From Access to Achievement: The Primary School-Age Impacts of an At-Scale Preschool Construction Program in Highly Deprived Communities

Using a randomized control trial, this paper studies an at-scale preschool construction program that serves poor communities in rural Mozambique. We show that the program significantly increased preschool enrollment in treated communities by 73 percentage points, from a small base of 2 percent of children enrolled in preschool in control communities. The program also had significant positive effects on enrollment in and progression through primary school, with an increase of 6 percentage points in enrollment in first grade at age 6, and a 0.16 standard deviation impact on an index of cognitive and social-emotional skills measured at primary school-age. The impacts are concentrated among children of less educated parents, in less poor households, and living closer to the preschools. We also find that enrollment in preschool is an important direct mechanism for primary school success. Finally, the program caused parents in treated communities to invest more time in supporting their primary school-aged children and increased preschool enrollment of younger siblings. Our paper shows that even in a context of extreme vulnerability, a preschool construction program can be implemented in a cost-effective way and significantly improve child development for the founding and future generations.