Socioeconomic inequalities and school readiness in low and middle-income countries: Does access to early years education make a difference?

Studies from high, low and middle-income countries suggest significant associations between poverty and children’s school readiness outcomes (Bornstein et al., 2012). While consistent evidence, mostly from high income countries, indicate that parental income influences school readiness through ability to afford educational resources as well as parenting behaviours (Sosu & Schmidt, 2017), our understanding of these mechanisms in low and middle income countries is poor (Wolf, & McCoy, 2019). Additionally, we know little about the extent to which current educational policies such as the introduction of universal early years education moderate the poverty and school readiness gap. In this ongoing study, we draw on family investment models to shed light on the relationship between poverty and school readiness outcomes. Further, we investigate the extent to which access to early childhood education moderate the relationship between poverty and school readiness.