IThe study is intended to provide a robust evidence-base to augment government reform efforts in ECE. This study will examine patterns of enrolment of children in ECE programs and school readiness by:

- socioeconomic group - family background - urban/rural locations - individual characteristics such as gender, disability and health.

This study will explore the effectiveness of schools as opposed to not attending school (rather than the more usual differential school ‘effect’) for children’s cognitive skills through a longitudinal approach following households and children for a year after the baseline assessment. All children (4 to 6 years) in the household samples (enrolled/ attending school, never enrolled or dropped out) will take part in the assessment exercise at baseline and later post-test.

Their attendance and progress at school will be analyzed over one year, demonstrating how much of a difference school attendance can make to children’s cognitive development and health outcomes. We will collect in-depth information from families and communities on their views of schools, and any barriers to attendance, and conduct a systematic review of the evidence. The findings will have policy implications on school enrolment, attendance and retention.

The data will include a household survey and children’s assessment for learning outcomes. The surveyors will visit homes in the late afternoon so that children from schools and work should be available at home. We estimate that 750 children from across Punjab, will be included in the assessments. The same households and children will be followed 10 months later, and will participate in the same household survey, and children’s assessments. This will be a large-scale household survey and cognitive assessment of children including narrative data from family on the concepts of education, formal school, girls’ education and personal experiences of learning.

Assessment measures

The World Bank has developed a toolkit for measuring Early Childhood Development in LMICTs and one of the features is an extensive list of ECE assessment measures. We will adapt and translate The International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) which is free of cost, easy-to-use, rigorous global tool that measures children’s early learning and development and provides clear evidence on the status of children from 4 to 6 years. For information on household characteristics, and other factors, researchers will use the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) tool.