JFPR 9138 MONEarly Childhood Education

forRural, Nomadic, and Migrant Children

Situation Analysis

18 January 2011

Contributors:

Diana E. GuildPurev-Ochir ChagaaAmarbayasgalan NyamdorjBatjargal BatkhuyagGereltuya DorjderemEdenechimeg ErdeneMongolkhatan GunsenBurmaa JambaldorjAriuntuya MyagmarBolor TaiwanErdenesuren TsendTuul Tsend-Ayush

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Abbreviations and Acronyms

ADB: Asian Development BankAimag: ProvinceBagh: Small town, neighborhood or village within the rural soumECCD: Early Childhood Care and DevelopmentECE: Early Childhood EducationELDS: Early Learning and Development StandardsEMIS: Education Management and Information SystemEPSS: Education Policy and Strategy Simulation modelESMP: Education Sector Master PlanFID: Finance and Investment DepartmentFTI: Fast Track InitiativeGDP: Gross Domestic ProductGer: Traditional Mongolian houseGTZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammernarbeit (now GIZ)HDI: Human Development IndexJICA: Japanese International Cooperation AgencyKhoroo: Neighborhood or village within the capital regionMASM: Mongolian Agency for Standardization and MetrologyMNB: Mongolia National Broadcasting (radio and television)MNT: Mongolian Tugrug (national currency)MDG: Millennium Development GoalsMECS: Ministry of Education, Culture, and ScienceMIS: Management and Information SystemMOHSW: Ministry of Health and Social WelfareMSUE: Mongolian State University of EducationNCEA: National Committee of Education AccreditationNGO: Non Government OrganizationNTV: National TelevisionPPP: Public-private PartnershipSoum: Main district within the rural aimagTugrug: Mongolian national currencyUBS TV: Ulaanbaatar Broadcasting System TVUH: University of HumanitiesUNDP: United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural OrganizationUNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund

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Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................8

BACKGROUND TO MONGOLIA.............................................................................................9

EDUCATION IN MONGOLIA.................................................................................................11

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION..............................14

ALTERNATIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION.............................................................15

PRESCHOOL EDUCATION POLICY, PLANNING, AND IMPLEMENTATION.....................16

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION BUDGETING AND FUNDING......................................23

ACCESS AND EQUITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION...........................................30

ALTERNATIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CLASSROOMS..................................35

TEACHERS............................................................................................................................38

CURRICULUM.......................................................................................................................43

SUPPLEMENTARY TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES........................................49

READINESS TESTING..........................................................................................................56

PARENTS’ AND FAMILY MEMBERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION..................................................................................................56

STAKEHOLDERS..................................................................................................................60

IMPROVING ADVOCACY FOR AND PARENTAL AWARENESS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION..........................................................................................................................63

PARENT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES............................................................................71

MONITORING AND EVALUATION.......................................................................................75

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................81

APPENDICES........................................................................................................................87

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Mongolia Education Sector Master Plan (2006–2015) identifies early childhood education (ECE) as a priority issue and makes improving access to ECE, particularly among rural, nomadic, and migrant children, part of its outcomes to be attained by 2015. To assist in the attainment of the outcomes, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) developed the JFPR 9138MON: Early Childhood Education for Rural, Nomadic, and Migrant Children project. As part of this project, a comprehensive situation analysis was conducted on ECE in Mongolia between September and December 2010, including document review, observations, and interviews. This report presents the results of the analysis, discusses issues that impact ECE, and recommends strategies to improve access, delivery, and services.

Alternative ECE Programmes

As of the 2009-2010 academic year, out of all 109,479 children enrolled in kindergartens, 26% are aged 5, 25% are aged 4, 23% are aged 3, and 25% are aged 2 and below. These figures show a proportionate enrollment by ages, and also an increase in enrollment of children aged 2 and below.

Alternative Early Childhood Education (Alternative ECE) refers to programmes and activities which aim at providing preschool education to children who are not able enroll in regular kindergarten classes for a variety of reasons, including lack of access to a kindergarten, poverty, lack of kindergarten capacity (over enrollment), remoteness, and the nomadic lifestyle of herder families.

There are three types of alternative ECE programmes: Shift group kindergartens, ger kindergartens, and mobile teachers. Shift group kindergartens are “summer kindergartens” that provide ECE for those children not able to enroll during the regular September-June school year due to over enrollment Nationally, 9% of kindergartens operate summer shift groups. Typically the teachers of the regular kindergarten year also teach shift group kindergartens at least part of the summer.

Ger kindergartens are housed in traditional ger shelters, mostly located in rural areas. They also operate mainly during the summer season only, following nomadic families.

As of 2009, there are 113 mobile teachers throughout the country. Mobile teachers circulate throughout a determined area to visit nomadic families every week or two weeks. In this alternative ECE programme, many of the teachers are volunteers, and are not usually professional ECE teachers; however, some have attended training through nearby soum kindergartens.

In the alternative ECE sector, 47% are enrolled in mobile kindergartens, 36% are enrolled in shift groups, and the remaining 17% receive ECE via mobile teachers. 80% of children enrolled in mobile kindergarten are mainly from nomadic families who live in soums and baghs. The majority of children enrolled in shift groups are from aimag and soum centers and suburban areas of the city.

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Vulnerable Children

Poverty remains a significant factor for low preschool enrollment rate. Poor and vulnerable groups (particularly migrants, households in peri-urban khoroos, and single mothers and their children) have lower access to preschool education compared to non-poor population. In addition, parental contributions to hygiene and learning materials and transportation is another financial burden for poor families to admit their children to kindergartens.

Rural population makes up roughly 43% of the total population. Although the preschool-aged children of this population receive education via mobile kindergartens and visiting mobile teachers, there is still lack of sustainable and quality ECE.

The particularly low preschool participation rates in the Kazakh aimag and the lack of either Kazakh language preschool materials or Mongolian as a second language instructional strategies mean Kazakh children start school lagging behind in language and literacy skills and may not gain a sound footing in either Mongolian or Kazakh languages.

Access

Since 2005, the preschool sector – including kindergarten – enrollment rate has been continuously increasing. There are several factors for this increase. First, the capacity of kindergartens has been increased by constructing new buildings. Second, kindergarten meals costs of children are born by the state, which eliminated a cost burden, particularly to poor and vulnerable families. Third, the budget for preschool sector has been steadily rising and has reached MNT 76 billion(or USD60.8 million). The increased budget also favors preschools with alternative ECE and private kindergartens. Enrollment in alternative ECE has reached 17.4%, and enrollment in private kindergartens has doubled in within the past 5 years.

However, as the preschool enrollment rate increases, other problems arise. Due to increased migration of into settled areas, class size in kindergartens has been growing, particularly in urban areas (ranging 34-45 children per class). Consequently, class size has reached its maximum capacity, which diminishes health and hygiene standards and increases the workload of teachers. Child sickness cases have increased, and respiratory disease is the second most common disease among children. The national average class size is at 29.4%; although the class size is decreasing in soums, the size in aimag and city areas is increasing.

On the other hand, the studies1on utilization of kindergarten buildings show that the 532 school buildings have the capacity to accommodate a total of 42,237 children, which is half as much as the total number of children enrolled. It shows clearly that there is an urgent need for additional kindergarten construction to increase the capacity of kindergartens in settled and urban areas.

1 Construction unit of MECS, Kindergarten building condition study, 2005, 2

Teachers

The School of Preschool Education has prepared over 7000 kindergarten, methodological, and music teachers in Mongolia. A variety of modes are available for attending courses. In academic year 2009-2010 there were 1287 students enrolled, all but 7 of them female. The number of applicants has been growing steadily for the last few years.

In-service professional development courses are offered on national, regional, provincial, or even organizational level. They can be general or specialized. Courses are offered by individuals, domestic or foreign NGOs, the School of Preschool Education, Government organizations who specialize in teacher training or development, education authorities in urban and rural capitals, and educational research and methodological organizations.

Since the adoption of the Preschool Education Standard, there is an increased skill demand to develop curriculum for ECE, which in turn requires teachers to continuously develop their professional and contemporary teaching methods. Consequently, the most commonly raised issue by kindergarten teachers is the lack of professional and methodological support, guidebooks, and classroom resources pertaining to development of curricula and lesson topic contents.

Curriculum and Resources

From 2005, following adoption of the new Preschool Education Standard, Mongolia has abandoned the “one training programme for all kindergartens” practice, and kindergartens started developing their own curricula which entailed teachers to develop and implement lesson subject and topic contents. There are currently 4 common curriculum guides used by teachers of alternative ECE programmes.

These curricula are used by shift groups, ger kindergartens, and mobile teaching services which have different teaching and learning conditions and environment. Therefore increased focus should be paid in the curriculum development and implementation process taking into account different teaching strategies necessary to meet different populations and appropriate learning environments.

In addition, teachers should have more professional resources from which to draw:

Curriculum development texts by ages and developmental stages

Active teaching and child-centered teaching methodology texts, including provision of equal opportunity to all children

Handbooks and working guidelines working with children with disabilities

Publications for parents and working with parents, families and communities

Consistent Government provision of classrooms with appropriate and adequate resources is an important issue for rural kindergartens and alternative programmes of ECE.

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Overall, kindergartens do not have enough budgetary funding for learning materials and classroom learning resources. The Law on Preschool Education says that the state budget for kindergarten includes cost of learning materials...2. But implementation of the Law is difficult.

In general, kindergartens and preschool classes contain few educational resources with little age or developmental area consideration. For the last 10 years MECS has provided resources and training supplies for a number of kindergartens, with the support of donor organizations. However, there is currently no standard, nor national strategy on the improvement of kindergarten classroom resources.

In order to address the above issues, main recommendations are:

To develop a list of resource materials for preschool classrooms by ages and developmental stages

To improve the availability of resource materials for preschool classrooms which are consistent with the Preschool Education Standard

To improve teachers’ and caregivers’ knowledge about the use of resource materials for children’s development

To improve physical & e-learning (distance education) facilities for mobile ger-kindergartens including generators, sanitation facilities and TV set , radio etc,.

Readiness Testing

Mongolia does not have sustainable system that regularly assesses school readiness of children. In the past, only two studies have been carried out to assess the readiness level of 6-year-old children- in 20083, when the 11-year education system was in force, and 5-year-old children in 20104, after the shift to a 12-year education system. Predictably, assessment results indicate that a child’s readiness level depends on the number of years s/he attended a kindergarten, parents’ education and income level, and rural-urban disparity.

There is a need for an established system that regularly assesses the school readiness of all children of every kindergarten. This system would require capacity-building of local ECE authorities in terms of test development skills as well as adoption of a cost-effective technology.

Parents

The Education Master Plan of Mongolia recommends support for ECE training for parents, however in reality there has a lack of support from the Government in terms of raising awareness on ECE among parents, and caregivers. Different national and international organizations conduct trainings for parents on child developmental issues, and there are

2 Law on Preschool Education , Article #, 2006

3 Institute of Education (2010). State of Readiness of 5-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia4 Institute of Education (2008). State of Readiness of 6-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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television and radio programmes that provide advice to parents. However, most of the media programmes are for children and parents’ programme time is irregular. In rural areas, parents mostly receive early childhood information on an occasional basis e.g. during cultural events.

Several measures may be needed to assist parents whose children cannot attend ECE ser-vices but who are learning at home:

To organize practical workshops and seminars as well as parent education classes or courses for parents to improve working with children at home

To familiarize parents with ECE curricula

To supply information on how to support children’s development by using mass media

Provide targeted budget support to cover hidden costs for parents

Advocates for Young Children

In the last few years the scope of support for ECE has grown in Mongolia. The issues of promoting ECE, and improving parents and caregivers’ involvement in ECE, are actively discussed topics among government agencies, international organizations, mass media, non-governmental organizations, and private sector.

The main international donors in the sector are UNICEF and Save the Children (UK)5. However, a variety of organizations contribute to ECE in Mongolia, including the World Bank, ADB, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Technological Cooperative Organization of Germany (GIZ). Most support is concentrated in the areas of providing ger kindergartens and improving preschool education quality.

Currently there are 922 social workers working in 476 soums, villages and khoroos. The social workers do not have direct involvement in early childhood services, however they do play certain roles by assisting families in need who have young age children. In urban settings, the district and khoroo social workers coordinate the implementation of social services available from the Government and support humanitarian assistance from international and national organizations to vulnerable population. Moreover, the social workers act as a bridge between district authorities and khoroos by delivering information (e.g. data on number of families in needs, number of young age children in need of medical, early childhood, and other social services). In addition, at khoroo level there are other administrative workers such as section leader/mobilizers6, who work on volunteer basis.

