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This paper examines the child development outcomes of two cohorts of children who were exposed to the same intervention at different points in time. One cohort was eligible to access playgroups during the first year of a five-year project cycle, beginning at age four. The other cohort became eligible to access these services during the third year of a five-year project cycle, beginning at age three. The younger cohort was more likely to be exposed to playgroups for longer and at more age-appropriate times relative to the older cohort. The paper finds that enrollment rates and enrollment duration in preprimary education increased for both cohorts, but the enrollment effects were larger for the younger cohort. In terms of child development outcomes, there were short-term effects at age five that did not last until age eight, for both cohorts. Moreover, the younger cohort had substantially higher test scores during the early grades of primary school, relative to the older cohort. We document the extent to which program impacts can vary as a result of differences in project implementation.

This paper documents that children in rural Indonesia participate in a great variety of early childhood education pathways. Three key factors predict early education pathways: household wealth, mother’s education, and the quality of available services. We also find that children who enrolled in playgroup programs at age 3–4 followed by kindergarten programs at age 5–6 scored significantly higher on primary school tests than those enrolled only in playgroup programs or only in kindergarten programs. This suggests that the sequence of these pathways is important for future learning. We also provide illustrative estimates of the cost-effectiveness of different pathways. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Using administrative data, this paper evaluates the early impact of introducing a performance-based component into Jakarta's long-standing school grant program on learning outcomes. The authors use difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity approaches to identify the component's impact on both government primary and junior secondary schools. Learning outcomes improved in primary schools at the bottom of the performance distribution, which narrowed the performance gaps between schools. However, the component had a negative impact on the better performing primary schools. Overall, primary examination scores fell slightly but this effect was only temporary. In contrast, the performance-based component improved examination scores in junior secondary schools. This impact seems to have been greatest among better-performing schools, thus widening the performance gap between these schools and those whose performance was worse. The data suggest that the main impact of the performance-based grant in terms of learning outcomes operated through an increase in competition among schools to earn the performance-based grant rather than through receipt of the actual grant funds.

This paper examines the magnitude and source of gender gaps in cognitive and social-emotional skills in early primary grades in rural Indonesia. Relative to boys, girls score more than 0.17 SD higher in tests of language and mathematics (cognitive skills) and between 0.18 and 0.27 SD higher in measures of social competence and emotional maturity (social-emotional skills). We use Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to investigate the extent to which gender differences in early schooling and parenting practices explain these gender gaps in skills. For cognitive skills, differences in early schooling between boys and girls explain between 9% and 11% of the gender gap whereas differences in parenting practices explain merely 3%–5% of the gender gap. This decomposition result is driven largely by children living in villages with high-quality preschools. In contrast, for social-emotional skills, differences in parenting styles toward boys and girls explain between 13% and 17% of the gender gap, while differences in early schooling explain only 0%–6% of the gender gap. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper presents simulations of the potential effect of COVID-19-related school closures on schooling and learning outcomes. It considers four scenarios-varying in both the duration of school cl...

This paper reports on the quality of early childhood education in rural Indonesia. On average, the paper finds that centers created under the Indonesia Early Childhood Education and Development Project provide higher quality services than other types of preschools, as measured by a comprehensive instrument of preschool quality based on direct observation of classrooms in session (the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised). The paper also examines the relationship between preschool quality and children's early development using three commonly applied measures of quality: (i) the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised; (ii) teacher characteristics; and (iii) structural characteristics of preschool services, such as their size and amount of class time. First, correcting for measurement error using an instrumental variables approach, the findings suggest that preschool quality is a significant and meaningful positive predictor of children's developmental outcomes. Second, the findings for teacher characteristics are mixed, suggesting that policies focused solely on hiring teachers based on experience and training will be insufficient to improve children's learning. Instead, policies must address the quality of professional development activities for teachers. Third, the amount of class time spent in early childhood programs is a significant positive predictor of children’s developmental outcomes. This suggests that in rural Indonesia—where early childhood programs are relatively low dose—children are likely to benefit from attending longer hours of preschool, either playgroups or kindergartens. Lastly, the paper compares items in the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised with Indonesia's national minimum service standards for early childhood education and development, and finds that the relationship between this alternative, context-appropriate measure of preschool quality and children’s development outcomes strongly corroborates the earlier conclusions.

