All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Evidence from the Philippines

Abstract

Although there is broad agreement that investments in early childhood education are important, questions about the relative effectiveness of different types of programs persist. We study the effects of two distinct types of kindergarten programs in the Philippines: the Jumpstart kindergarten program, implemented by a local faith-based NGO between 2005 and 2017, and a government-sponsored kindergarten program mandated nationwide beginning in 2012. Exploiting the timing of the rollout of these two programs relative to the age different children within a household could enter kindergarten, we find large effects on primary school academic performance due to attending Jumpstart and smaller effects due to attending the government kindergarten. We then examine mediating characteristics that may explain these differential effects. We find that socioemotional skills such as self-control, openness, and conscientiousness partially mediate our primary results. These findings support other research that highlights the importance of developing socioemotional skills in the pre-elementary grade levels, not only as ends in themselves but also as mediators to better academic performance.