young Lives longitudinal survey in Ethiopia, examines the effects of pre-school attendance on the cognitive development of urban children at the ages of 5 and 8 (measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Cognitive Development Assessment – Quantitative test (CDA-Q)). We used propensity score matching techniques in order to estimate the impact of pre-school. We also substantiated the analysis using various empirical approaches including ordinary least squares and instrumental variable estimation methods. Our results show that pre-school attendance has a statistically significant positive impact on the cognitive development of children at the ages of both 5 and 8 years, with the bigger impact at the latter age. Moreover, pre-school attendance has also a positive and statistically significant effect on primary school enrolment and progression through grades. Despite the fact that early childhood education has immense importance for children’s cognitive development, public investment in pre-school education is currently limited in Ethiopia, with the private sector taking the key role, which may exacerbate the inequality that exists between rich and poor (and between urban and rural areas). Therefore, given the relatively low rate of pre-school attendance and the low quality of basic education, the Government needs to reconsider its education priorities so as to invest more in early childhood education.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Version of record, bin, 654.8KB, Terms of use)
-
Authors
- Funding agency for:
- Woldehanna, T
- Gebremedhin, L
- Grant:
- R8544
- R8544
- Publisher:
- Young Lives
- Publication date:
- 2012-01-01
- Edition:
- Publisher's version
- ISBN:
- 9781909403000
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
-
uuid:0dddedce-6824-4d06-bdf9-5df889bd296f
- Local pid:
-
ora:7853
- Deposit date:
-
2014-02-03
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Young Lives
- Copyright date:
- 2012
- Notes:
-
© Young Lives 2012.
All rights reserved. Reproduction, copy, transmission, or translation of any part
of this publication may be made only under the following conditions: with the prior permission of the publisher; or with a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd.,
90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, UK, or from another national
licensing agency; or under the terms set out below.
This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without
fee for teaching or non-profit purposes, but not for resale. Formal permission
is required for all such uses, but normally will be granted immediately. For
copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for
translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the
publisher and a fee may be payable.
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record