According to MECS (2007), one of the pressing issues of ECE is an insufficient […information] for stakeholders at the local level. Moreover, another issue identified was the attitude of parents towards early childhood development, which is changing slowly. Therefore, it is recommended that:

5 ADB consultant’s report 20086 The section leader or mobilizer is a volunteer, who works for khoroo under supervision of khoroo coordinator. The main task is to deliver news, information to khoroo population, and mobilizes people for government policy implementation purpose.

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Establishment of a local network of ECE stakeholders that aims to support participation of parents along with technical and financial support of Government or/and international organizations.

Support be provided in training of teachers, as well as parents and caretakers of young children, to develop skills and capacities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

There are two main bodies that have the authority to monitor and examine aspects of the preschool education sector:

Health, Education and Science Inspection Office in the General Agency for Specialized Inspection and its Departments

Information, Monitoring and Evaluation Department in MECS

The Information, Monitoring, and Evaluation Department in MECS maintains an information and management system which provides statistical information through its databases. Most of data are based on administrative records and as usually the data are recorded and re-ported initially by each kindergarten and then aggregated by aimag/soum/city/district levels until they comprise national figures. Monitoring and evaluation data on ECE within MECS is included in the annualEducation Sector Statistical Digest7. The data set includes indicators such as enrollment information, types of ECE service offered, teacher: child ratios, and fam-ily information. MECS also conducts other activities for monitoring and/or evaluating the sta-tus of preschool education.

The General Agency for Specialized Inspection is an independent, central and specialized body responsible for inspection, monitoring and supervising a wide range of aspects such as health and sanitation, management and curriculum, professional development and progress made by kindergarten staff to ensure conformity of use with regulations, standards and qual-ity requirements. Monitoring and inspection usually covers all types of preschool education institutions and includes some monitoring visits as well as close scrutiny of a sample of ‘records of evidence' or 'teachers’ documents'.

The Mongolian Education Master Plan and UB city education programme both highlight an establishment of the EMIS however; it has not been started yet.

EMIS would be useful for preschool sector professionals and parents and well as for local and national Government authorities. Piloting of mobile phone applications in dissemination of information from the ECE database may work well both for urban and rural settings.

Summary

In the past half decade, the Government of Mongolia has made considerable achievements to improve ECE access and quality. Implementation of preschool education objectives reflected in Government-led programmes is underway. To further facilitate the improvement 7 Education Sector Statistical Digest

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of early childhood education services to young children, particularly those in rural, nomadic, and migrant target groups, it is essential to:

Develop and enforce learning environment, teaching, and evaluation standards for all preschools, regardless of the ownership type; establish a proper accreditation and monitoring system

Improve the funding, organizational, evaluation, and quality aspects of alternative ECE aimed at children from poor, vulnerable and nomadic families

Provide support in for improving the skills and behavior of parents in ECE

Improve the coordination and legal environment aimed at increasing efforts by the community and private sector

Support key social groups and stakeholders in the ECE

To supply information on how to support children’s development by using mass media

Establish a sustainable partnership mechanism that ensures the social demands

Engage in effective forms of public-private partnerships

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INTRODUCTION

The Mongolia Education Sector Master Plan (2006–2015) identifies early childhood education (ECE) as a priority issue and makes improving access to ECE, particularly among rural, nomadic, and migrant children, part of its outcomes to be attained by 2015.To assist in the attainment of the outcomes, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) developed the JFPR 9138MON: Early Childhood Education for Rural, Nomadic, and Migrant Children project. As part of this project, a comprehensive situation analysis was conducted on ECE in Mongolia between September and December 2010, including document review, observations, and interviews. This report presents the results of the analysis, discusses issues that impact ECE, and recommends strategies to improve access, delivery, and services.

Given the different circumstances and needs of the target groups, the JFPR project follows a dual strategy: For rural and nomadic children, the focus will be on developing financially sustainable alternative ECE programmes in Bayan-Ulgii, Bulgan,Khentii, and Omnogovi aimags (provinces). Specific soums and baghs in each aimag will be identified after the determination of specific pilot alternative programmes. For migrant children, the focus will be on promoting establishment of community-based and/or home-based care in six peri-urban khoroosin two districts around Ulaanbaatar. The two targeted districts are Songinohairkhan and Bayanzurkh. The six targeted khoroos within the districts have been identified as khoroos 7,22, and 23 in Songinohairkhan, and khoroos 17,21, and 23 in Bayanzurkh.

For the purposes of this situation analysis report, some terms need to be clarified:

Early childhood education: This term refers to the service provided for 2-6 year old children, and encompasses the ideals and spirit of the UNICEF term Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)

Preschool education: This term refers to the sector and programmes, and is consistent with the primary and secondary sectors and programmes of the education system in Mongolia. Likewise, the term “preschool-aged” child is used to refer to those children 2-6 years old who are included in the sector.

Kindergarten: “Kindergarten” is used consistently throughout the report to refer to the place where early childhood education occurs. This term is used interchangeably with “preschool” in practice and in early childhood education documents in Mongolia. There are additional types of early childhood education not provided for kindergartens. These types will be referred to specifically in the document (eg. Nursery for under two-year-olds, and day care or play centers that cater for casual drop-in clientele).

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BACKGROUND TO MONGOLIA

Map 1: Mongolia

 

Mongolia, with an area of 1,566,500 square kilometers, is located in Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia and China. The country has a dry, harsh climate. It includes the Altai, Khangai, and Khentii mountains and other regions occupied by Gobi Desert.

Roughly 20% of the population leads a nomadic lifestyle. During the summer nomads store enough food, dairy products, and meat for the harsh winter. Nomadic families move four times a year, every season, looking for a better pasture for their livestock (typically sheep, goats, cattle, yaks, and camels).

The territories of Mongolia are geopolitically divided by the capital city and aimags. The capital city is divided by 9 districts which consist of 117 khoroos. The 21 aimags are divided into 330 soums which have 1550 baghs. A soum, the main geopolitical division, is distanced within the range of 20-300 km from the centers of its respective aimag.

Figures reported by the National Statistical Office reported that as of 2010 the country’s pop-ulation is 2,773,321. Mongolia has a predominantly young population with the median age of 21.6 years. Roughly 33% and 75% of its people are under 14 and 35 respectively. 41% of

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the population lives in rural areas, and 38% live in the capital city of Ulaan-baatar.

Mongolia’s Human Development Index (HDI) stands at 0.720, ranking 112th out of 179 countries, moving up from 117th in previous years. However, HDI disparities persist across regions. The HDI for urban areas (0.723) was 14.0% higher than the HDI in rural areas in 2002. Over the past decade, Mongolia has recorded gains in many areas of human development. However, the progress has been slow and uneven.Poverty remains stagnant around 35% despite high economic growth in last few years.

The unemployment rate has been decreasing steadily since 2004 from 3.6% to 2.8% in 2007.

As of the first half of 2010 (compared to 2005), the GDP of Mongolia is MNT1,650.70 billion (roughly USD1.22 billion), and the GDP per capita, as of 2010, is at MNT2,305,200 (roughly USD1,7000).

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Mongolia

Ages

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

General Secondary Education 5

B5B

5B

5B

0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2A

2A

2A

3A

3A

3A

5A

5A

5A

5A

5A

6 6 6

3B

3B

3B

4 4

0 Pre-primary education

4 Vocational schools1 Primary

education5B

Colleges with 4 years degree programmes2

A Lower secondary education

5A

University Degree Programmes : Bachelor's/Master's Degree3

A Upper secondary education

6 Doctorate3

B Upper secondary education with vocational track

EDUCATION IN MONGOLIA

Significant progress has been achieved in the education sector including improvements in school infrastructure and provision of training equipment, learning materials, and textbooks.The enrollment rate has been rising in all education sectors. The shift to the new 12-year education structure, introduced into schools in September 2008, brings Mongolia into line with the widely recognized education model.

Graph 1: Structure of Mongolian formal education system

(According to the ISCED 2007)

In the 2008-09 academic year, 90.6% of the primary-school-age children were enrolled in primary school. The student teacher ratio has decreased from 33.1 in 2005-06 to 31.1 in 2007-08. The level of professional skills of primary-school teachers has increased notably, as a result of increased access to in-service training. The primary school completion rate is estimated to have reached 98.4% in 2007-08 against a projected target of 87.0%. The basic education indicators including net and gross primary enrollment have increased compared to the 2005-06 school year and school dropout rates have been falling steadily. These play an important role in achieving the education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Mongolia.

Gender disparity in Mongolia slightly favors girls, as there are fewer males at every level of the school system including preschool education sector. In preschool and pre-tertiary education, girls are accountable for 50.02 percent.

The Millennium Development Goals

The MDGs include a goal to promote achieving universal primary education. The net enrollment ratio in primary education has remained relatively stable in recent years and reached 91.5% in 2009. One of the obstacles for the achievement of this goal is the higher population sparseness in rural areas. 44.2% of all primary students are from poor families, and their monthly education cost is 4000 tugrug (or USD3.2).

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Challenges to Education

There are other challenges: Enrolling children in kindergartens in rural and remote areas, improving rural school dormitory conditions and services, ensuring primary education teacher qualifications, increasing textbook provision, and enhancing the learning environment. In the short term, the Government needs to focus on eliminating disparity of education services in urban and rural areas, enrolling 6 year-old children in primary school (particularly focusing on enrollment of children from vulnerable groups), and ensuring that all preschool-aged (2-5) children attend kindergartens to improve school readiness. In the medium term, the Government is planning to improve primary education content and curricula, and quality and outputs of education.

The recent shift to a 12-year education structure entails further tasks such as additional investments; increase in supply of school seats and dormitory beds; provision of necessary training equipment and facilities; updating the education curricula, programmes, and textbooks; in-service training of teachers; and proper planning to ensure smooth shift to the new structure. New competence-based education standards were adopted in 2005.

Ethnic Minorities

Almost 90% of the Mongolian citizens are of Khalkh ethnicity, and the remaining 10% of the population is comprised of Kazakhs, Buriad, Tuvan, and Durvud ethnicities. Most of the Kazakh population resides in Bayan-Ulgii aimag, and most of the population there is Kazakh. The remaining population is spread out in Khovd aimag and Nalaikh district of Ulaanbaatar city. Buriads mainly populate the Northern regions of the country, specifically in Bulgan, Khentii, Dornod aimags. Tuvan and Durvud ethnic groups mainly live in Uvs aimag. Outside of the majority Khalkh, Kazakhs are the largest ethnic group in Mongolia and make up 4.4% of the population as a whole. According to the 2000 Population and Housing Census8, there were 102,983 Kazakhs living in Mongolia out of a total population of 2,365,269. Kazakhs also comprise over 10% of the population in neighboring Hovd aimag, living primarily in the aimag center, in Hovd soum where they are a dominant majority, in Buyant soum where they comprise about one-third of the population, and as a smaller minority in other soums.

In many important ways Kazakh children are not being afforded the same opportunities to learn as other children in Mongolia. In addition to the poor teacher quality, insufficient supply of school facilities or learning materials, or geographic and social relevance of curriculum content, a critical instructional issue that is a compounding disadvantage for Kazakh children is the language of teaching and learning. Kazakhs are not only disadvantaged in a Mongolian learning environment. There are also serious weaknesses in current Kazakh schools which are significant barriers to quality learning and to progressing successfully through the education system.

By the most conservative definitions, over 10,000 students dropped out of school in the 2009-10 year, with the most students, nearly 20%, dropping out in the first grade and nearly three quarters of all dropouts leaving the primary grades. These indicators point to the importance of increasing preschool participation, school quality, and school retention.

8 National statistical office of Mongolia, Population and Housing Census report, 2000, Ulaanbaatar

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As the poverty level in Mongolia reached 35%, social welfare intervention programmes have been actively undertaken to support schoolchildren with basic provisions including school meal programmes, free textbooks, and learning materials for children from vulnerable families. In 2008, these interventions accounted for 5% of the budget expenditure on education.

In a report developed by Save the Children UK9, it was noted that illiteracy rate in remote areas are high, and the availability of educational services for the minority groups are lacking. For example the majority, the Khalkha had 4.6% illiteracy rate, Kazakh has 50% illiteracy rate, Darkhad 8.4%, and Khoton 9.8%. In the minority groups, illiterate women outnumber illiterate men.

Education Funding

In recent years, the Government of Mongolia has been investing over 20% of the Government expenditure for education sector.

