Pre-Primary Education and School Readiness Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Ethiopia

Abstract

This article investigates to what extent disrupted schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected pre-primary-age children’s school readiness in Ethiopia. We use data on early numeracy of 2,640 children collected before and after the eight-month school closure to assess their learning progress in the context of COVID-19. We find that children who attended pre-primary school prior to the school closures performed better than those who did not after schools re-opened, and made greater gains in early numeracy at primary school entry. For children who attended pre-primary education, boys, children with literate caregivers, and those from wealthier families show significantly greater learning gains than their peers, which raised concerns about widening learning inequality as a result of the pandemic. Given that pre-primary education was the most neglected part of the government’s COVID-19 education response, these findings point to an urgent need for political leadership to prioritize pre-primary education in responding to the current and future crises.