Community Based Early Childhood Programs Boost Child Development in Rural Indonesia

How Community-Based Early Childhood Programs Can Impact Child Development

Executive Summary:

In the developing world, approximately 250 million children under five years old are not reaching their full developmental potential. Governments and donors globally have turned to early childhood education and development ECED services as an affordable solution for overcoming the losses associated with growing up in a disadvantaged environment. ECED can be delivered through various channels such as kindergartens, community playgroups, or home-based programs.

However, it remns unclear how effective these interventions are when implemented across different settings. A recent study offers insights by evaluating the impact of a low-cost government-funded and community-driven ECED program on enrollment and child development in rural Indonesia, where public kindergarten education already exists.

The Study's Findings:

A community-based ECED initiative was launched across 3,000 villages in 50 disadvantaged districts with limited access to ECED services. The intervention targeted 310 villages spread across nine districts through a package of three components designed to enhance children's readiness for school:

1. Community facilitator: To rse awareness among communities about the importance of early childhood education.

2. Financial support: A block grant worth $18,000 per village over three years for establishing or supporting two centers.

3. Trning: 200 hours of teacher trning to equip up to two educators per center.

The majority of villages chose to use these grants to launch playgroups operating three times a week for three-hour sessions targeting children aged between three and six years old.

To assess the impact, enrollment rates and child development outcomes across five domns physical health, social skills, emotional maturity, language proficiency, cognitive abilities were analyzed before and after the implementation of the project.

Key Findings:

1. Enrollment rose by 7-9 percentage points in participating villages, translating to a 35-45 increase.

2. The intervention resulted in an exted duration for children's enrollment in ECED services within the targeted communities.

3. Minimal impact was observed when the exposure difference to the program was short 6-11 months.

4. A larger exposure span of up to three years showed positive impacts on social skills, emotional maturity, and language abilities among the children.

Notably:

Disadvantaged children those from lower-income households or with below-average parenting practices significantly benefited more from the project than their peers.

:

The study demonstrates that low-cost government-funded community-based ECED programs hold promise in producing modest yet sustned improvements in child development, especially for those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. These initiatives offer a cost-effective solution that not only supports children's readiness for primary school but also ensures sustnability and suitability tlored to each village's needs.

Acknowledgments:

Further detls about the research design, methods, and findings are avlable through linked resources or our Education for Global Development website and Twitter channels.

Explore additional resources on early childhood development at our dedicated page.

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