Table 1: Public expenditure on education sector (MNT/USD Million)

  2007 2008 2009 2010Educa-tion bud-get

243,712.20₮ $ 194.97

393,762.00₮ $315.01

432,980.50₮ $346.38

437,417.70₮

$ 349.93

Current expendi-ture

216,393.00₮ $ 173.11

348,023.40₮

$ 278.42

391,032.20₮

$ 312.83

390,611.50₮

$ 312.49

Capital ex-penditure

27,319.10₮ $ 21.86

45,738.60₮ $ 36.59

41,948.30₮ $ 33.56

46,806.20₮ $ 37.44

as a % of GDP 5.40% 7.20% 7.50% 6.10%as a % of Govern-ment ex-penditure 14.00% 28.90% 30.20% 30.20%

Source: Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of Mongolia, 2007-2010

9 Save the Children. (2005). Education of Kazakh children: A Situation Analysis. Sandra S. Huang13

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

In 1930 Parliament endorsed a decision to develop the early childhood-care system. Consequently, in 1930, the first kindergarten was established in Ulaanbaatar city, and, by 1940, there were five kindergartens operating in the city.

As the population density and concentration of the workforce increased in settled areas, and as the literacy rate increased, the Government took steps to further develop the education sector by including preschool education in the national policy, and started allocating budget for the preschool sector in 1948.

In 1960, following the initiation of public primary and secondary education for all, children up to 8 years old were officially determined as preschool-aged children. As industrialization accelerated and cooperatives multiplied, population urbanization and density increased, and women had played a greater role in socio-economic productivity, the demand to enroll preschool-aged children to nurseries and kindergartens was raised. Enrollment of these children to kindergartens was addressed at the national level, prompting the Government to finance and support the construction and operation of nurseries and kindergartens in rural areas.

Since the 1970s, the Government as engaged in a policy of providing public education for all children. Consequently, public organizations, public factories and corporations, and Government agencies have invested in the construction of 170 new kindergartens. Since the 1980s, multiple nurseries and kindergartens have been established in rural and urban areas, thus, increasing the kindergarten enrollment rate. Government expenditure on education in 1985 was equivalent to 6.2% of GNP, which indicated the Government’s commitment to education of younger children.

Since the1990s, following the transition from centralized to free market economy, the number of educational institutions and the enrollment rate in the education – as well as the preschool – sector has fallen, mainly owing to insufficient funding, a drop in population income, and an increase in the poverty level.

Currently, 57% of Mongolia’s children have access to ECE, of which 12% are enrolled in alternative ECE programmes. According to MECS, of the 43% of children not enrolled in ECE, about 30% are children of migrant families and 13% are nomadic and rural children.

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ALTERNATIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Alternative Early Childhood Education (Alternative ECE) refers to programmes and activities which aim at providing preschool education to children who are not able enroll in regular kindergarten classes for a variety of reasons, including lack of access to a kindergarten, poverty, lack of kindergarten capacity (over enrollment), remoteness, and the nomadic lifestyle of herder families.

Mongolian Preschool Education Law stipulates that kindergartens shall organize alternative preschool education instruction and employ professional teachers.

Types of Alternative ECE Programmes

There are three types of alternative ECE programmes: Shift group kindergartens, ger kindergartens, and mobile teachers. Shift group kindergartens are “summer kindergartens” that provide ECE for those children not able to enroll during the regular September-June school year due to over enrollment. Nationally, 9% of kindergartens operate summer shift groups. Typically the teachers of the regular kindergarten year also teach shift group kindergartens at least part of the summer.

Ger kindergartens are housed in traditional ger shelters, mostly located in rural areas. They also operate mainly during the summer season only, following nomadic families.

As of 2009, there were 113 mobile teachers throughout the country. Mobile teachers circulate throughout a determined area to visit nomadic families every week or two weeks. The limit is 15-20 families for each mobile teacher. Teachers give children and parents assignments to complete by the time they return. In most areas mobile teachers are organized only for the summer season, although a few may stretch through into the other seasons. Teachers develop their schedule of household visiting and teaching. After 2 or 3 months teachers monitor the mobile process in the home and children’s skills development. However, there lacks a social development component in mobile teaching- social workers are not usually involved in the education sector. In this alternative ECE programme, many teachers are volunteers, and are not usually professional ECE teachers; however, some have attended training through nearby soum kindergartens.

15

PRESCHOOL EDUCATION POLICY, PLANNING, AND IMPLEMENTATION

State Great Khural of Mongolia is the highest authority to pass a law. Regulating matters of preschool education is the responsibility of the Standing Committee on Social Welfare, Education, Culture and Science. At the Cabinet level, the Cabinet member (portfolio manager) in charge of Education, Culture and Science matters is responsible for preschool education functions.

At the local level, mayors of aimags and the capital city are tasked to provide ECE services, as stipulated under the Education Law by establishing a performance contract with the respective Cabinet member. The Education and Culture Departments – under the Mayor’s Office of aimags and the capital city – are responsible for carrying out the Government policy and legal acts on preschool education, as well as, providing schools and kindergartens with professional and methodological guidance.

Soum and district mayors build performance contracts, respectively, with the responsible mayors of aimags and the capital city for the provision of public education service. Subsequently, the schools and kindergartens provide public education services by establishing performance contracts with the respective soum and district governors. District mayors assume the responsibility to provide – via their respective Education Divisions – state-owned and private schools and kindergartens with daily operations management.

As stipulated in the Education Law and Preschool Education Law, each bagh and khoroo mayor is obligated to ensure access to preschool and basic education for the children under his/her jurisdiction.

The table below illustrates the overall education policy planning and implementation process.

Table 2: Education Policy Planning and Implementation ProcessOrganization Roles

National level

Parliament Law on Education, other relevant laws, endorsing proposed budget for education, monitoring budget expenditure

Cabinet Endorsing policies, strategies, funding, national programme, and relevant regulations (granting teacher’s license, provision of bonuses and benefits) needed for ensuring education access, quality, and efficiency

Education, Culture and Science Division of the National Professional Inspection Agency

Monitor and enforce the implementation of all laws, decrees, standards, and programmes pertaining to education

MECS Identify development policies and strategies Decision-making on education development policy, draft bill, regulations

under MECS authority, national programmes and projects, including the reports

Drafting education bills and regulations, preparing and implementing national education programmes and projects

Develop and implement education standards, training curricula, syllabuses, national programmes and plans, as well as evaluate them

General and comprehensive regulations on local and school management (granting teacher’s license, setting teacher’s professional rank, determining work description)

Data collection, processing, reporting, and dissemination Budget planning, allocation, execution, and assessment

16

Collaborate with international partnersColleges and universities Provide pre- and in-service training for teachers and manager, conduct

necessary studies and assessments, pilot test programmes and projects

Local level

Citizen’s Representative Board and Mayor’s Office of aimag

Endorse local policies, strategies, plans, programmes, and regulations aimed at implementing national policies, strategies, and plans on education development

Build schools and kindergartens, and determine their structure and locations

Mobilize, allocate, and monitor local funding resourcesProfessional Inspection Unit of aimags and Ulaanbaatar city

Monitor the implementation of laws and legal acts

Education and Culture Department

Identify local policies and strategies on education development, and draft education programmes and plans

Enforce rules and regulations at local level Ensure education performance contracts are executed Advocate education activities to students, parents and public Provide in-service training for teachers

Schools and kindergartens

Establish and execute education performance contract with the respective soum or district mayor

Prepare school or kindergarten development plan Implement plans, programmes, projects, rules and regulations

pertaining to development of schools or kindergartens Determine the school/kindergarten structure, hire and dismiss staff,

endorse the bonus and benefit amount for staff, provide staff salaries, and nominate the staff for awards and rewards

Monitor school/kindergarten activities, conduct self-assessment, and provide assistance and advice for staff

Plan and organize continuous in-service teacher training

Figure 1: Structure of the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science

Early Childhood Education Legal Environment

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An analysis on the implementation of rules, regulations and legal acts on the preschool sector, enforced by MECS, was conducted. The analysis was based on interviews and meetings with officials and staff at all levels of preschool education sectors as well as legal documentation. A more detailed analysis is provided in Appendix 1.

The analysis indicates that the legal coordination of alternative ECE learning environment is weak, and that teachers lack information and guidelines to implement regulations. For example, to implement the Policy on Preschool Education Delivery teachers do not have sufficient guidelines to develop schedules and contents. There are duplicate legal acts on kindergarten hygiene and safety. Some of the stipulations in the Preschool Education Law have not been implemented yet such as regulation on school readiness assessment, or learning environment standards.

National Development Policies

Currently the Government of Mongolia is implementing the National Development Strategies of Mongolia 10 and the Millennium Development Goals of Mongolia 11 . In the medium term, or during 2007-2015, of the National Development Strategies, the following objectives were set with regards to preschool education:

Ensure conditions for preschool-aged children to obtain full access to preschool education

Provide preschool education for nomadic children ages 0-6, corresponding to the needs of migrant families

Enroll all children of age 6 to primary school

However, the performance of these objectives was set to be evaluated in 2009based on primary education indicators (primary education enrollment and quality). These objectives are consistent with the activities and objectives implemented at the national and ministry levels. The performance evaluation of the programme’s initial stage has not been completed.

One of the notable achievements of preschool education policy, within the scope of the national development policy, is the adoption of the Preschool Education Law. Since the adoption of the law, the preschool enrollment rate and the preschool sector budget have, respectively, increased by 8% and 1%, indicating the positive intervention of the law.

One of the objectives of the national development policies is to improve access to, and quality of, preschool education. The policy and legal documents specify increasing efforts for preschool-aged children, particularly those with limited access to education; developing of suitable methods of education delivery for these children; increasing the supply of learning materials; and building the capacity of human resources.

10 State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia. (2010) Endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-based Comprehensive National Development Strategy of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.11 State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia. (2005) Endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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The policy and legal documents make an effort to link the challenges of preschool-aged children with the human development, socio-economic, and national education objectives. The documents emphasize the improvement of the development indicators of younger children in consistency with (as the basis for) reducing the poverty level, improving the quality of social services, increasing the employment rate, reducing rural-urban disparity, and the shift to a 12-year education system.

The MDGs of Mongolia stipulates that universal primary education is to be provided by 201512. According to evaluation report on the implementation of MDGs prepared in 200913,the implementation rate of these objectives is at 91.5%. Because the objective to provide universal primary education within the aimed period is at risk, one intervention focuses on enrolling children in school at the appropriate age, enrolling all children from vulnerable groups and children with disabilities to school and kindergarten, and ensuring school preparedness children by admitting all children ages 2-5 to preschool education14.

In addition, in order to achieve the MDGs, the Government has set a target, 2015, to reduce the mortality rate of children aged up to 5 to reach 21% by 2015. The achievement of this target is strongly correlated to enrollment in preschool education and, thus, directly affects the access to and quality of preschool education. In addition, health of children, aged up to 5, has a substantial impact on their physical, learning, and developmental progress.

Social Sector Development Policy

Policy documents, including the National programme on child development and protection (2002-2010) 15 , and the Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (2005)16, and additional Government policies on the social sector, served as the basis for analysis on social sector development policy.

The National programme on child development and protection (2002-2010) sets specific objectives comprised of several components: child-friendly legal reform, healthy and safe living environment, quality education, maturity- and family-based child protection, social participation of children and teenagers, and access to information.

Performance indicators, associated with the preschool-aged children, to evaluate the implementation of the programme are as follows:

Table 3: Performance Indicators for Programme ImplementationChild development and protection (up to 2010)

Increase the number of physicians up to 5.0 (per 10,000 children)

In the past ten years the number of physicians has decreased by 3.5 times, merely 25% of all aimags having sanitary physicians of younger and teenage children

Reducing the mortality of children, aged up to 5, to 35 As of 2008 mortality rate of children, aged up to 5, is at 23.2%

12 State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia. (2005) Endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals of Mongolia. Goal 2. Page 2, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.13 National Development and Innovation Committee. (2009) Third National Report. The Millennium Development Goals Implementation. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.14 National Development and Innovation Committee. (2009) Third National Report. The Millennium Development Goals Implementation. Page 60. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.15 Government of Mongolia. Resolution No. 245 (December 04, 2002) National program on child development and protection (2002-2010) of the Government of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.16 Joint Order by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Minister of Health, Minister of Social Welfare and Labor of Mongolia. (April 13, 2005) Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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(per 1,000 successful births)Reduce the malnutrition/underdevelopment ratio of children, aged up to 5

Malnutrition rate is 6.4%, percentage of undernourished children is at 19.2%

Increase the breastfeeding of infants, up to 6 months, to 90%

Percentage of infants, aged up to 6 months, nourished solely on breastfeeding is at 37%

Increase the preschool enrollment rate of preschool-aged children to 72%

Based on education statistical data, the preschool enrollment rate has reached 76%, 58.6% and 17.6% of which account for regular kindergarten and alternative preschool services, respectively

The Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy17 (2005) addresses challenges in early childhood development. The policy aims at enhancing the socio-economic impact on younger children by providing comprehensive medical, social, and education services for every child.

