Examining Long-Term Impacts of the ‘Quality Preschool for Ghana’ Interventions on Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes in Middle-Childhood

Experimental evidence that investments in early childhood education (ECE) promote sustained gains for children’s development into primary school is growing, yet no studies exist in sub-Saharan Africa. The Quality Preschool for Ghana programme is the first longitudinal trial of ECE-quality-improvement interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. This programme evaluated impacts of in-service training and coaching for kindergarten teachers implemented in 2015-16. It improved ECE quality, and children’s cognitive and social-emotional skills. Sustained impacts at 6-7 and 7-8 years-of-age were shown by follow-up studies. By continuing long-standing collaborations with Ghanaian stakeholders, this project seeks to examine impacts in middle-childhood (grades 3-4), providing the first-ever experimental evidence of longer-term impacts of quality ECE on academic and non-academic outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. The project also includes modules on household food security and child nutrition to investigate how those and primary school environments moderate sustained gains, and the cost-effectiveness of such an intervention.

Research Team: Dr Elisabetta Aurino, Imperial College London; Professor Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania; Dr Pearl Kyei, University of Ghana; Professor Jere Behrman, University of Pennsylvania; Professor J. Lawrence Aber, New York University; Ms Madeleen Husselman, IPA Ghana