More School, Less Play: Six-Year Effects of Randomized Preschool Access in Rural Mozambique

This paper examines whether randomized access to community-based preschool produces persistent changes in children's allocation of time. Beginning in 2008, 30 of 76 eligible rural communities in Mozambique were randomly selected to receive a preschool program. Using the 2014 follow-up survey, including time diaries for 1,823 target children, I estimate intention-to-treat effects six years after program initiation. The empirical specifications include randomization-block fixed effects and community-clustered standard errors, supplemented by randomization-based inference and adjustments for multiple hypothesis testing. Assignment increased reported preschool participation by approximately 53 percentage points. Six years later, children in treatment communities spent approximately 42 additional minutes in school and studying and 32 fewer minutes in leisure and play on the previous day. Estimated reductions in agricultural work, household chores, and childcare were smaller and imprecisely estimated. Treatment effects did not differ detectably by gender. With primary-school enrollment already exceeding 95 percent in the control group, further enrollment gains were necessarily limited, while estimates for grade attainment and cognitive skills were generally positive but insufficiently precise to establish corresponding improvements. Randomization-based inference and multiple-testing adjustments warrant caution in interpreting individual estimates. The findings suggest that early childhood interventions can produce persistent changes in children's everyday activities, while leaving the associated learning consequences and welfare implications unresolved.