ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Title: Improving Cognitive Ability of Children by School Feeding

The Case of Robe Town

Specialization: MSc in Development Economics

Submitted to: Dr. Atlaw.A (Ph.D.)

Submitted by: Hamza Ayub.........ID No: GSE/8563/14

Table of Contents
1. Background.................................................................................................................................1

2. Objective of the Project .........................................................................................................2

3. Theory of Change ....................................................................................................................3

4. Evaluation Design .....................................................................................................................2

4.1. Sampling........................................................................................................................6
4.2. Child Cognitive Measures ......................................................................................6
4.3. Comparing Treatment & Controlled Group ....................................................6
 1. Background
School feeding projects are credited with improving food security and encouraging
primary school enrolment. Yet the role of such projects may be evolving given progress
in primary school participation. This provides a potential new role for the school feeding
project since the effects of missing meals on cognitive performance are well-documented
for younger children. This issue is particularly relevant for preschool children who end
their school day after lunch. For preschool children, the absence of breakfast at home or
at school means that their cognitive performance may be adversely affected for the
entirety of the time that they are engaged in learning and it negatively affects countries’
human capital. The consequences of missing meals are generally larger for low-income
and malnourished children. It is therefore plausible that the impact of providing a school
morning snack may be greater for these children.

2. Objective of the Project

The objective of the project is to test the impact of school feeding (nutritional
improvement) on children’s education (cognitive ability) by providing morning meals for
pre-schooled children in line with an existing school lunch program in order to determine
if this addition improves the attention and capacity for learning of pre-school children,
particularly among those who are at risk (low income).

The designed project will be implemented in Bale Robe town which was selected on the
basis of poverty prevalence (test score), with a small snack at the beginning of the school
day. In order to rigorously test the impact of this project a randomized controlled trial
will be employed. Schools will be randomized into a treatment group and a controlled
group and the impact of the program on both fluid intelligence (attention and processing
speed) and crystallized intelligence (school readiness will be assessed).

3. Theory of Change
The desired outcome is to improve the cognitive ability of the children through improved
nutrition and fluid intelligence (processing speed and attention) of the children in the

1
treatment group. The cognitive capacity of the children is influenced by components of
the diet (Rosa Maria Martinez Garcia). Providing food and preschool facilities for
children is the expected output of the project. Children from the treatment group have to
pass through the preschool feeding process. To feed the children and provide preschool
education for at least three years, the compulsory budget, materials & staffing is made
ready for kick-off.

The theory of change flow char

2
Meals weekly menu

This project is designed to provide morning snacks to preschool children for selected
schools in robe town which is chosen on the basis of poverty prevalence. It is widely
believed that, the return to diet is the greatest in preschool years as it has long-lasting
impacts on a child’s education through cognitive capacity building.

4. Evaluation Design
The assessment is designed to use randomized controlled trials (RCT) paired with one
intervention arm and one control arm. The assessment will take place in Robe Town
selected on poverty prevalence.

Due to ethical concerns and limited financial and administrative resources, all primary
schools are equally eligible to participate in preschool snacks and have the same chance
of receiving the benefit.

Schools will be instructed to provide a snack around 9 am, using a list of specified foods
intended to promote dietary diversity. Local administrator monitors used existing
systems to monitor the implementation of the school morning snack pilot program in
intervention schools in addition to the regular lunch.

Schools will be visited one month after the intervention is introduced and the fluid
intelligence (processing speed and attention) of the children in both the treatment and
control schools will be measured.

3
 4.1. Sampling
20 schools will be assessed for eligibility to participate in intervention.

Sample Size (n) = N/(1+N(e)2

Where:

 n = Sample size
 N = Population size
 e = the margin error in the calculation
 95% confidence level
N 20
Sample Size 𝑛 = = =19
1+N∗(e)2 1+20∗(0.05)2

Eligible sample size for an intervention is 19 schools. Among 19 eligible schools in the
town, 10 schools will be randomly assigned to treatment, whereas 9 schools will be
assigned to comparison group.

Eligible Population

Treatment group: Control group:

Assigned to treatment Not assigned to treatment

The intervention will be implemented in all treatment schools by the beginning of

September.

5. Child Cognitive Measures

One month after program implementation 12 students from each preschool class will be
randomly selected for cognitive assessment. A school roster will be provided to the study
team used to randomly pre-select the 12 children, along with three replacements for each
school. Children will be assessed between 9:00 am and 10:30 am, shortly after the school
snack is provided in treatment schools and before they received lunch.

4
Child cognitive development will be measured using the Wechsler Preschool and
Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV; Wechsler). We measure
children’s cognitive abilities in several interrelated domains, including fluid reasoning
measures children’s ability for solving problems, that require their use of inductive and
deductive reasoning; short-term memory, the ability of a child to hold on to new
information (marked by the number of items a child can retain) in the immediate
(generally under a minute) time frame; and processing speed, the ability of a child to
perform a basic task (marked by fluidity and accuracy) that requires a high degree of
attention and focused.

6. Comparing Treatment & Controlled Group

Before intervention (school feeding was introduced) both groups are the same. To
compare a variation in the school environment and educational quality:

First round: 12 grade one children in each study school will be assessed for school
readiness. Most of the students would be in the same school’s preschool the previous
school year.

Second round: Crystalized intelligence will be assessed for the grade zero students who
participated in the round one assessment from the intervention and control schools will
be tested. The assessment consisted of components of cognitive tests for crystallized
learning. Crystallized intelligence is the concrete knowledge that a child has formed.
Children will be tested on their verbal fluency- which measures their knowledge of
objects as well as their ability to retrieve items from memory- which consisted of two
timed items (60 seconds each) asking children to list all the animals they know and all the
fruits and vegetables they know.

Children in the treatment group scored more than 85% on their final exam than children
in the control group. They are also more fluent in the verbal test. This project, therefore,
benefits primarily children in primary school and their family and country at large.