In 2007, UNICEF conducted a review on the implementation of this policy, and produced the following conclusions and recommendations: “Although the objectives with respect to education, health, and social welfare of early children are progressing, they are still being implemented via dis unified efforts. There is a need for: greater participation from and improved coordination among the Government and relevant local agencies; commitment/allocation of adequate financial resources for the set objectives; improved management, coordination structure and mechanism among the implementing sectors.”18

The policies at the social sector development level are aimed at supporting the development of preschool-aged children. However, the outputs of the policy implementation are not stable (throughout the regions or the sector), calling for greater joint efforts and support of social sectors in the implementation of the policy. At the local level, similarly, due to lack of disintegrated and poorly coordinated efforts, children are not receiving sufficient early childhood and development services. Such deficiencies are mainly attributed to poor collaboration among social sector agencies (Ministries) in the policy planning and implementation process. In addition, monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure effective implementation is weak. To address these issues the National Development and Innovation Committee was created in 2009.

Education Sector Development Policy

The Action Plan of the Government of Mongolia for 2008-2012 19 , the Education Sector Master Plan of Mongolia for 2006-201520, and the Endorsement of a National Program (2010) served as the main policy documents for analysis on education sector development policy.

One of the stipulations of the Action Plan of the Government of Mongolia for 2008-2012 is to “Increase preschool education enrollment to 70% by building a ger kindergarten in every

17 Joint Order by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Minister of Health, Minister of Social Welfare and Labor of Mongolia. (April 13, 2005) Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.18 Review report on implementation of Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy, UNICEF (2007). Page 46.19 State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia. Resolution No. 35 (2008) Action Plan of the Government of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.20 Government of Mongolia. Resolution No. 192 (2006) Ratification of Master Plan to Develop Educa-tion of Mongolia in 2006-2015. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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bagh and diversifying alternative preschool services (p. 160).”21Within the scope of this provision, MECS and the World Bank, through the Fast Track Initiative, and as a have supplied 229 gers, along with learning materials and kitchen facilities in the past three years. In addition, UNICEF and other donor agencies have made sizeable contributions to soums in the form of complete set of training gers in support of ger kindergarten training services.

There are over 1,500 baghs in Mongolia. Taking into account the investments made in the past three years by international organizations and the Government for provision of kindergartens, as well as the 400 kindergartens to be supplied in 2011 by the ADB JFPR 9138MON:Early Childhood Education for Rural, Nomadic, and Migrant Children project, 60% of all baghs will have a ger kindergarten augmenting alternative ECE services as planned by the Government.

The Education Programme 22 stipulates, “Provide preschool education that suits the nomadic lifestyle of rural herders’ children of ages 0-5, formulate objectives to ensure universal coverage of preschool education for early children, expand the accessibility to and forms of preschool education for early children, intensify the construction and expansion of kindergarten buildings, and augment the supply of ger kindergartens for baghs”.23There are few data on the programme that could allow any analysis or conclusions as the endorsement of the programme is only a year old.

In 2009-2010, MECS with the support of ADB, has updated the Education Sector Master Plan for 2006-2015 (ESMP)n response to socio-economic changes. This task entailed updating the previous targets and formulating new ones based on thorough qualitative and quantitative review of the implementation of sub-sectoral (including preschool sector) objectives and targets. The analysis on the status of implementation of objectives and targets is included as Appendix 2.

Issues and Recommendations

There are many recommendations included in the ESMP to achieve a 93% gross enrollment rate, services that meet the needs of child development, and the improvement of policies and the legislative and regulatory environment (Please see Appendix 3).

In addition, analysis on the education sector development policy documents shows that in the past 4-5 years, the Government of Mongolia has made considerable achievements to improve ECE access and quality, within the scope of the abovementioned policy documents. Furthermore, there is a need to:

Improve the coordination and legal environment aimed at increasing efforts by the community and private sector

Support key social groups and stakeholders in the ECE

Establish sustainable partnership mechanisms that ensure social demands

Develop policies on effective forms of public-private partnerships (PPP)

21 Goal 1.2.2. of the Action Plan of the Government of Mongolia.22 Government of Mongolia. Resolution No. 31 (2010) Endorsement of a National Program. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.23 Strategic objective 1.1. National Education Program (2010). Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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Despite the steady state budget growth in the preschool sector, there are still funding Gaps that need to be solved in order to achieve strategic objectives on improving ECE access and quality(Appendix 4). For example, in response to population growth in settled areas, investments are needed in the coming years to renovate and construct kindergarten buildings. In addition, budget planning and monitoring methods should be refined and implemented in order to assess the funding efficiency. A complete discussion of this issues follows in the next section, ECE Budgeting and Funding.

Implementation of preschool education objectives reflected in Government-led programmes is underway. To implement the set objectives and strategies it is essential to:

Develop and enforce learning environment, teaching, and evaluation standards for all preschools, regardless of the ownership type

Establish a proper accreditation system

Improve the funding, organizational, evaluation, and quality aspects of alternative ECE aimed at children from poor, vulnerable and nomadic families

Provide support in rural areas for improving the skills and behavior of parents in ECE

Improve the planning and monitoring skills of national and local ECE officers, including international and best practice planning

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION BUDGETING AND FUNDING

The Education Sector Master Plan (2006-2015) (ESMP)is the key policy guide in the education sector. One of the notable features in the plan is the funding expenditure framework. To forecast the future funding trends for budgeting and planning purposes, particularly in the medium term, the ESMP used the Education Policy and Strategy Simulation (EPSS) model created by UNESCO in 2001.

One of the significant achievements of the ESMP is that it allowed the Government to seek contributions from the donor community to cover the funding gaps in the education sector. This allowed for a more Government-driven investment. Donor contributions make up over 15% of the total spending in education; a large majority of the contributions were invested in the preschool and primary sectors.

To improve efficiency and transparency of the state budget execution, the Law on Management and Funding of Public Organizations took effect in 2003.This Law resulted in a stricter monitoring of funds, and schools and kindergartens received monthly transfer of funds in a timelier manner. On the other hand, the Law reduced the school and kindergarten revenues derived from non-core activities (e.g. revenues from rental fees) and hindered schools and kindergartens to these use these revenues flexibly.

Budget Planning and Allocation Process

Currently, budget plans are initially developed by individual kindergartens. The budget plans are then consolidated and monitored by aimag Education and Culture Departments (in Ulaanbaatar city, City Education and Culture Department has to compile the budget plans consolidated by District Education Divisions).Then the aggregate proposed budgets are submitted to the Finance and Investment Department of MECS. The budget portfolio of MECS is then submitted to the Ministry of Finance. Finally the budget plan is discussed and negotiated at the Cabinet session before being reviewed and approved by the Parliament. Once approved, MECS allocates the budget by aimags and Ulaanbaatar city, which are responsible for allocating the budget for each kindergarten. The physical budget distributions to kindergartens are done by the Treasury.

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Figure 2: Budget Planning and Allocation Process

Overall Preschool Sector Budget

The total education budget, including the budget for the preschool sector, has been steadily growing. Even during the peak of financial crisis in 2009, education has been one of only two sectors (Health is the other) that did not receive budget cuts, which reaffirms the commitment of the Government to reach education goals.

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Table 4: Preschool budget million MNT/USD

  2007 2008 2009 2010Total preschool education budget (re-current)

40,349.15₮ $ 32.28

63,194.24₮ $ 50.56

67,212.11₮ $ 53.77

76,909.79₮ $ 61.53

as a % of GDP 0.89% 1.16% 1.16% 1.07%as a % of Government expenditure 2.33% 4.63% 4.69% 5.31%as a % of the total ed-ucation bud-get 16.56% 16.05% 15.52% 17.58%

In 2009, a total of MNT 74,487.81 million tugrug(USD60 million)were spent on preschool education, out of which MNT 67,212.11 million (USD53.8 million) and MNT 7,275.7 million(USD5.9 million) were respectively devoted to recurrent and capital expenditure.

MNT 44,755.08 million(USD 35.9 million)was spent for variable costs such as salary and benefits for teachers and employees as well as for other recurrent expenditures. For fixed costs 8,378.681 million tugrug(USD6.7 million) was spent to cover electricity and heating.MNT 12,047.14 million (USD9.6 million) was spent to cover meal costs of children, and 894.42 million tugrug(USD0.7 million) and 1.2% was spent for one-time benefits and bonuses.

MNT 4,624 million (USD3.7 million) was spent for alternative ECE, such as mobile teachers, shift classes and mobileger kindergarten trainings. Selenge aimag has the highest budget expenditure as its enrollment rate is the highest (96.2%), whilst Gobisumber aimagis has the smallest budget since the population of preschool-aged children there is relatively small.

The budget for preschool education increased by 38.3 % in 2007 and 64.4% in 2008, and decreased by 2.1 % in 2009.

Table 5: Preschool Sector Expenditures MNT

Expenditure 2006 2007 2008 2009

Variable cost 17,166,069.3

0₮ 26,430,250.1

0₮ 46,106,034.2

0₮ 44,755,078.8

0₮

Fixed cost 6,122,735.9

0₮ 6,824,382.7

0₮ 8,778,836.0

0₮ 8,378,681.3

0₮

Food supply 6,172,213.4

0₮ 7,296,658.3

0₮ 11,918,612.1

0₮ 12,047,141.6

0₮

One-time benefit and bonus 198,526.1

0₮ 504,405.0

0₮ 696,628.3

0₮ 894,418.7

0₮

Capital expenditure     4,215.3

0₮ 7,275.7

0₮

Total 29,659,544.7

0₮ 41,055,696.1

0₮ 67,504,325.9

0₮ 66,082,596.1

0₮

USD

Expenditure 2006 2007 2008 2009

Variable cost $ 13,732.86 $ 21,144.20 $36,884.83 $35,804.06

Fixed cost $4,898.19 $5,459.51 $7,023.07 $6,702.95

Food supply $4,937.77 $5,837.33 $9,534.89 $9,637.71

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One-time benefit and bonus $158.82 $403.52 $557.30 $715.53

Capital expenditure $3.37 $5.82

Total $23,727.64 $32,844.56 $54,003.46 $52,866.08

For the last few years, salaries of teachers and staffhave been accountable for the majority of the budget increase, as a result of Government resolutions to increase state employees salary in 2007 and in 2008.

According to Governmental resolutionof 2009, children’s daily food cost was increased to1,100 tugrug (USD 0.9) per child, whereas previous daily food cost per child was 658 tugrug (USD 0.5) which required roughly MNT 20 billion (USD16 million).

Data for the past three years show an increase in the overall enrollment rate of preschool education. Class size and student-teacher ratio decreasedby 0.5%. According to Preschool Education Law, meal costs for preschool children were changed to be covered entirely by the state budget. This has proved to be successful in increasing kindergarten attendance.

Table 6: Preschool Sector Enrollment Rate 2009Number

of children

in prescho

ol educatio

n

Number of

classes

Child number of per class

Number of children per

teacher

Variable cost per child

(thousand MNT/USD)

Avarage training hour

per child

Avarage meal cost per child

(thousand MNT/USD)

Kindergarten

102522 3601 28.4 24.2 477000₮ $381.6 720 117000₮ $93.6

Alternative ECE

28182 835 33.7 102.1 286200₮ $228.96 320 70200₮ $56.16

Currently, there are 14,740 employees in preschool education. 53% is staff who provide direct service for children such as teachers, assistant teachers and alternative training teachers. The remaining staff (47%) provide in-direct services for children.

Funding Formula Evolution

Since 1998, norms-based budgeting has been used to finance kindergartens (as well as educational institutions of other sub-sectors). The norms have been refined numerous times to meet the needs of kindergartens as well as to encourage funding efficiency.

Until 2000 and 2001, seven different norms were used depending on the distance from a settled and urban area. Since 2004, norms varied on regional locations.

Currently, the three norms are used to depending on where the kindergarten is located (soum, aimag, and city). However, many schools and kindergartens report that the norm-based budget is not accurate and sufficient enough to cover the diverse needs of schools. Currently, many schools and kindergartens submit their budget proposals neglecting the officially endorsed norms. A more comprehensive analysis will be needed to determine if the kindergartens are efficiently utilizing the norm-based budget or whether the current funding formula needs to be revised.

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Below are the variable cost norms used by kindergartens to develop their annual budget proposals. It should be pointed out that according to the Preschool Education Law both private and public kindergartens are eligible for variable cost norms per child for regular and alternative ECE services.

