Variations in Pre-Primary Education Infrastructure Within and Across Administrative Sectors in Rwanda

This study investigates disparities in the quality of pre-primary education settings in Rwanda, where centre-based, community-based, and home-based modalities coexist under a single policy framework. Drawing on data from 4,875 settings across 91 administrative sectors in seven districts, we applied multilevel models to distinguish within-sector differences between setting types from between-sector variation linked to socioeconomic status (SES). Infrastructure quality was modeled as three latent factors: physical facilities, access to public infrastructure, and operational quality. Findings show that home-based settings—most common in rural and lower-SES sectors—exhibited substantially lower quality than centre-based settings, with standardized gaps of –0.73 SD in physical facilities and –0.85 SD in operational resources. These differences persisted even after accounting for sector-level SES, underscoring the role of modality itself in shaping access to quality environments. Community-based settings expanded access but showed similar structural challenges, with weaker effects that diminished once SES was considered. Between-sector results further revealed that SES strongly predicted access to public infrastructure, while operational quality remained more directly tied to setting type. Taken together, these results demonstrate how multilevel disparities in structural quality emerge both within and between communities, highlighting the dual importance of setting modality and local socioeconomic conditions. These findings point to sequenced policy responses as one pathway forward, beginning with a minimum structural package in home-based settings and complemented by training, funding innovations, and supportive oversight.