Links between Duration of Early Childhood Education Participation and School Readiness Domains: A Study with Malaysian Public Preschool Children

This study examined factors associated with four domains of school readiness among 170 preschoolers from low-income families in seven Malaysian public preschools. Direct assessments of preschool children’s performance on a battery of tasks indicated proficient levels of readiness in approaches to learning, language and emergent literacy, and socioemotional development. Relative to other domains, children demonstrated lower levels of readiness and greater variability in cognitive development. Using a multi-level modelling approach, the duration of Early Childhood Education (ECE) participation was positively associated with improvements in language and emergent literacy while controlling for child and other contextual factors. However, duration of ECE participation correlated negatively with socioemotional development. Additionally, household wealth was a significant predictor of better academic outcomes in language, literacy, and cognitive development. This study underscores the importance of nuanced educational policies that address the duration and quality of ECE and the socioeconomic disparities that affect school readiness to ensure comprehensive developmental support for Malaysian preschoolers from low-income families.