Reproducibility package for From Access to Achievement: The Primary-School-Age Impacts of an At-Scale Preschool Construction Program in Highly Deprived Communities

Using a randomized control trial, this paper studies an at-scale preschool construction program which serves disadvantaged poor communities in rural Mozambique. Complementing the construction of preschools, the program hired local instructors and provided parenting education sessions. We find that the program showed high take up rates, significantly increasing access to preschool education. Relative to a small base of 2% of children in control communities enrolled in preschool, the intervention raised preschool enrollment rates in treated communities by 73 percentage points. The program also had significant positive effects on enrollment in and progression through primary school, with a 6 percentage points increase in enrollment in first grade at age 6, and a 0.16 standard deviation impact on an index of cognitive and social-emotional skills. Using machine learning tools, we estimate substantial heterogeneity by child development skills at baseline. Moreover, the program caused parents in treated communities to invest more time in supporting their primary-school-aged children and showed statistically significant impacts on siblings’ preschool attendance.