Table 7: Budget Norm Evolution 2005-2007

Regions and aimags2007 resolution #167

(July 07, 2006)2006 resolution

#177 (August 24, 2005)

2005 resolution #187 (August 23,

2004)

Regions Aimags

Variable cost per child

Variable cost per child

Variable cost per child

MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD

West Bayan-Ulgii, Gobi-Altai, Zavkhan, Uvs, Khovd 167,700 134 130,300 104 125,900 101

Khangai

Arkhangai, Bayan-Khongor, Bulgan, Uvurkhangai, Khuvsgul, Orkhon

158,600 127 123,300 99 119,200 95

Central region Gobi aimags

Gobisumber, Dornogobi, Dundgobi, Umnugobi

158,600 127 123,300 99 118,500 95

Central Selenge, Tuv, Darkhan-Uul, Ulaanbaatar

157,700 126 122,600 98 120,100 96

East Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Khentii

159,900 128 124,300 99 124,300 99

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Table 8: Budget Norm Evolution 2008-2010

Location

2010 resolution #190 (July 2009) 2009 resolution #294 (22 July 2008)2008 resolution #184 (25 July

2007)

of which of which of which

Teacher salarySocial insur-

ance paymentOther variable

cost Teacher salarySocial insur-

ance paymentOther variable

cost Teacher salarySocial insur-

ance payment

MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD MNT USD

Soum (ex-cluding aimag center)

412,000

330

45,300

36

19,400

16

459,300

367

45,900

37

41,800

33

259,700

208

37,100

30

Aimag center

332,300

266

36,500

29

17,400

14

370,500

296

37,000

30

37,500

30

217,300

174

29,700

24

City 330,50

0 26

4 36,30

0 2

9 15,8

00 1

3 368,40

0 295

36,800

29

34,200

27

210,100

168

26,500

21

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Issues and Recommendations

Based on the above analyses, the following are recommended:

The coordination of donor contribution and the reduction or elimination of funds to kindergartens. There is a need for a unified database of all donor contributions.

More involvement in the budgeting process by kindergarten directors.

The introduction of an output-based funding system to improve the efficiency of funding.

To improve the quality of ECE services, funds should be attributed to teaching staff who directly work with children instead of non-teaching staff.

Funds allocated for alternative ECE services provided by private kindergartens should be used for public kindergartens.

A comprehensive analysis to determine the effectiveness of the funding formula be conducted in order to, if needed, revise the budget

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ACCESS AND EQUITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Since 2000, due to the shift to the 12-year primary and secondary education system, the “preschool age” of children has been changed three times (2-7, 2-6, and 2-5) leading to an increase in the enrollment rate. As of 2010, the preschool enrollment rate for children aged 2-5 is at 76%, of which 58.6% and 17.4% are respectively enrolled in kindergartens and alternative ECE services. Ulaanbaatar city is accountable for 40% of all children enrolled in kindergartens, and the remaining percentages are proportionately spread over the Western, Central, and Khangai regions. Enrollment rate in the Eastern region is comparatively lower due to its low population. Enrollment rate of alternative ECE is higher in the Western and Khangai regions.

As of the 2009-2010 academic year, out of all 109,479 children enrolled in kindergartens, 26% are aged 5, 25% are aged 4, 23% are aged 3, and 25% are aged 2 and below. These figures show a proportionate enrollment by ages, and also an increase in enrollment of children aged 2 and below. In the alternative ECE sector, 47% are enrolled in mobile gerkindergartens, 36% are enrolled in shift groups, and the remaining 17% receive ECE via mobile teachers. 80% of children enrolled in mobile ger kindergartens are mainly from nomadic families who live in soums and baghs. The majority of children enrolled in shift groups are from aimag and soum centers and suburban areas of the city.

Graph 2: Enrollment by Age 2009-10

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Graph 3: Alternative Education by Type

17%

36%

47%

Alternative education by type

Mobile teacherShift groupGer kindergarten

Since 2005, the preschool sector – including kindergarten – enrollment rate has been continuously increasing. There are several factors for this increase. First, the capacity of kindergartens has been increased by constructing new buildings; MECS reports an establishment of 26 kindergartens in 2010 alone. Second, as a result of the Preschool Education Law, kindergarten meals costs of children are born by the state, which eliminated a cost burden to poor and vulnerable families. Third, the budget for preschool sector has been steadily rising and has reached MNT 76 billion (USD60.8 million). The increased budget also favors preschools with alternative ECE and private kindergartens. 2010 statistical report shows enrollment in alternative ECE has reached 17.4%, and enrollment in private kindergartens has doubled in within the past 5 years.

Graph 4: Preschool Education Enrollment by Percent

2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010

42%54% 55%

57%

73%76%

Preschool education enrollment rate

However, as the preschool enrollment rate increases, other problems arise. Due to increased migration into settled areas, class size in kindergartens has been growing, particularly in urban areas (ranging 34-45 children per class). Consequently, class size has reached its maximum capacity, which diminishes health and hygiene standards and increases the workload of teachers. For instance, the results of monitoring and evaluation

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conducted by the National Inspection and Monitoring Agency24of Ulaanbaatar city show that child sickness cases have increased, and respiratory disease is the second most common disease among children. The national average class size is at 29.4%; although the class size is decreasing in rural soums, the size in aimags and city areas is increasing.

Graph 5: National Average Kindergarten Class Size

On the other hand, the studies25on utilization of kindergarten buildings show that the 532 school buildings have the capacity to accommodate a total of 42,237 children, which is half as much as the total number of children enrolled. It shows clearly that there is an urgent need for additional kindergarten construction to increase the capacity of kindergartens in settled and urban areas.

Population Migration and Poverty

The Population and Housing Census conducted in 200026, and statistical figures up to 2004 show that whereas the population growth has been on average at 1.4%, the cohort of preschool children ages 1-5 decreased up to 2006, but has been increasing by 6% in the past 4 years. This indicates that the population of preschool-aged children is likely to grow.

The results of studies on reproductive health of the national population conducted in 2003 indicate that the birth rate coefficient in the past 5 years is 2.5, meaning a female in Mongolia gives birth to 2.5 children throughout her lifetime. The birthrate varies in different population groups. The birthrate in city areas (2.1 children) is lower compared to rural areas (2.9 children). In addition, studies on population migration show that the population density is higher in settled areas such as Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan, and Erdenet cities. One out of every 10 migrants has migrated to Ulaanbaatar city and the Central region. According to official statistical data, the number of households in Ulaanbaatar city has increased by 84,577 since 200027. In addition, many aimags experienced an unusually harsh winter in 2009-2010. As a result, many nomadic families sustained significant losses of livestock and incomes which may lead to an additional surge of migration to urban areas.

Graph 6: Ulaanbaatar City Population Growth

24 National Inspection and Monitoring Agency’s annual monitoring review on school and kindergarten’s health condition, 200825 Construction unit of MECS, Kindergarten building condition study, 2005, 26 National statistical office of Mongolia, Population and Housing Census report, 2000, Ulaanbaatar27 City Statistical Office, annual statistical information bulletin, 2008

32

In order to implement major projects in mining, infrastructure, and energy sectors planned for 2010-2015, a workforce of 40,462 people will be needed. According to estimations, 115,500 people (including the family members of the workforce) are expected to migrate to Umnugobi and Dornogobi aimags in the next five years. Such large migration requires major measures such as the provision of housing, water supply, schools, and hospitals. Consequently, the number of preschool-aged population is expected to rise in the Southern region, which in turn, will require an increase in kindergarten buildings in which to provide ECE services.

Poverty reduction and livelihood has not improved to reach a sustainable level. Particularly, migrants, households in suburban districts, and single mothers and their children are more affected by poverty. In Ulaanbaatar city one-third of the population is considered poor, and 10% of the population lives in extreme poverty. Migrants account for majority of the poor compared to native residents.

Poverty remains a significant factor for low preschool enrollment rate. Poor and vulnerable groups have lower access to preschool education budget compared to non-poor population. The fact that children in alternative ECE receive half of the variable cost per child compared than children in regular kindergarten supports this conclusion. In addition, parental contributions to kindergarten hygiene and learning materials, and transportation are financial burdens for poor families.

Roughly 80% of all 341 soums in Mongolia are located over 100km from an aimag center. A nomadic family is typically distanced 10-55 km from a soum center. Such distances require higher costs and more flexible forms of education to ensure provision of social services for young children. Rural populations make up roughly 43% of the total population. Although the preschool-aged children of this population receive education via mobile kindergartens and visiting mobile teachers, there is still lack of sustainable and quality ECE.

Interviews conducted during field visits confirmed that one of the main reasons children in remote areas do not attend kindergarten is lack of transportation, particularly in inclement weather. In the Sogog bagh of Ulaankhus soum, in Baya-Ulgii aimag, the Kazakh Family Development NGO addressed this issue by providing transportation for 75 children from their homes to the kindergarten28.

The kindergarten is too far from home. During the winter we cannot reach kindergarten at all as children’s hands and foot suffer from frostbite during the walk to kindergarten.

-Ms.Maira, a mother in Ulaanhus soum, 8th bagh

28 Interview with Ms.Kulshash, “Bal-bobek” kindergarten director33

Minority Children in ECE

Kazakh children account for about 5% of all children aged 0-14. Bayan-Ulgii aimag has one of the lowest kindergarten enrollment (41.7%) rates in the country (65.4% of preschool education). Though the Government has helped increase ECE participation dramatically ,a clear picture is not available, as there is a lack of preschool enrollment data by ethnicity.

Both Bayan-Ulgii’s physical remoteness and its cultural and linguistic differences from the rest of Mongolia have contributed to Kazakh conditions being far from central level consideration. But the data paint a very clear picture of educational needs. Bayan-Ulgii aimag, which is 90% Kazakh and where over 90% of all Kazakhs in Mongolia live, has a poverty rate of 46% compared to 36% nationally. Children in this aimag drop out at over three times the national rate—the highest dropout rate in the country—and they attend formal preschool programmes at less than two-thirds of the national average—the lowest preschool participation rate in the country.

The particularly low preschool participation rates in the Kazakh aimag and the lack of either Kazakh language preschool materials or Mongolian as a second language instructional strategies mean Kazakh children start school lagging behind in language and literacy skills and may not gain a sound footing in either Mongolian or Kazakh languages.

Recommendations

There is a need to address the issues discussed above:

Increase the number of kindergarten buildings in specific areas with large populations and low access, such as cities and mining areas. Public-private partnerships can be key to increasing the number of buildings without straining the education budget.

Provide transportation to kindergartens for children who have no or infrequent access

Reduce the teacher: child ratio

Develop clear plans and processes for increasing the access to and quality of ECE to vulnerable children, particularly for Kazakh children in Bayan-Ulgii aimag

ALTERNATIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CLASSROOMS

34

ECE data of the project target areas are shown in the table below.

Table 9: Alternative ECE Enrollment Rate and Number of Teachers in Target Aimags

Aimag/city N

um

ber

of

ch

ild

ren

en

-ro

lled

in

EC

E

Of which: Enrollment rate

Fu

ll-t

ime t

each

er

Teach

er/

stu

den

t ra

tio

Sh

ift

gro

up

teach

er

Mob

ile t

each

er

Nu

mb

er

of

ch

ild

ren

en

-ro

lled

in

alt

ern

ati

ve E

CE

Nu

mb

er

of

ch

ild

ren

en

-ro

lled

In

kin

derg

art

en

Overa

ll E

CE

Alt

ern

ati

ve

Kin

derg

art

en

Bayan-Ulgii 5685 2057 3628 65.4 23.7 41.7 176 20.6 24 10

Bulgan 3586 1420 2166 96.6 38.2 58.3 97 22.3 2 0

Umnugobi 2585 703 1882 78.1 21.3 56.9 73 25.8 13 4

Khentii 4112 1090 3022 84.5 22.4 62.1 131 23.1 14 28

Ulaanbaatar4873

6 39424479

4 66.0 5.3 60.7 1795 25.0 135 1

Total 64704 9212

55492 68.5 9.8 58.8 2272 24.4 188 43

Regular and Shift Group Kindergarten Classrooms

A regular kindergarten consists of nursery (ages 1-2), lower level (ages 2), middle (ages 3), upper (ages 4), preparatory (ages 5) classes, as well as a “mixed” class which consists of children of variety of ages.

The latest statistics (2009-2010 academic year)29 show there are 712 public kindergartens which operate 3,463 classes. The national average teacher-student ratio (TSR) is 24.5. Due to migration of rural population to urban areas, class size in urban areas surpasses 35, which undermines the safety and hygiene of children and increases the workload of teachers.

A class consists of one teacher and one assistant teacher as stipulated in the Preschool Education Law. It should be noted that an assistant teacher, who assists the classroom teacher, is not taken into the TSR equation. Kindergartens consist of reception area, bathrooms, and a classroom (which has a training activity space, sleeping area, corners plants, animals, and resources, a shelf for training supplies and clothes, etc).

Shift group alternative ECE classes operate in the regular kindergarten building classrooms during the summer. Shift groups are intended for out-of-kindergarten children aged 4-5.

