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This paper uses three waves of longitudinal data to examine the impact of expanding access to preschool services in rural areas of Indonesia on two cohorts of children. One cohort was children aged 4 at the start of the project and was immediately eligible for project-provided services when they began operation in 2009. The other cohort was children aged 1 at the start of the project and became eligible for project-provided services two years later. The paper presents intent-to-treat estimates of impact in the short term (first year of the project) and medium term (three years after the project started), using experimental and quasi-experimental methods. For the cohort of 4-year-olds, while the magnitude of the enrollment impact is similar across children from different backgrounds, the impact on child outcomes is larger for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds in the short and medium terms. However, for this cohort of children, it seems that project-provided playgroups encouraged substitution away from existing kindergartens, suggesting that future interventions should incorporate such possibilities into their design. For the average child in the younger cohort, the project led to improvements in physical health and well-being as well as language and cognitive development. For this cohort, there is little evidence of differential impact. This can be explained by the fact that children who enrolled soon after the centers opened (the older cohort) were generally poorer, compared with children who enrolled later (the younger cohort). This may be because of fee increases in project centers as project funding ended.

Communities & human settlements --- Early childhood development and education (eced) --- Early intervention --- Education --- Educational sciences --- Health monitoring & evaluation --- Health, nutrition and population --- Housing & human habitats --- Human capital --- Human development --- Inequality --- Playgroups --- Primary education

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This paper examines the longer-term impact of a project that expanded access to playgroup services in rural Indonesia. It compares the 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, beginning at age three. The younger cohort was more likely to be exposed to playgroups for longer and at 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. The data reveal that the younger cohort had substantially higher test scores during the early grades of primary school, relative to the older cohort. To unpack why the two cohorts experienced different longer-term outcomes, the paper provides evidence of changes that transpired in the operating conditions of the playgroups over time.

Access and Equity in Basic Education --- Differential Effect --- Early Child Development --- Early Childhood Development --- Early Childhood Education --- Economics of Education --- Education --- Education Reform and Management --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Enrollment --- Playgroup --- Preschool Education --- Primary Education --- Rural Education --- Treatment Impact

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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.

Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills --- Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) --- Education --- Gender --- Gender Gaps --- Primary School