Evaluating the Long-Run Returns to Early Child Education in Africa

The intervention under study is a community-based preschool program implemented in rural communities of Gaza Province, Mozambique, beginning in 2008. The program targeted children aged 3 to 5 years and was designed to improve early childhood development outcomes in low-resource settings.
The preschool model was delivered at the community level and aimed to enhance children’s cognitive, socio-emotional, and school readiness skills, while facilitating a smoother transition into primary education. The program was implemented across 76 communities and evaluated through a cluster randomized controlled trial, where communities were assigned to either receive the preschool program or serve as controls.
The intervention included the establishment of locally managed preschool centers, engagement of community members, and structured early learning activities tailored to the rural Mozambican context. The program emphasized accessible, low-cost delivery mechanisms to ensure scalability and sustainability.
Short-term evaluations have shown that the program led to improvements in children’s problem-solving abilities, communication skills, receptive vocabulary, and socio-emotional development, as well as increased enrollment and performance in primary school.
The expected beneficiaries of the intervention are children exposed to the preschool program and, indirectly, their households and communities through improved human capital development. At a broader level, the intervention aims to inform education policy and support the expansion of effective early childhood development programs in Mozambique and similar low-income settings.

2026-11-02

2027-08-31

- Educational attainment: completion of primary, secondary, and post-secondary education; years of schooling.
- Labor market outcomes: employment status, type of employment, earnings/income levels.
- Economic well-being: proxies of financial stability and productivity.

- Demographic outcomes: fertility, age at first birth, marital/union status.
- Migration outcomes: migration status (e.g., moved ≥10 km from origin), residence in urban areas (e.g., Maputo), and international migration.
- Skills and behavioral outcomes: measures of non-cognitive skills, aspirations, and decision-making (where available).

This study builds on a cluster randomized controlled trial implemented in 2008 in rural Gaza Province, Mozambique. A total of 76 communities were randomly assigned to either receive a community-based preschool program (treatment group) or serve as controls.
The current study follows up on the same cohort of individuals approximately 17–18 years later, in early adulthood. The evaluation compares outcomes between individuals from treatment and control communities to estimate the long-term impacts of early childhood education.
Data collection relies on a combination of in-person and remote tracking methods to locate participants, reflecting the high levels of mobility in the study population. The design preserves the original randomized assignment, allowing for causal inference on long-term outcomes such as education, employment, and life trajectories.
The analysis will follow an intention-to-treat approach, comparing individuals based on their original community assignment.

Not available

Randomization done in office by a computer,

Communities (village-level clusters)

Yes

76 communities (30 treatment, 46 control)

Approximately 2,000 individuals (original cohort), with an expected follow-up sample of around 1,700 individuals.

Approximately 2,000 individuals (expected ~1,700 re-interviewed)

Power calculations based on tracking results indicate that the study is sufficiently powered to detect meaningful effects on education and labor outcomes, given expected re-interview rates above 80%.