Ger Kindergarten Classrooms for Nomadic Children

A ger kindergarten, which consist of 1-2 gers, is located near nomadic family settlements. Training and provision of meals is provided inside the ger(s). Although many ger

29 MECS, annual statistic, 2009-2010 academic year35

kindergartens are furnished with resources and learning materials, studies30 show that roughly 20% of ger kindergartens do not have any of these resources, learning materials, and furniture.

In addition, the wooden lattice framework that supports the gers may not be strong enough to handle frequent travel. Weather provides its own challenges: During heavy rain and wind, gers cannot ensure the safety of children, ger kindergartens run out of dry firewood during continuous rains, and in the hot summers, sunstroke is possible even inside the ger.

The kindergarten environment often does not meet standards. Many ger kindergartens do not have toilet facilities. Clean and fresh water supply is not guaranteed- most nomadic kindergartens bring their own drinking water from the wells. There is a lack of food storage systems to keep food fresh.

Music players, dvds and vcds players, and laptop computers are not used due to the unavailability of electricity in the rural areas

Mobile Teachers

The mobile teacher alternative ECE programme is an important and appropriate means to deliver preschool education to young children of nomadic families and those living in remote rural areas. Soum mobile teachers visit family homes and teach children according to a pre-set schedule (usually 2-4 times per month). Although the Preschool Education Law stipulates that professional teachers are needed to run all alternative ECE services, currently this is not feasible in practice due to lack of professional teachers in rural areas. During interviews, parents expressed satisfaction with the activities of mobile teachers, however, observations conducted indicate that the teachers focus on basic skills development with few materials, and do not work with parents to enhance their skills to facilitate their young children’s growth and development.

30 Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. (2010) Evaluation Report on the Access and Quality of Alternative Early Childhood Education. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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Typical Daily Routines

The daily routine differs depending on the alternative ECE programmes, as can be seen from the table below.

Table 10: Daily Routines in Alternative ECE ProgrammesClass hours per day Characteristics of Alternative ECE Programme

Shift group (2-4 hours) Activities focus on training (Math, Pre-literacy, Creative skills). Breakfast and snack is provided, however, no lunch is provided.

Ger kindergarten (4-8 hours) Nomadic group daily routine goes as it is in formal groups.Few ger kindergartens operate part time, and provide intensive training same as shift group.

Mobile teacher (1-2 hours) Teachers visit families roughly every 2 weeks, and provide instructions for the parents and work for 1-2 hours with children and give assignments.

Recommendations

Stronger and better furnished gers need to be built to ensure the safety, and health and hygiene of children

There is a need for more frequent and quality in-service training for mobile teachers, including in the areas of parent education and readiness skills for children about to enter primary school

The Preschool Education Law needs to be reviewed taking into consideration the lack of professional teachers in rural areas to work in alternative ECE services

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TEACHERS

There are 15116 people working in 837 preschool educational organizations nationwide in the year 2009-2010.

Graph 7: Number and Type of Preschool Education Positions

743273

4307

3754

397

122

102

6039

senior managerial positions

methodologist

main class teachers

assistant teachers

music teachers

shift group teachers

mobile teachers

general staff

Graph 8: Comparison of Urban and Rural Preschool Teachers

1637

2828

Teachers

in urban

in rural

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Graph 9: Gender Differences in Preschool Teachers

all teachers female teachers male teachers 0

5000100001500020000

15116

Gender

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for awarding teaching permissions and professional degrees. Recent Government legislation that relates to preschool sector teachers includes:

2001: National programme to prepare primary and secondary education teachers and improve professional skills

2008: Procedure to improve professional skills of teachers and senior managers of preschool, primary and secondary education institutes

2008: Procedure to award or remove professional grade to teachers

2008: Procedure to award or remove teaching permissions for preschool or primary education teachers

2009: Regulation on evaluation of teacher’s performance

As of 2010, there are 4,504 kindergarten teachers in Mongolia, including methodologists (279), classroom teachers (3,814), and music teachers (411). In addition there are 3,885 assistant teachers.

Salary of teachers follow the standard rate of public servants in Mongolia, which currently at MNT309,000 (USD247). In addition to this base salary rate, teachers receive several types of bonuses for high professional degree, high performance, working in rural area. However, assistant teachers have lower salaries due to the fact they are not public servants. Although teacher salary, like other public servants, has been steadily increasing, it still needs to be increased taking in consistent with the inflation rate.

Teachers’ workload is quite high compared to primary and secondary school teachers since they have ensure safety of children at all times and usually work during 8am through 6pm.

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Pre service ECE Teacher Training

The Mongolian State University of Education (MSUE) of Mongolia’s began when the first teacher training temporary course was established in 1922, after the victory of people’s revolution of 1921. The university now boasts 12 faculties, 350 professors, and 500 staff working for 6900 undergraduates and 700 graduate students. It offers over 40 different kinds of professions nationwide. Hence it is the biggest central institution to prepare professionals for education and science sector as well as future teachers.

To become a kindergarten teacher, alternative and regular kindergartens, everyone has to complete a bachelor’s degree in preschool education according to the existing Preschool Education Law. Currently, the only preschool education college is in Ulaanbaatar city. The following graphic illustrates the structure of the preschool education training. The Preschool Education College does not provide specific course on alternative ECE services.

Figure 3: Teacher Training Programmes

The Preschool Education College has prepared over 7000 kindergarten, methodological, and music teachers in Mongolia. Since 2004 it has been working as one of the faculties of MSUE. The School of Preschool Education prepares kindergarten teachers and methodologist teachers through day and evening or even distance learning options. Diplomas and Bachelor’s degrees are awarded. The School of Preschool Education accepts students as long as they have completed secondary education. A variety of modes are available for attending courses.

In academic year 2009-2010 there were 1287 students enrolled, all but 7 of them female. The number of applicants has been growing steadily for the last few years. (See Appendix 5) According to research, this growth is likely to continue for another 5 years.

Complete secondary education

Full time Evening classes

Part time

3-year diploma

3 years 4.5 years4 years

Bachelor degree

Master degree (via 1.5 year part time courses

Prerequisite of entrants

Type of classes

Duration

Degree

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The following factors are the main reasons for the trend:

The need and interest to increase human education level

In year 2008, the State parliament ratified the Law of preschool education, which stated that “Kindergarten teachers must possess a higher education certificate in order to work as a teacher”.

New career opportunities

Privately owned and new kindergarten buildings have been opened in recent years

Inservice Opportunities

Graduates from the teacher training schools receive their diploma and work for one year at a kindergarten as an assistant teacher. At their second year they receive their certificate giving them their right to teach in the preschool sector. After receiving their certificates and working continuously for 5 years, they will be awarded with Methodologist, Leading, or Consulting degrees for which are awarded additional bonus equivalent to 5-15% of their main salary.

The main requirement for improving degree status is to attend relevant courses and collect credits. The number of teachers who attended professional training courses between 2008-2010 and a sample of courses offered can be found in Appendix 6.Teachers select courses depending on their individual professional educational needs. They pay for the course fee, although trade unions sometimes pay partial fee. These courses can be offered on national, regional, provincial, or even organizational level. They can be general or specialized. Courses are offered by individuals, domestic or foreign NGOs, the School of Preschool Education, Government organizations who specialize in teacher training or development, education authorities in urban and rural capitals, and educational research and methodological organizations.

According regulation on in-service teacher training, educational institutes and organizations interested in providing in-service training for teachers have to have the training programs accredited by the MECS. Currently the Preschool Education College, Institute of Education, the City and aimag Education Departments, and NGOs are providing accredited in service training for teachers.

All the course curricula to improve professional status are monitored by MECS, which ratifies and give permission to conduct with the course. Mongolian Education Alliance (MEA)has the highest number of accredited in-service training programs accredited by MECS.

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Issues and Recommendations

Even though a number of steps have been taken in terms of opening education programmes and/or increasing the applicants at public and private higher education institutions in Mongolia, there is a need to look into the issue of employment of graduates systematically. One of the main reasons behind the fact that graduates are not employed is the surplus of applicants for such positions at the local level.

On the other hand, there is an increasing tendency to apply to teacher training institutes only for the sake of obtaining higher education. Such graduates either choose to work in a different field or pursue studying in other fields.

Gender balance in kindergartens is disproportionate; almost all kindergarten directors and teachers are female.

Therefore, there is need to:

Develop and implement on-site in-service training programs using ICT tools

Have a complete, reliable database of human resource at local levels through continual updating of the teaching force

Organize activities and campaigns in collaboration with local stakeholders to raise teacher profile and image

Provide concrete support to those students who have really chosen the profession.

Improve supply and quality of books and learning materials for students in the Preschool Education College

Insert special short-term training courses for assistant teachers and alternative ECE services in the Preschool Education College

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CURRICULUM

Preschool Education Sector Content Standard

Prior to 1990, kindergartens in Mongolia had developed a training plan that included a set schedule for a kindergarten academic year. Furthermore, the training plan included detailed daily routine plan for lessons for children.

In 1998, Mongolia first adopted a content standard for primary and secondary education that included preschool education with child development goals and achievement levels for each age. The standard has 4 main parts: physical development, mental development, art and creative development, and socialization. The standard is distinctive in terms of providing flexibility and openness to the teaching-learning content, and the variety of methodologies and tools.

Then, in order to shift early preschool education programmes and approaches to the human development-oriented perspective, a new competency-based standard for preschool education developed and adopted in 2004. The new standard was implemented in kindergartens during the 2005-06 school year. The advantage of the new standard is that is allows teachers to plan the education process, to develop curriculum, to employ flexible teaching and evaluation methods, and to work with a focus on supporting child development. The most common issue raised by kindergarten teachers is the lack of professional and methodological support and guidebooks pertaining to development of curricula and lesson topic contents.

From 2007, with the support of UNICEF, a working team under MECS has been drafting the Early Learning & Development Standard (ELDS). MECS plans to have the draft endorsed by the Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology (MASM), which means there will be a national child-oriented ECE standard, rather than kindergarten-oriented. Such a standard will expand the roles and involvement of parents, caregivers and ECE teachers in childcare and development.

The MECS order “Policy on Preschool Education Training” (2007) sets the learning and development activity hours for children at 40 and 60%, respectively. The order also sets the minimum hours of regular kindergartens and alternative training in a given academic year.

Alternative Preschool Education Curriculum Guides

This section provides the results of research conducted into four current preschool curriculum guides, their content and methods, as well as evaluating associated teaching aides and materials. The following aspects of the curriculum guides were analyzed:

Curriculum content (Physical, cognitive, and social development)

Cultural appropriateness, development and learning needs

Implementation

43

Assessment

Theoretical or research basis

The curriculum guides analyzed were:

Ts. Pagma, Z. Bolormaa, N. Chimedtseyen, M. Tuul, Sh. Tserennadmid (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, University of the Humanities). (2005) Teaching Module of Mobile Teachers.Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Z. Bolormaa, Ya. Otgonjargal, Ch. Bayantsetseg, Sh. Densmaa (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, University of the Humanities). (2007) Teaching Module of Mobile Teachers(for teachers and 4-year-old children). Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Z. Bolormaa, Ts. Erdenechimeg, Ts. Munkhtuu (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, United Nations Children’s Fund). (2009) Alternative Course C urriculum for Y oung C hildren’s Development (for teachers and 5-year-old children). Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

А.Narmandakh, А.Narangerel, B. Purevdolgor(Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Czech Caritas NGO). (2010) Alternative Course Curriculum f or Young Children’s Development (for soum and bagh teachers, and 3-4-year-old children). Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Curriculum Content

The curriculum content of the guides listed above was analyzed by component for consistency with the Preschool Education Standard and suitability for children’s development and characteristics of age. In addition, curriculum content was analyzed for how well it addresses children’s special needs.

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Table 11:Scope of Standards of Preschool Education Contents, Curriculum Lessons and Activities, and Content

Scope of standards Lessons and activities reflected in the curriculum

Contents

Physical development Physical education Exercise Health Hygiene Safety

Intelligence development Language Hearing Understanding Speaking Writing

Mathematics assumptions Numbering Shapes Measuring Space Time

Art Drawing Sculpting and constructing Sticking Invention

Music Music Songs Dance

Social development Relationship - Environment- Relationship

Physical development

The Teaching module for mobile teachers (2005 and 2007), lack health, hygiene, exercise, and safety contents. Exercise was the only aspect addressed to any extent in any of the curriculum guides.

Cognitive development

Listening, understanding, speaking, writing, reading aspects of a language, and their preparation content is evenly spread. The guides contain a variety of activities including poems and stories to develop children’s listening ability, listening with concentration, memorization, speaking ability, and introductory writing.

Mathematics, shapes, sizes, volume and space contents are evenly spread within the curricula guides. However, activities relating to telling time are not as numerous as other concepts.

The Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development (2009 and 2010) guides have a relatively higher number of drawing activities compared to appliqué, sculpting, or creative arts contents.

