in the same area<sup>15</sup> found that, on average, preschool teachers earned 45 dollars per year.<sup>16</sup> Teachers supplement their income with work on their farms or elsewhere. Feeding programs in preschools are quite rare. Prior to the introduction of the feeding program evaluated in this paper, only 2 schools in the sample of 50 ran a snack program of their own.

Teachers usually have low levels of formal education and professional training, though they tend to be better educated than the average woman. The teachers in the 50 preschools involved in the school meals program had completed 10.6 years of formal education on average. All teachers in the 50 schools were able to read and write, while only 47 percent of adult women in the district at large were able to read.<sup>17</sup> At the start of the school meals program, forty-two percent of the teachers had attended the training program organized by the Kenyan national institute for early childhood education. This training consists of ...ve three-week residential sessions during the school holidays over a two-year period, with in-service training and follow-up during the school terms.<sup>18</sup> The candidates are required to have completed primary school, but the training is subsidized and o¤ered in various places throughout the country. Other possibilities for training are the short, 5- week training sessions organized by local governmental organizations. Admission criteria for these trainings are less strict. Both kinds of training o¤er instruction in early childhood development and health, classroom materials development and preschool center management. In addition to the government, various non-governmental organizations are involved in the promotion of preschool education and also o¤er training.

Classes run for only a few hours per day, usually in the morning between 8.30 am and 12.00 am. An average class has an enrollment of 85 pupils but only 35 pupils attend on a typical day. The average pupil-teacher ratio is 27. Absenteeism rates are very high. Enrolled children are absent over half of the time, while teachers are absent approximately 30 percent of the time. Both the range of classroom activities and the quality of the teacher vary a lot by school. In better preschools, the teacher is dedicated to her class and classroom activities include learning the alphabet and numbers, singing, dance, and sports. At the lower end of the quality spectrum, teachers are not very motivated or trained, and the preschool class is a place where children are provided with a relatively safe environment and supervision, but few activities that promote their development. Those schools o¤er little more than baby-sitting services.

We evaluate a school meals program that was implemented from 2000 to 2002 by a Dutch

> 15 The 50 schools from the school meals program are included in this sample.

> 16 The Kenyan GDP per capita was approx. 350 dollars in 1997.

> 17 Kenya Central Bureau of Statistics, Welfare Monitoring Survey II (1994)

> 18 The national institute is the National Center for Early Childhood Education (NACECE). The curriculum for the training was developed jointly by the Kenya Institute of Education, the Van Leer Foundation, and the Aga Khan Foundation. The training is part of a World Bank project.

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