This Report presents the descriptive statistics and preliminary analysis carried out following the first phase of quantitative and qualitative data collection of the Building Resilience in Conflict through Education (BRiCE) research project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Niger. Activities were led by the Institute of Development Studies, in partnership with Save the Children, with the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu in DRC and with the Save the Children MEAL team in Niger. The objective of the study is to further the understanding of education in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, focusing on four central research questions: RQ.1) Investigating whether, and how, exposure to and experience of violence influence teaching quality and well-being in fragile and conflict-affected contexts; RQ.2) Examining the impact of the Teacher Professional Development and Improving Learning Environments Together components of the BRiCE programme on teachers’ quality and well-being in fragile contexts; RQ.3) Examining how teaching quality and well-being influence children’s cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes in fragile and conflict-affected countries; RQ.4) Exploring how knowledge developed by teachers in conflict-affected contexts can be used effectively in policy and programming.
Despite a long-standing preschool policy and investment in preschool infrastructure in India, dating back to 1975, a rigorous evaluation of preschools in India remains virtually absent. Using data from three geographically and economically distinct states in India, the paper studies the immediate (1 year) impact of attending a preschool before starting primary school on cognitive, early language and numeracy skills. It additionally studies the heterogeneity in value-added of preschools by their management type. I find that there is a positive and significant premium of attending a preschool before starting primary school. However, the entire effect is driven by children who attend private preschools. There is considerable regional heterogeneity in the private-public gap in learning levels with Telangana exhibiting the highest private preschool premium. A descriptive study of the preschool quality by management type showed that private preschools have lower student-teacher ratios, longer hours of operation and a focus on formal instructional style of teaching. On the other hand, public preschools conduct more play-based activities. The results of this paper are particularly relevant in the backdrop of the new National Education Policy (Government of India, 2020), which stresses the need to improve foundational literacy and numeracy skills as early as in the preschool years. Given the findings of this paper, public preschools would need considerable overhaul to be able to deliver on closing the learning gaps. Moreover, the varying levels at which children start primary school based on their preschool experience highlight the need for educators to develop innovative pedagogical tools to effectively address learning heterogeneity within the classroom.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.