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Field
Abstract
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Before
The goal of preschool education is to support children’s cognitive, physical, and socioemotional development, providing a safe and nurturing environment for young children to learn and interact with their peers. However, estimates indicate that 250 million children (43%) younger than 5 years in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential due, in part, due to inadequate and inequitable access to preschools. In Ecuador, 60% of the children aged 3 to 4 years old remained unenrolled in 2020-21. Recognising the lack of access to public preschools and additionally the lack of motivation among parents to send their child to preschools, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education (MoE) launched a programme to provide regular home visits to ‘vulnerable’ families in 2018. Our study aims at supporting the MoE in improving the quality of the programme through professional development, technology-aided monitoring and motivational nudges. The evaluation will test if these programme improvements lead to an increase in child development outcomes using a cluster randomised control trial.
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After
The goal of preschool education is to support children’s cognitive, physical, and socioemotional development, providing a safe and nurturing environment for young children to learn and interact with their peers. However, estimates indicate that 250 million children (43%) younger than 5 years in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential due, in part, due to inadequate and inequitable access to preschools. In Ecuador, 60% of the children aged 3 to 4 years old remained unenrolled in 2020-21. Recognising the lack of access to public preschools and additionally the lack of motivation among parents to send their child to preschools, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education (MoE) launched a programme to provide regular home visits to ‘vulnerable’ families in 2018. Our study aims at supporting the MoE in improving the quality of the programme through professional development, technology-aided monitoring and motivational nudges. This project will evaluate if these programme improvements are viable and acceptable using a cluster randomised feasibility study.
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