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Third party evaluation of the impact on rural children of the POG, the implementing agency of the "Preschools of the Future" brand program of HPP
China Institute for Educational Finance Research (CIEFR) of Peking University released the abstract of the Impact Comparison Assessment report of the Preschools of the Future (POF) in Funing County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, 2018-2020 on September 6, 2021. The original online link for this paper: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7_wIHOhFEZu8hoYg6gSfWw
The "Preschools of the Future (POF)" project is an innovative model for the development of preschool education in rural areas.
The core of this model is that the government provides hardware facilities such as kindergartens, parents pay tuition fees, which are used to support the majority of teachers' salaries and the basic operation of kindergarten classes. Social welfare organizations provide salary subsidies for teachers, and bear the costs of teacher training, on-site demonstration and on-site supervision. Project teams are stationed in local communities, working and living with teachers in local communities. In terms of government relations, we also provide monthly reports to central schools and education Bureau to keep them informed of our work. The main characteristics of this model include :(1) the government provides basic schooling conditions;(2) parents pay tuition fees, which can cover most of the teachers' salaries and basic operating expenses;(3) the project subsidizes teachers' salaries and daily operating funds. In addition, teacher training, teaching materials and basic play aids will be provided to the kindergarten class in the project. The local project team will also conduct daily demonstration teaching and field supervision.
Assessment Background:
Evaluation Background:
By the end of 2019, the gross enrollment rate of Preschool education in China had reached 83.4 percent. Therefore, the main issue in the development of preschool education in China is no longer an increase in the overall scale, but the provision of quality preschool education for specific social groups and vulnerable children in remote rural areas.
Objective:
The main concerns of this assessment include: 1) the impact of the project on children's development; 2) process quality (mainly investigating the interaction between teachers and children); 3) the impact of the project on preschool teachers;4) cost-effectiveness of the project model.
Methods:
The research team selected 65 of 133 kindergartens in the county as sampling kindergartens, in these 1338 children were evaluated. The 65 kindergartens included: 1) all 26 kindergartens in the project. Fifteen of them opened in 2017 and 11 in 2018. 2) 2 county center kindergarten, which are the benchmark group, including the first and second county kindergartens, both of which are of the highest educational quality in the county; 3) 10 public township kindergartens; 4) 27 other private rural kindergartens were selected through typical random sampling.
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||||
Type of kindergarten | Number of kindergartens | The number of students | Number of kindergartens | The number of students | Number of kindergartens | The number of students |
County Central kindergartens | 2 | 50 | 2 | 49 | 2 | 45 |
Township public kindergartens | 17 | 377 | 18 | 374 | 18 | 313 |
Private village kindergartens | 19 | 424 | 19 | 408 | 17 | 291 |
Project kindergartens | 26 | 487 | 26 | 484 | 26 | 443 |
Thereof opened in 2017 | 15 | 272 | 15 | 279 | 15 | 253 |
Thereof opened in 2018 | 11 | 215 | 11 | 205 | 11 | 190 |
Total | 64 | 1338 | 65 | 1315 | 63 | 1092 |
Evaluation Results:
The evaluation results show that POF kindergartens bring relatively stable and acceptable quality preschool education resources to the local area. The project kindergarten cost is relatively low; project kindergartens have great influence on children's overall development, especially cognitive development; the process quality of the project kindergartens has been improved. The research team believes that this low-cost, high-quality rural kindergarten development model is an important model worth paying attention to. At the same time, the team made recommendations to further improve and enhance the quality of the program's impact, including focusing on the development of children's non-cognitive abilities at home, paying higher salaries through the government, improving employment conditions for teachers, and strengthening family interventions.
The findings:
The data analysis of children's family background information shows that the family background of children in the project kindergarten is the worst among all kinds of kindergartens. The specific performance is: parents have the lowest education years and family income; the family has the largest number of children; the proportion of left-behind children is the highest in all kindergartens. Among the teachers in the sample kindergartens, the teachers in the project kindergartens showed the characteristics of the lowest average age, the lowest married proportion and higher education levels. At the same time, the project kindergarten teachers have the lowest teaching experience, the lowest proportion of preschool education majors, low income, the highest mobility of teachers and other disadvantages. Research data showed that the project kindergartens have a positive impact on the development of children and the improvement of process quality. The implementation of the project kindergarten has brought relatively stable preschool education resources with acceptable quality to the local area, and children who receive preschool education can better adapt to the learning in primary school. The following is a brief report on children's school preparation, children's class process quality and per-student cost.
1.Early childhood development
Research data show that the POF project has a positive impact on children's development and improvement of procedural quality. The implementation of the project has brought relatively stable and acceptable quality of preschool education resources to the local area, so that children receiving preschool education can better adapt to primary school learning.
It is worth noting that when the research data is controlled for children's family socio-economic background, parents' education level and left-behind experiences, there is no significant difference between the project kindergarten and the county central kindergarten in the total score and five aspects of school preparation. The comparative analysis shows that the educational level of parents, especially the educational level of mothers, is the main reason for the different conclusions.
Difference of Entrance Preparation score between project kindergartens and different types of kindergartens (unit: standard deviation)
Private village kindergartens | Public township kindergartens | County Center kindergartens | County Center kindergartens adjusted* | |
Total score | 0.21 | 0.22 | 0.59 | -- |
Learning style | 0.13 | 0.16 | 0.74 | -- |
Cognition and general cognition | 0.15 | 0.12 | 0.41 | -- |
Speech development | 0.14 | -- | 0.60 | -- |
Motor skills | 0.22 | 0.13 | -- | -- |
Emotional and social development | - 6.
| -- | 0.41 | -- |
Note :(1) the control variables in this table include gender, age and grade 1. (2) * Control variables increased family socioeconomic background, parents' education level and left-behind experience.
2.Quality of learning environment in kindergarten
After controlling the class size, the project kindergartens scored higher than the private village kindergartens in terms of the total score of learning environment quality, space and facilities, and curriculum. In the curriculum area, project kindergartens scored even better than county kindergartens.
3.Analysis of per student cost
Compared with other types of kindergartens, the per-student training cost of project kindergartens is the lowest.
Average cost per student of Funing County Sample Kindergartens (Unit: Ten thousand yuan)
Type of kindergarten | N | The minimum value | The maximum | The mean | The standard deviation | The median | |
Project gardens | The average cost | 26 | 0.03 | 1.44 | 0.38 | 0.31 | 0.29 |
Private village gardens | The average cost | 19 | 0.22 | 1.23 | 0.56 | 0.26 | 0.49 |
County Center kindergarten | The average cost | 1 | 1.75 | 1.75 | 1.75 | 1.75 | |
Public township gardens | The average cost | 18 | 0.05 | 3.94 | 0.79 | 0.87 | 0.55 |
Preliminary suggestions on developing preschool education at village level
Ø Encourage social forces to participate in the development of village-level kindergartens.
Ø Improve the qualifications and conditions of the project kindergarten teachers.
Ø Focus on children's non-cognitive development.