Listening to music, singing, dancing to music contents are spread evenly within the guides. However, it is noted that although song lyrics were provided, the musical scores were not. In the future the musical notes need to be included along with the lyrics.

Social development.

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The relationship aspects were reflected in the curriculum as playing fun games with others, and talking about a story or legends, etc. The content dispersion was appropriate in all of the investigated curricula.

Cultural Appropriateness, Development and Learning Needs

The curriculum guides were analyzed for the extent of the relationship between content and materials and children’s real life living conditions and culture, the inclusion of guidance for working with children with special needs, the inclusion of information on mobile, nomadic, and/or shift group children, and the extent to which these environments was reflected.

The contents of the guides relate in general to the children’s living conditions and culture, however instructions on how to work with mobile, nomadic, or shift group children was not clearly separated and reflected with contrast within the curriculum.

Only the Alternative Course Curriculum for Young Children’s Development (2010) contained sufficient guidance on how teachers can work with children with special needs.

Implementation of the curriculum

The curriculum is directly dependent on the class and activity timetable, model plans, chapter organization instruction, class environment, parents’ participation, etc. In order to evaluate these aspects, the following indicators were formulated:

The inclusion of class and activity structures and timetables

The inclusion of lesson plans

Recommendations or instructions on how to organize children into groups and switch activities between groups

The specification and attachment of learning materials to be used for teaching

Recommendations and examples for adapting the curricula for mobile, nomadic, and/or shift group environments

The inclusion of working with parents when implementing the curriculum, including seminars or workshops for parents

Only the Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development (2009)contained class and activity organization and timetables. Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development(2009) and (2010) contain the necessary information for organizing into groups and changing tasks. Only the Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development(2009)contained attached teaching materials needed for teaching. It is noted that this aspect is considered to be imperative for teachers to prepare and carry out a successful course curriculum. Use of real materials for the course were specified and listed in Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development (2010) and the Teaching

46

module of mobile teachers (2005 and 2007) curricula. In order to implement the curriculum, special advice for the parents has been organized into the Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development (2009) and (2010)both have a variety of lessons for each day that allows flexibility. They also include workbooks for children.

Assessment

The intent of the assessment is to determine children’s needs, and strengths, to keep a record of children’s growth, development and learning, to plan appropriate learning experiences, and to measure children’s achievements. Therefore the following criteria for analysis were developed:

Instruction on how to assess children’s learning activities found within the instruction or grading sections

Criteria for assessment

Suggestions for using established criteria or benchmarks to assess children

Recommendations on the assessment of children on creative arts and through systematically recorded observations

Specific assessment advice for mobile, nomadic, or shift group children’s knowledge and abilities

Assessment strategies specific to children with special needs

Three of the four curriculum guides, except for the Teaching module for mobile teachers (2007)contain general assessment criteria, therefore satisfying the curriculum’s systematic quality. However, suggestions or recommendations of assessing specific aspects, such as differentiating for migrant, nomadic, or shift groups, or how to grade creative art and through observations were not addressed by any of the guides. The Alternative course curriculum for young children’s development (2010) contains templates to be filled out by both parents and teachers to assess child learning and development progress.

Theoretical Approaches of The Course Curricula Guides

A comparison was carried out with the consideration of three popular ECE theoretical approaches:

Behaviorist theory, in which children learn by observation and by following others’ actions (based on social learning theory)

Constructivism theory, in which children learn by interacting with other people and objects, and by creatively acting

47

Growth and maturity theory, in which adults care for the children so that they can gain experience and develop

Analysis was conducted focused on the following aspects of the curriculum guides:

Characteristics of the activities

Role of the teacher

Role of the children

Types and uses of learning materials

All four of the currently used preschool curricula guides lean strongly towards the behaviorist and social learning theory in which children learn by their own observation and by following other’s behavior. The guides are teacher-centered, in that teachers follow the suggested course plan curriculum.

Teaching methods based on constructivist theory were almost non-existent. Constructivist theory gives children freedom to act on their own to study at their own speed about something that interests them according to their needs, personal qualities.

Recommendations

The existing guides on curricula Increased supply and support is needed for teachers on professional and methodological guidance and guidebooks pertaining to development of curricula and lesson topic contents.

Even though teacher guidebooks exist, additional visual aids are needed to assist teachers in implementing the curricula as well as learning materials for children.

Implementation

These curricula are used by shift groups, ger kindergartens, and mobile teaching services, all of which have different teaching and learning conditions and environments. A greater focus on the curriculum development and implementation processes, taking into account the different learning plans and appropriate learning environments, should be taken.

Assessment

Guides or instructions on assessing children in migrant, nomadic, or shift groups, or how to assess creativity through observations were not addressed by any of the guidebooks.

48

SUPPLEMENTARY TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES

A survey was conducted on currently used teaching and learning resources (handbooks and study materials). These were analyzed for:

Availability

Educational content (language, cognitive, physical, psychological development)

Handbooks and books were categorized according to the target audience:

Teachers

Children

Teacher’s Books, Manuals, and Guides

Availability

42 teachers in Khentii and Umnugovi aimags were surveyed about teaching and learning resources. A complete list of the books, manuals, and guides that the teachers reported using is in Appendix 7.

The majority of resources (55%) possessed by teachers are those on teaching methodology (strategies and teaching ideas). 43% were curriculum-focused, and 2% were on the study of education.

Teachers reported a lack of availability of books addressing teaching methodology, the study of education and psychology, and research methodology. Teachers stated that they used the curriculum development books most often because they were easy to understand, the methodology is clear, and the books were widely available.

Eighty percent of the books were published before 2000.

Educational Content

The educational content of the books that the teachers used was analyzed according to the following criteria:

Consistency with Government standards for preschool education

Appropriateness to the daily learning activities and classroom environment

Cognitive development: The extent to which the book reflects developmental stages of cognition in early childhood

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Child-centered teaching method

Active teaching methodology

Availability in digital form: The availability of the books to be converted into digital form to be used for teacher training or for parents’ use

Only 12% of all the books and methodology manuals used by the teachers surveyed were published after the development of Preschool Education Standardin2005. However, the results of the analysis confirm that even though they may be dated, the books and manuals conform to the current standard.

26.5% of all the books and methodology manuals are consistent with classroom environment and daily activities in the preschool classroom. However, the content of handbooks and pro-fessional publications are broad and not clearly focused on developmental stages of young children.

Preschool teachers are familiar to the child-centered methodology in Mongolia, but lack the supporting handbooks or guidebooks for the successful implementation of child-centered learning activities in the kindergartens. In addition, many of the books lack practical tasks or questions for teachers to use.

In interviews, teachers suggested that converting the methodology manual books (physical education, music, dance, movement games, introducing to nature and environment, arts) into digital form would increase use of the manual. Less than 10% of the books and publications which were surveyed can be converted to digital format.

Children’s Books, Handbooks and Learning Manuals Available in Retail Outlets

Availability

The survey analysis focused on 201 books which were published by 6 printing companies/houses. Printing companies and book sellers reported and believed that 68% of books they published and sold are classified by children's ages and developmental stages.

Book sellers and sales department employees of printing companies surveyed reported that 60-70% of parents choose story books for their children. Story books are dominant in the book trade. Book sellers report that 30-40% of children's book buyers ask advice from them on choosing the right book for their children's age and development, as Mongolia does not have systemized information guide (children's book directory) for children's books and publications. In addition, there does not exist a common practice to introduce newly published children's books and publications for parents, children, and teachers.

Educational Content

The analysis indicated that most of the children’s books available by retail are translated and adapted from another languages and cultures into Mongolian. At times, the content and

50

meaning of words of those is not understandable for children due to poor translation, and the content of the story books do not relate to Mongolian children’s lives.

Children’s Books in the Classroom

Availability

The survey, in which 91 kindergarten teachers from Bulgan, Bayan-Ulgii aimags, Songinokhairkhan and Bayanzurkh districts participated,indicated that of the books in kindergarten classrooms, 48% are teacher’s professional books, and 52% are children’s books. The size of kindergarten classroom library or number of books depends on geographical location of kindergartens (rural/urban), size of kindergarten (how many groups in the kindergarten), and kindergarten management. The average number of children's books in the classroom is 5-10 in the rural areas (soums and baghs), and 15-20 in the urban areas (aimag centers, khoroos, and cities).

In Bayan-Ulgii aimag, less than 10% of the children’s books were published in Kazakh language.

Educational Content

Generally, a four kind of books intended for children were available in the kindergarten classrooms:

Fairy tales and rhymes

Colouring books

Children's books in foreign language

School textbooks contained in libraries of the preschool classes

The kindergartens in Bayan-Ulgii aimag did not have classroom libraries, only a few school textbooks which were imported from Kazakhstan. None of the kindergarten classrooms had a wide variety of books on different subjects, nor enough age-appropriate books for young children.

Other Classroom Resources

12kindergarten classrooms for nomadic children in Umnugobi, Bayanulgii, Dundgobi, and Arkhangai aimags were surveyed about classroom resources. The resources were classified into the following categories:

Language development

Creative development51

Cognitive/intelligence development

Physical development

Construction by assembly

Resources were then categorized by availability:

For every child

1 pack between 5-8 children

1 pack between 8-15 children

Table 12 presents the availability of teaching materials, by percentage, in the kindergarten classroom surveyed. The data presented below indicate that in the area of language development, although the vast majority of classrooms contain picture books, 13% of the classrooms contained no story books for children, and nearly half of the classrooms lack basic items such as alphabet or word flash cards.

In the area of music, there is a lack of records, cds, or tapes for listening and singing along to music. 48% of teachers do not have musical instruments or educational tools for music classes. The provision of puppet and puppet theaters is insufficient: Almost 40% of the classrooms contained no puppets.

Overall, the provision of physical education equipment is very limited for the kindergarten classrooms. More than 80% of classrooms surveyed do not have basic equipment such as balls or circles for the physical development of young children.

Math concepts and skills development is crucial in early childhood. Basic and comprehensive games as puzzles or shagai encourage the mathematic skills of young children. However, the survey showed that almost 40% of kindergarten classrooms contained no puzzles or other supportive games for children’s mathematics skills.

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Table 12: The Availability of Teaching Materials Used in the Kindergartens (% of Classrooms)

Language, writing

For every child

1 for 5-8 children

1 for 8-15 children

Not available

Picture book 26 52 19 3

Story books, fairy stories, legends etc

16 55 16 13

Child development books 16 42 29 13

Alphabet flash cards 3 32 16 49

Word flash cards 7 29 16 48

Picture cards 13 39 16 32

Music

Cassette player 74 26

TV 35 65

Photo camera 29 71

Music, records database 42 58

Musical instruments for teacher’s use (string instruments, keyboard instruments)

51 48

Musical instruments for children’s use (bell bars, rattlers)

16 32 29 23

Theatrical play

Puppets (finger, string puppets) 29 32 39

Toy replicas of all kinds of foods. 19 58 23

Picture board for everyday life13 42 39 6

Toy tools for household use 3 32 52 13

Table theatre 3 19 36 42

Physical development

Climbing equipments (rope etc.) 19 29 52

Physical movement measurement equipments

16 26 58

Balancing rod 13 23 64

Jumping rope10 55 19 16

Ball 10 42 32 16

Circles 10 29 39 22

Small equipments for small muscles of hands

10 39 25 26

Puzzles

Picture puzzle 10 39 35 16

Shape puzzle 3 36 42 19

Color puzzle 10 39 32 19

Assembling puzzle 3 32 29 36

Development of mathematical imagination

Geometry shapes, big and small16 39 39 6

Measuring equipments (weight, length, liquids, small particles)

16 45 39

Geometry shapes 6 39 39 16

Paper and magnet numbers 6 16 52 26

Chess, and other strategy games 3 45 36 16

Anklebone (shagai- is a Mongolian traditional game)

29 32 26 13

General knowledge

development

Flash cards of animals and plants 48 19 33

Tools for gardening 19 32 49

Natural materials 6 13 36 45

Tools and materials for experiments

13 26 61

Materials for the use of teachers

Portable computers 13 87

Printers 26 74

Copiers 26 74

LCD projectors 6 94

Posters for teachers use 84 16

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Printers 26 74

Copiers 26 74

LCD projectors 6 94

Posters for teachers use 84 16

Issues and Recommendations

Teachers’ Books, Manuals, and Guides

In general, there is a lack of books and methodology manuals for teachers. Most books, manuals, guides for teachers that are currently used are more than 10 years old. In addition, the content of number of publications are focused mainly on teacher-centered methodology and group classroom environments.

