On Individual, Household, and Community Factors Explaining Enrollment to Early Childhood Education and Care in Post-Soviet Transitional Countries

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to assess the factors affecting access to early childhood education and care in post-soviet countries. We focus on enrollment in Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan during the late period of transition from communism to a market economy using the data from nationally-representative Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Multilevel regression models are used to account for individual, household, and community factors explaining enrollment. Having mother with lower educational attainments, living in non-capital cities and in poorer households are associated with lower propensity of enrollment at individual and households levels. At the community level, children living in poorer communities and in communities with lower level of women education have lower propensity of enrollment. The policy measures aimed at increasing access on individual, household, and community are described and discussed.