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Impact of Early Childhood Education on Early Grade Learning
The Role of Public vs Private ECE Participation
Evidence from India
Wilima Wadhwa, ASER Centre
Quantitative Applications in Education Research
ReSEP Conference, STIASStellenbosch: August 17-18, 2015
Objective of the study To explore the relationship between pre-school participation,
school readiness, and early grade learning in India.
Using two large scale datasets
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a national household-based survey of children’s schooling status and their ability to read and do simple arithmetic.
The India Early Childhood Education Impact study (IECEI) is an ongoing five-year longitudinal study that seeks to examine young children’s participation in ECE programs and the impact of this participation on their school readiness and subsequent early grade learning.
Joint work with Suman Bhattacharjea & Manjistha Banerji
Background: Learning and Enrollment
Body of evidence pointing to
Low learning levels despite high enrollment in schools
Rising enrollment in private schools
Shifting focus and debates
Shift from the earlier enrolment-focused MDGs for education to the new set of SDGs, which propose goals and targets for both access and learning
Issues of equitable access to learning (as opposed to schooling) among the student population (Ashley et. al 2014)
Background: ECE
Evidence from developed countries shows that ECE has sustained effects on school as well as labor market outcomes (Kaul 2002; Cunha et. al 2005; Heckman et. al 2010)
Not much evidence from developing countries
Lack of data, especially longitudinal data tracking children from pre-school through school and into the labor market
With universalization of ECE figuring in SDGs and developing country focus also shifting in that direction, design and what we want these programs to deliver becomes extremely important
Background: India Children are in school
96.7% children in the age group 6-14 years enrolled in school 76.6% of 4 year olds are in pre-school; 90.3% of 5 year olds are either
in school or pre-school
But, learning levels are far below grade competency and there is very little evidence on ECE
Major policy changes in recent years
Shift in focus from enrollment to learning outcomes in primary education with several states undertaking their own assessments
New ECCE curriculum framework geared towards providing age and developmentally appropriate curricula to young children.
Under 6 year olds and the 6+ age group the responsibility of different ministries.
Do ECE and primary school curricula and objectives complement each other or conflict?
ASER: Design ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) is the largest survey
of basic learning in India and has been done every year since 2005
ASER 2005-2014 tests children in basic reading and arithmetic in all rural districts.
Household survey.
Floor level test – highest level in reading in a Grade 2 level text and highest in arithmetic a Grade 4 level division problem.
All children in the age group of 5 – 16 are given the same test.
About 16,000 villages, 300,000 households visited and about 650,000 children tested each year.
ASER has been adapted in Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Mexico.
Evidence from ASER ASER does not have information on whether school going
children attended pre-school
However, it does have information on the type of school – government or private – they attended
We look at learning outcomes in grades 1, 3 and 5
Proportion of children by math level and grade (2013)Grade 1 Grade 3 Grade 5
Ability to recognise numbers or more
Ability to subtract or more
Ability to subtract or more
Uncontrolled Controlled Uncontrolled Controlled Uncontrolled ControlledGovt Schools 0.49 0.18 0.46
Private Schools 0.80 0.46 0.70Gap 0.32 0.17 0.28 0.15 0.24 0.10
% Gap Attributable to other factors
46.98 45.39 59.92
Evidence from ASER
Private schools have a learning advantage over government schools in grade 1, which they fail to maintain as children proceed through primary school.
This advantage remains even after controlling for family background and other characteristics of the child.
And, the contribution of home factors increases in higher grades.
While there is no direct evidence linking pre-school participation to learning outcomes in ASER, this difference in grade 1 is suggestive of the importance of early childhood education.
What differentiates first graders from older cohorts is that they have no prior schooling. Therefore, whatever learning advantage they have, over and above what can be attributed to their family backgrounds, may be coming from their pre-school experience.
What about children still in pre-school?
Since ASER tests all children in the age group of 5-16, there is a small sample of 5-6 year olds who are still in pre-school and for whom we have learning outcomes
Learning levels by Age and SchoolAbility to recognise numbers or more
Age 5 Age 6 Grade 1Govt. ECE 22.18 30.87Private ECE 54.77 68.78Govt School 39.5 57.03 48.87Private School 65.74 80.92 79.83
School DistributionAge 5 Age 6
Govt. ECE 21.47 5.96Private ECE 12.87 7.14Govt School 35.43 56.44Private School 19.59 24.4Other School 0.99 1.02Not attending anywhere 9.65 5.05
Many children are already in school by age 5, though the official age for grade 1 is 6 years
Children in private pre-schools are a year ahead of children in government schools
What kind of school do private pre-school children transition to?
Are these children more likely to continue their education in private primary schools?