This paper examines the effects of an intervention that expanded access to low-cost, government-sponsored, community-based playgroups in rural Indonesia. Instrumental variables and difference-in-differences models indicate that while the intervention raised enrollment rates and durations of enrollment for everyone, on average, there was little impact on child development. The two models correspond to different durations of project exposure. The difference-in-differences model captures greater exposure and shows that there are modest and sustained impacts on child development especially for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. There is also evidence that the intervention encouraged substitution away from other services, such as kindergartens. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper studies the sustainability of early childhood education centers established under a large-scale, donor-funded project in rural Indonesia. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data shows that 86 percent of the centers continued to provide preschool services three years after project funding ended. Centers balanced the reduction in funding by introducing student fees. The paper estimates a series of logistic regression models to predict center sustainability. Centers that increased their share of expenditures on teacher salaries during the project were significantly more likely to remain open. Often this was made possible by centers altering their mix of supplementary services provided. Centers that provided higher quality care, had more complementary services in the area, and had more parental involvement were significantly more likely to be sustained after donor funding ended. In contrast, centers with more substitute services in the area were less likely to be sustained. There is no evidence to suggest that distance to the village center or nearest neighboring center was a major factor for sustainability. There is also no evidence to suggest that, while they were operating, closed centers catered to children from different wealth backgrounds than those that remained open. These results point to actionable lessons for the design and sustainability of future development projects.

This study assesses whether the Indonesia Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) project had an impact on early achievement gaps as measured by an array of child development outcomes and enrolment. First, using a fixed-effects model with a difference-in-difference estimator that compares children in project villages with those in non-project villages, we find that the positive impacts are concentrated among poor children. Second, extending our fixed-effects model, we also find that the achievement gap between richer and poorer children in project villages decreased on many dimensions compared with the achievement gap in non-project villages.

There is increasing interest from international organizations and the research community to use internationally comparable instruments that in turn foster global understanding while providing evidence for local and international policy development. In the field of early childhood, international comparisons have traditionally been limited to indicators such as infant or child mortality and anthropometric data such as stunting and wasting. However, there has been gradual interest in developing international measures that can be used to compare and monitor the holistic development of children. Using both the short and standard versions of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), this paper reports on the process of adaptation of the EDI in Indonesia. Further, it explores the content and construct validity, internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and predictive validity of the EDI using a number of measures including the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Dimensional Change Card Sort, and school-based tests of language, mathematics and cognitive performance, collected from a number of informants (caregivers, teachers, and children). We report on data for two cohorts of children: the "younger cohort" were approximately 1 year old (N = 3116) and the "older cohort" were approximately 4 years old (N = 3251) at Time 1. Both cohorts were followed up approximately 4 years later, at Time 2. This study finds that the EDI shows moderate validity and reliability in poor communities in Indonesia and highlights some of the difficulties associated with adapting western instruments for non-western cultures and contexts. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper examines gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills among a sample of more than 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in rural Indonesia. In terms of cognitive skills, the analysis finds evidence of gender gaps favoring girls at each age in test scores of language (0.158-0.252 standard deviations) and mathematics (0.155-0.243 standard deviations) in the early years of primary school. Girls also perform significantly better than boys in non-cognitive skills, with higher scores on the social competence (0.086-0.247 standard deviations) and emotional maturity domains (0.213-0.296 standard deviations) of the Early Development Instrument, a finding consistent with research from high-income countries. Decomposition analyses are used to investigate the extent to which enrollment patterns in preschool and primary school as well as parenting practices contribute to these gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Standard decomposition approaches are extended to correct for selection on observables. The findings show that gender differences in enrollment patterns play a role in explaining gender gaps in test scores, while differences in parenting practices do not. However, the relative contribution of observed factors to gender gaps depends on the available quality of preschool services in the child’s village and whether the outcome of interest is cognitive or non-cognitive skills.