- **Time constraints** : Many poor families might be obliged to work outside the village (because they do not own their land, for example) and typically would take their young children along. Someone must therefore care for any children who are sent to preschool. Older siblings often perform this role but might have other work obligations. Owing to Cambodia’s low life expectancy, demography, and history, many families have no grandparents to provide childcare.

- **Distance:** Some villages are widely scattered and far from roads; others are close to a busy road. Someone will have to drop the child at school in the morning and pick up the child by 11 o’clock. Hence distance and access are closely related with the time constraint.

- **Habits** : Preschools have not been common in Cambodia until relatively recently. Preschool teachers in many villages reported that some parents were not aware that a preschool was available in the first year, although in some cases the number of children enrolled subsequently increased, thanks to awareness campaigns implemented by the Commune Council. Other parents believed that the child was too young to attend preschool. Many parents have only an approximate idea of their child’s age. When the actual age (based on the birth certificate) was compared to the age given by the parents, the parents were rarely accurate.

**Table 3: Village participation in preschools—formal sample (village survey)**

||N|Av|C|T|T-C|SE|P-val|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Panel A: Individual participation**||||||||
|1 Ever attended formal preschool program|1,548|0.259|0.106|0.358|0.252***|(.053)|0|
|2 Preschool duration (months)|1,548||0.649|2.642|1.993***|(.477)|0|
|3 Preschool duration among treated (months)|309||7,049|8,948|1.899**|(0.705)|0.011|
|**Panel B: Preschool participation by village**|**status**|||||||
|4 Villages where preschool built|861|0.393|0.405|0.391|-0.014|(0.125)|0.915|
|6 Villages where preschool classes given|785|0.427|0.554|0.417|-0.137|(0.113)|0.238|
|7 Villages where no preschool built|687|0.092|0.057|0.2|0.143**|(0.052)|0.013|
|8 Villages where nopreschool classesgiven|763|0.087|0.06|0.155|0.095|-0.059|0.122|

Note: Column “Av” presents average participation; C, participation in the control group; T, participation in the treatment group; and T-C, results from the regression of the dependent variable and the treatment group variable. Standard errors are clustered at village level and robust.

* 10% significance; ** 5% significance; *** 1% significance.

In contrast, there was little support for the following three hypotheses for low take-up:

- **Rationing:** No empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that a teacher would refuse students because the class was too crowded. Neither village size nor the number of registered children explained the low level of participation. Nor did qualitative interviews with teachers, school directors, and the school administration.

- **Informal payment:** Qualitative field interviews with teachers and parents did not reveal any informal payments. This possibility cannot be ruled out entirely, but the interviews do not suggest that it is a major constraint.

- **Health** : Although poverty levels are high, and children’s health often is not very good, little evidence could be found to indicate that poor health constrained enrollment.

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