ASER does not track children across years
Children in grade 1 in private schools are almost a year older as compared to government schools
Evidence from IECEI shows that this is indeed the case
Type of Primary School
Management type for last ECEGovernme
nt Private TotalGovernment 86.24 13.76 100
Private 19.36 80.63 100
IECEI: Design
3 states in India – Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana
2 Districts in each state
50 villages in each district
Target of 50 four year olds in each village – average actual sample size 39 per village giving a total of 11,700 children
This sample of 3.5 – 4 year olds has been tracked over 7 visits between September 2011 and December 2013
All ECE centres and primary schools that the sampled children attend tracked and observed
School readiness inventory (SRI) administered in Visit 1 (3.5 – 4 year olds) and Visit 4 (4.5 – 5 year olds).
Early grade assessment (EGA) administered in Visit 7 (5.5 – 6 year olds)
IECEI: Big picture Provision of ECE centres is universal
There is a government ECE (Anganwadi) in every sampled village and about 50% villages also had a private ECE centre.
Most children in these states are already attending some institution – Anganwadi (government ECE), other ECE facility, primary school.
Participation is often irregular and informal.
By Visit 4, when children are 4.5-5.5 years old, many of them are already in school, well before the official school age
Age 4 Age 5Participation in
an ECE 70.08 49.5Anganwadis 54.79 27.42Private ECE 14.08 12.76
Other 1.21 9.32Participating in
school 8.36 32.8Government
school 24.76Private school 7.35
Other 0.69Not participating 21.56 17.71
Defining ECE Participation Children take many ‘pathways’ through ECE and/or primary
school. These ‘pathways’ can be very different.
Children attend different types of ECEs, transition to primary school, go back to an ECE centre, etc.This non-linear progression makes ECE exposure difficult to define. The situation is complicated by the presence of both government and private ECE centres.
We define exposure to ECE as the number of times children were tracked to an ECE centre. The difference between government and private ECE exposure is captured by a restricted sample of children with pure government pre-school participation in all previous visits.
Participation category PercentNon- participating, across all
visits 0.18Partial participation (1-3) 6.44Partial participation (4-5) 19.64
Full participation(6 visits) 73.74
All ECE 20.05Mixed 48.75
2 yrs ECE - 1 year PS 16.561 year ECE, 2 yrs PS 12.63
Other 19.56All PS 4.94
ECE Participation and EGA outcomes
Children with ECE exposure do better on early grade assessments
This effect remains after controlling for current primary school exposure, baseline and endline SRI scores, and type of current educational institution.
We also control for quality of ECE exposure captured by three composite indices of ECE infrastructure, class activity and display environment.
Other controls include individual child characteristics like age and gender, parents’ education and caste, and a household asset index capturing affluence.
However, there are diminishing returns associated with the effect, with overexposure resulting in lower scores
Are Certain Types of ECE Participation More Effective?
Children have multiple as well as different types of ECE exposures, making it difficult to isolate the effect of private ECE centres.
Consider a restricted sample of children who attended only government pre-schools.
ECE participation still has a positive impact, though the magnitude is halved
However, this effect is completely captured by the variation between states.
Like private schools, children with some exposure to a private ECE also seem to have a
learning advantage.
Where is the Private Advantage? Children were tested on two tools
A School readiness inventory assessment (SRI) in Visit 1 (Baseline) and Visit 4 (Endline)
An Early Grade Assessment (EGA) in Visit 7.
Do children with private ECE exposure perform better on the SRI as well?
Unlike the EGA, government pre-school children do better on the SRI assessment as compared to children who have had some private ECE exposure
This result holds controlling for all other ECE centre characteristics, management type, child, parent and household characteristics
Puzzle: Government pre-school children enter primary school with better school readiness skills, yet perform relatively poorly on the early grade assessment
Resolving the Puzzle
The better early grade performance of private ECE children could be coming from two sources
Primary school exposure – but we control for that effect. Private ECE centres are exposing children to material not
captured in the SRI – material that is more geared towards primary school curriculum.
The SRI tests children on conceptual pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills that are developmentally appropriate for young children.
It is also well known that private pre-schools expose children to competencies which are often seen in grade 1-2 curriculums.
This is an ongoing study and future work will include analysis of specific competencies within the SRI and EGA.
Policy Implications
With the vast majority of young children attending some form of preschool, India is perfectly placed to invest in a quality ECE framework. A draft ECE curriculum has been prepared.
However, the primary school curriculum is overambitious and teaching-learning focuses on rote learning rather than conceptual skills. Quality ECE therefore does not provide the expected primary school advantage.
Taken together with the available evidence on children’s learning in primary grades, there is an urgent need to revisit primary school curricula and to ensure that it builds on the foundations envisaged by the new ECE policy.
ASER Centre, B-4/54, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, India
