Location

Cambodia. Location within country: 13 provinces (Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampot, Kandal, Koh Kong, Kratie, Mondulkiri, Preah Sihanouk, Prey Veng, Ratanakiri, Steung Treng, Svay Rieng, Takeo)

Project Description

The World Bank, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (MOEYS), supports the Second Education Sector Support Project (SESSP) funded by Global Partnership for Education (GPE). One component of SESSP seeks to expand the availability and quality of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) services. The objectives of the ECCD interventions are to assist MOEYS to expand access to quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) for 3-5 year old’s through construction of facilities, provision of materials and training of staff, as well as to build the demand for ECCD services among families from disadvantaged backgrounds. The program was also designed with a rigorous evaluation to measure the impact of community ECCD services on child cognitive and psychosocial development—with a focus on school readiness. To this end, the World Bank in collaboration with MOEYS is conducting the impact evaluation over three years, from 2016 to 2018.

At the baseline, Angkor Research’s involvement in this large-scale randomized control trial includes sample selection, instrument review/translation, primary CAPI data collection (tablet-based) and data management for over 7,000 households and 305 preschools and villages (divided into treatment and control communities) in 13 provinces, to evaluate the service delivery and effects of preschools on a range of household and child indicators including anthropometrics and cognitive testing for both mothers/caregivers and children. Household and child data is longitudinal and linked across survey rounds. Data collection also includes interviews with village authorities and community preschool facility assessments, photos and GPS locations in all 305 sample villages. The survey was completed, with a 99.9% response rate.