Program background
Children attending quality preschools/kindergartens have been shown to benefit significantly in terms of school readiness and achievement. This is particularly true for children living in under-resourced areas of the world.
The program run by Save the Children seeks to increase the capacity of childhood care and education staff in Vanuatu and provide quality learning materials which meet the development needs of children in order to improve their readiness for school.
Project Details
To achieve this goal, the program has developed and produced the second edition of the Nabunga Manua Eli Jaelhud Edukesen Magasin; a biannual magazine written in the national ‘Bislama’ language. The magazine includes exercises that can be used in a range of development areas, including numeracy and literacy.
The project fits into Save the Children’s larger Education Strategy; complementing construction, training and parental awareness activities also being carried out by the organisation.
Development of the second edition of the magazine began with assessment and review of the first edition launched in May 2013. Consultation meetings were held with key stakeholders, including the National Co-ordinator for Early Childhood Care and Education, the Ministry of Education and the President of Vanuatu Eli Jaelhud Asosiasen, to review the proposed contents of the new issue. Save the Children’s Early Childhood Care and Development Project Officer spent weeks in consultation with illustrators, translators, graphic designers and printers to ensure the issue achieved it’s purposes and was of the highest possible quality.
The magazine includes games, songs, poems, health & hygiene cultural stories, child protection activities and a program to encourage family activities. Its core themes are literacy and numeracy, supporting the Ministry of Education’s focus on these learning areas for the next three years.
The front and back cover images of the edition were selected following a competition held across six provinces of Vanuatu. The competition had a total of 73 paintings submitted and Mele Kindi, located in peri-urban Port Vila, had their entry chosen for the front cover placement. Etariu Kindi, located in southeast Efate, submitted the painting chosen for the back cover image.
Key outcomes
The new edition of Nabunga Manua Eli Jaelhud Edukesen Magasin has been widely embraced by teachers, children and their families as a valuable learning tool and resource for children in the early learning age group.
Recognised outcomes from the project include:
- Children have realised that eating chips (like sweets) can ruin their teeth and they are now passing this information to their friends and caregivers. One teacher in particular has reported that the children are enthusiastic about the “twisty song” which delivers the above message. This has resulted in a notable increase in healthier foods being brought for lunch at the schools
- The children are also enthusiastic about the alphabet activity and teachers report this has helped children to catch up with alphabet identification
- Children have begun to ask lots of questions surrounding the activities in the magazine which aid their development in both literacy and numerical skills
- The magazine has seen use outside of school, particularly for its family activities. Parents are starting to have a greater understanding of the importance of hygiene
Finally, one teacher has reported that parents are now taking more pride in the way they dress their children for school, with an increase in children coming to class with clean clothes where previously this was not the case. The teacher says this has had a significant impact on the children's confidence at school.
Project need:
There is an urgent need to improve school readiness in Vanuatu. Extensive data collected through literacy and numeracy assessments highlight a worrying trend of declining student achievement of curriculum learning outcomes.
Globally, it has been shown that children attending quality preschool/kindergarten benefit significantly in terms of school readiness and achievement, particularly for children in under-resourced contexts.
Project aim:
Increase the capacity of early childhood care and education teachers in Vanuatu and provide quality learning resources that meet the development needs of children to improve their readiness for school.
Objectives:
- To ensure Kindergarten Teachers in Vanuatu have access to resources and materials to provide quality teaching and learning in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE);
- To produce and disseminate a National Early Childhood Care and Education magazine; and
- To ensure children are participating in the design, implementation and feedback of the magazine.
Outcomes:
- Children, parents and education leaders have increased understanding of the benefits of Early Childhood Care and Education.
- Kindergarten teachers, parents and education leaders have increased understanding of the learning and development needs of children in early childhood.
- Kindergarten teachers are integrating new and innovative best practice approaches to classroom practices.
- Greater number of children are literate, numerate and school ready at the end of kindergarten.
Photo: Pull out poster to be used as a classroom resource
"Preschool helps our children to have an easy access to
learn in primary schools” and “children must begin their learning in
preschool”
Quotes from household survey undertaken as part of National Baseline Survey in 2012.
About the magazine resource
This project will fund the development, production and distribution of the magazine.
It will be the second edition of a biannual professional development resource for Kindergarten Teachers in Vanuatu and will be developed with the participation of children, teachers and early childhood educators.
The magazine will be produced in the national language ‘Bislama’ and will include activities that teachers can use in a range of development areas including numeracy and literacy; child development stages and ‘windows of opportunity’ for learning; inclusive education; health; safety and positive discipline.
It is designed with input from parents, teachers and children from every province in the country. The cover of each edition of the magazine is chosen from a painting and colouring completion involving all schools across the country.
The magazine will be disseminated to every Kindergarten in Vanuatu and used to support early literacy and numeracy learning.
Photo: Cover of 1st edition of magazine chosen from national painting competition
Photo:
Example program for kindergarten teachers to plan learning activities
in Language (lanwis), Drama/Play (drama/plei), Maths (Coantem) and play
(Aotdo).
Partnerships:
Educators and children
For the past three years Save the Children in Vanuatu, has been working in partnership with schools, communities and education leaders to help strengthen and improve access to and the quality of ECCE. Despite limited resources and challenging working conditions, kindergarten teachers have been willing to change their approaches if given practical support and tools to support teaching. Teachers are directly asking us for deeper support to access quality learning materials and resources. Many of the teachers and community leaders we work with are highly motivated to increase awareness within their communities about the benefits of ECCE.
Government
Save the Children has been supporting The Ministry of Education in Vanuatu to develop ECCE programming. We have an established and functional partnership that has been working to improve the quality of and access to early learning. This was most recently evidenced by a National Baseline Survey (2013), through the construction of model kindergarten facilities, supporting of policy development and providing teacher training and mentoring.
How this project fits into a larger strategy
The project forms a key component of Save the Children’s Education Strategy. The magazine complements construction, teacher training and parental awareness activities by providing a valuable hardcopy resource for kindergarten teachers to better understand early child development and innovative approaches to maximising learning opportunities. It supports parents and communities to be more aware of the benefits of ECCE and to enable them to be more involved with the provision of quality learning in school and in the home.
