Changing Preschool Enrolments in Post-Socialist Central Asia: Causes and Implications
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Changing Preschool Enrolments in Post-Socialist Central Asia: Causes and Implications LISA GIDDINGS1, MIEKE MEURS2 & TILAHUN TEMESGEN3 1
Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA. 608.785.5297. http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/giddings/ 2 American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 3 The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA. Phone: (202). 473-9181 Preschool can contribute importantly to human capital development, especially among poor children. In socialist countries, preschool enrolment rates have declined since transition. We examine changed preschool enrolment in Kyrgyzstan. We evaluate demand- and supply-side explanations for changing enrolments, and use household survey data to develop a simple, logit model of preschool attendance. We find that access plays the most important role in attendance, despite an apparent excess capacity in preschools at the national level. However, economic and cultural factors also have a significant impact on household decisions to send a child to preschool. Comparative Economic Studies (2007) 49, 81–100. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100178
Keywords: preschool, childcare, education, transition, Kyrgyzstan JEL Classifications: J24, J16, D13
INTRODUCTION Preschool is often analysed in its childcare, or custodial, function, as facilitating women’s labour force participation (Blumberg, 1981; O’Connor, 1988; Craig, 1981). But for preschool-aged children, preschool can also contribute importantly to human capital development, especially among poor children (Danzinger and Waldfogel, 2000). By international standards, preschool enrolments were high under socialism, although rates in Central Asia lagged those in other areas
L Giddings et al Preschool use in Kyrgyzstan
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(Riazantsev et al., 1992, p. 27). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, preschool enrolment rates have plummeted in Central Asia (UNICEF, 2003, p. 81). This may leave large numbers of children without preparation necessary to succeed in school and to be included in the region’s postsocialist development. To better understand the factors underlying declining preschool enrolments in Central Asia, we examine preschool enrolments in Kyrgyzstan over the period 1993–1998. Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia, and has seen the preschool enrolments fall to the lowest level among Central Asian countries, with the exception of Tajikistan (UNICEF Transmonee, 2005). We evaluate demand- and supply-side explanations for low enrolments, and use data from the Kyrgyzstan Poverty Monitoring Survey to develop a logistic model of preschool enrolment. On the demand side, we examine the impact of households’ need for custodial care, household ability to pay for care, and cultural/social factors (mother’s education and ethnic background). This last variable builds on a previous finding in Bulgaria of significant differences in preschool enrolment dyna
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