In order to address the above issues, it is recommended that:

The availability of key publications, including manuals of national standards and active learning textbooks and handbooks, for teachers is improved

The quality is improved and the number increased of the methodology handbooks by subjects (language, math, creative, movement and sport and music etc.) and by ages (for up to 3 years, from 3 to 6 years)

In addition, teachers should have more professional resources from which to draw:

Curriculum development by ages and developmental stages

Active teaching and child-centered teaching methodology, including provision of equal opportunity to all children

Handbooks and working guidelines working with children with disabilities

Publications for parents and working with parents, families and communities

Children’s Books, Handbooks, and learning materials

The application and distribution of children’s workbooks and exercise books are very limited in preschool classrooms. Teachers use story books for language development activities. Other developmental activities as math, creative-arts, and physical education do not have subject matter books and learning materials to promote children’s learning. In addition, the lack of guidebooks for parents and on parenting skills is of concern.

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Other Classroom Resources

Overall, kindergartens do not have enough budget funding for learning materials and classroom learning resources. The Law on Preschool Education states that “The state budget for kindergarten includes cost of learning materials...31. But implementation of the Law is difficult. For example, only 0.02percent of preschool state budget allocated for classroom learning materials for Dundgobi aimag 201032.

For the past 10 years MECS has provided resources and training supplies for a number of kindergartens, with the support of donor organizations. However, there is currently no standard, nor national strategy on the improvement of kindergarten classroom resources. Consistent Government provision of classrooms with appropriate and adequate resources is an important issue for rural kindergartens and alternative ECE programmes.

In order to address the above issues, recommendations include:

To develop a list of resource materials for preschool classrooms by ages and developmental stages

To improve the availability of resource materials for preschool classrooms which are consistent with the Preschool Education Standard

To improve teachers’ and caregivers’ knowledge about the use of resource materials for children’s development

To improve physical and e-learning (distance education) facilities for mobile ger kindergartens including generators, sanitation facilities and televisions, and radios

31 Law on Preschool Education , Article #, 2006

32 Budget allocation for kindergartens for 2010, in Dundgobi aimag55

READINESS TESTING

Mongolia does not have sustainable system that regularly assesses school readiness of children. In the past, only two studies have been carried out to assess the readiness level of 6-year-old children- in 200833, when the 11-year education system was in force, and 5-year-old children in 201034, after the shift to a 12-year education system. The studies were carried using the following domains to assess the readiness level:

Table 13: School Readiness Assessment Results (2010)Domains % of Children Successfully Completing Tests

Physical development 70.1%Learning approach 60.1%Social development 70.9%Language development 64.25%Cognitive development 58.8%

Assessment results indicate that a child’s readiness level depends on the number of years s/he attended a kindergarten, parents’ education and income level, and rural-urban disparity.

PARENTS’ AND FAMILY MEMBERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

In order to inspect the parents’ level of understanding of preschool education, the following materials were reviewed: the Methodology for evaluating the children’s readiness for school booklet, the State of readiness of 5-year-old children researched in 201035, and the State of readiness of 6-year-old children researched in 2008 by the institute of education36.

The following criteria were proposed in order to evaluate how parents interviewed in the reports understood the development of young children, their readiness for school, and how they were training their children:

The relationship between parents’ income and education levels and the de-velopment of children

Parental knowledge and understanding of children’s readiness for school

Parent beliefs about their own children’s readiness for school

33 Institute of Education (2010). State of Readiness of 5-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia34 Institute of Education (2008). State of Readiness of 6-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia35 Institute of Education (2010). State of Readiness of 5-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.36 Institute of Education (2008). State of Readiness of 6-years-old Children. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

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Parents’ Level of Income and the Ability to Pay for Early Childhood Education

It is perceived that the most important factor in determining the child’s healthy growth and development is the level of income in a family with young children. This was demonstrated clearly in the research. Children in lower income families had under- developed language skills and health problems that were seen to be crucial factors for learning process at the time of enrollment to kindergarten.

Hidden Costs

There is little doubt that the kindergarten free meal programme is a major incentive for parents to send their children to kindergarten. Unfortunately, available evidence from interviews held in ger districts around UB and in rural aimags suggest that the very poorest parents, even if they are within travelling distance of an available kindergarten and even if the kindergarten has sufficient capacity, are often unable to afford the entrance requirements which are specified by MECS and which they are required to pay. These supplies cover hygienic and sanitary supplies and materials for learning activities. It is estimated that parental investment costs for kindergarten entry can range from MNT12,000 to MNT40,000+(About USD 9-32)(See Appendix 8 for a breakdown of materials and costs).

In interviews, some kindergarten teachers noted that they have had to subsidize some of the required supplies (e.g. toilet paper and toothpaste, etc) out of their own pockets in order to ensure that children from the poorest families can continue to attend.

Parent’s Education and Children’s Development

Parents’ education level was compared with children’s language skills and mathematics ability at age 5. As is clear from the tables below, the higher the parent’s education level the higher the child’s language and mathematics skills levels.

Table 14: Correlation of parents’ education level with the children’s language skills

Education level of parents ParentsLanguage skill level of a child by percentage

Low Medium Good

Uneducated Father 60 40 0Mother 46 36 18

Primary education Father 25.9 37.1 37Mother 32 36 32

Basic education Father 41.3 39.7 19Mother 33.3 43.1 23.6

Complete secondary education

Father 40 39.2 20.8Mother 38.3 41.8 19.9

Vocational education Father 42.9 42.8 14.3Mother 32.3 48.4 19.4

Higher education Father 26.9 50 23.1Mother 34.7 41.7 23.6

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Table 15: Correlation between the child’s mathematical skill level and parent’s educational level

Education level of parents ParentsMathematics skill level of a child by percentage

Low Medium Good

Uneducated Father 70 20 10Mother 72.7 27.3 0

Primary education Father 51.9 33.3 14.8Mother 48 36 16

Basic education Father 50.8 28.6 20.6Mother 59.7 19.4 20.8

Complete secondary education

Father 50.8 21.7 27.5Mother 52.5 22 25.5

Vocational education Father 52.4 23.8 23.8Mother 41.9 19.4 38.7

Higher education Father 25 25 50Mother 29.2 30.6 40.3

Parents’ Knowledge and Understanding of Children’s Readiness for School

The 6-Year-Old research examined what parents know or understand about children’s readiness for school. The results showed that the parent’s understanding and attitude towards certain issues differed greatly among the 400 families that participated in the study.

The main indicators for a child’s readiness for school as suggested by the parents is:

Child’s health, physical state, agility (55.1%)

Child’s social adaptation (66.9%)

Emotional development, approach to learning, methodology (66.4%)

According to the 5-Year-Old children’s research a large percentage of parents are not familiar with the kindergarten curriculum:

32.2% of parents whose children go to kindergarten

26% of parents whose children study alternative course curriculum

41.8% of parents whose children do not go to any formal school

Children’s Level of Development, and the Evaluation of Parents and Teachers

The parents were asked of their perception of their children’s school readiness level according to the five domains below. The comparison between the actual school readiness test results of children and parents indicates that parents assume their children have higher skill levels than the children actually have.

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However, the research results indicated that the kindergarten teachers’ evaluations are closer to the actual assessment. This may be because the teachers had the necessary knowledge to indicate whether the child is ready for school or not.

Table 16:Beliefs on Children’s Readiness by Parents and Teachers Compared with Actual Assessment Results of Children

Areas Children’s development level(research results)

%

Parents’ evaluation%

Teachers’ evaluation%

Physical development 70.1% 95% 68.9%Study approach and methods 60.1% 76% 61.3%Interpersonal and social development 70.9% 94% 71.8%Language development 64.25% 90.3% 65.3%Level of basic mathematical assumptions 58.8% 94.2% 59.2%

Issues and Recommendations

There is a need for an established system that regularly assesses the school readiness of all children of every kindergarten. This system would require capacity-building of local ECE authorities in terms of test development skills as well as adoption of a cost-effective technology.

Several measures may be needed to assist parents whose children cannot attend ECE ser-vices but who are learning at home:

To organize practical workshops and seminars for parents to improve working with children at home

To familiarize parents with ECE curricula

To supply information on how to support children’s development by using mass media

Provide targeted budget support to cover hidden costs for parents

Training for Parents

Training for parents should focus on:

Improving parenting skills on children’s learning and development

Building parenting skills to work individually with children

Providing instruction for parents to use learning resource materials for child development

Enhancing the knowledge and skills of parents on child development and education domains

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STAKEHOLDERS

Donor Stakeholder Activities

In the last few years the scope of support for ECE has grown in Mongolia. The main donors in the sector are UNICEF and Save the Children (UK)37. However, a variety of international organizations contribute to ECE in Mongolia, including the World Bank, ADB, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Technological Cooperative Organization of Germany (GIZ).A general overview of activities is described briefly below. A more complete list of project activities can be found in Appendix 9.

Ger Kindergarten Programmes

UNESCO implemented the Provision of Comprehensive Mobile Education and Cultural Services for Herders in Mongolia-1 and 2 projects between2004-2009. The projects’ framework coveredthe establishment of ger kindergartens and providedsupport with necessary equipment, teacher and parent training,and parents’ and children’s books.

The Fast Track Initiative(FTI)(2007-08) provided gers, equipment, furniture, and resources for summer mobile kindergartens dedicated to nomadic children in rural kindergartens. This initiative also organized training courses and materials on the establishment and operations of ger kindergartens for provincial educators, principals, and teachers. The FTI, a global partnership of donors (Belgium, Canada, Sweden, UK, Spain, ЕU, Ireland, UN agencies and development partners), receives financial assistance through Catalytic Fund, administered by the World Bank.

The Sustainable Livelihoods project is a three-phased programme intended to last 12 years from 2002-2014.The funding comes from different sources: International Development Association, the World Bank, European Union, Japanese Policy and Human Resources Development Grant, Mongolian Government, and local administration. It is administered by World Bank and includes 670 sub-projects on the building, rehabilitation, extension, heating, lighting, and facility and equipment improvement of kindergartens in order to increase capacity and enrollment. The project also supports the operation of summer ger kindergartens.

World Vision operates local programmes in kindergartens of select aimags, soums and districts by providing assistance to renovation and extension of kindergarten buildings, the supply of equipment, furniture, resources, and other study materials, and the operation of summer ger kindergartens in soums.

Improving Preschool Education Quality

МECS and Save the Children UK jointly implemented the Improving the Quality of Preschool and Primary School Education project from 2006-2009 in 7 provinces and 2 districts of Ulaanbaatar city. The main goals of the project were to improve the quality of preschool and

37 ADB consultant’s report 200860

primary education, and to make available for children from poor families by instilling skills- oriented knowledge on national and domestic levels of the preschool sector. In addition, the projects is aimed at increasing participation of parents, the public, and NGOs in ECE.

UNICEF’s extensive Basic Education project (2006- present) addresses access, quality, and effectiveness of ECE through the development of comprehensive early childhood laws, education standards for young children, and an alternative ECE course curriculum for young children. Within the curriculum development aspect, workshops for the teachers were organized and teaching materials distributed. In addition, UNICEF has conducted research into readiness for school of 6-year-old children and on alternative training curriculum.

UNESCO Office Beijing supported MECS to develop a national pre-school curriculum (2007) based on the new education standard, which focuses on a child-centered approach.

Private Sector Activities

One of the priorities of the Master Plan is to provide the technology, finance, human, and other necessary resources needed to improve the access to and quality of the education by encouraging the creative participation of international organizations, financial institutes, individuals, foreign and domestic organizations and to improve the way to cooperate with them to increase its effectiveness.

As of 2009 there were 108 privately owned kindergartens operating in Mongolia. According to the Education Law, permission may be granted to privately owned organizations for the establishment of kindergartens by the soum and district governors.

Private kindergartens are owned by mostly individuals. In addition, charity organizations fund private kindergartens to ensure early childhood services for children from poor families. There are few large corporations in Mongolia that operate kindergartens for children of their employees. For example, Mongolian Railway, a Government corporation, had established kindergartens in major railway stations, and currently operates and fully funds 27 kindergartens.

The percentage of children who attend privately owned kindergartens has increased from 3.8% (2004) to 5.4% (2009). It is estimated that by 2015 the percentage will reach 10%.

Social Sector Work in Mongolia

Currently there are 922 social workers working in 476 soums, villages and khoroos. The social workers do not have direct involvement in early childhood services, however they do play certain roles by assisting families in need who have young children. In urban settings, the district and khoroo social workers coordinate the implementation of social services available from the Government and support humanitarian assistance from international and national organizations to vulnerable populations. Under this task, the khoroo social workers provide parents with information (e.g. paper requirements for getting social allowances for children, or disability, unemployment allowances, or pension-related issues). Moreover, the social workers act as a bridge between district authorities and khoroos by delivering information (e.g. data on number of families in needs, number of young age children in need of medical, early childhood, and other social services). In addition, at the khoroo level there

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are other administrative workers such as section leaders or mobilizers38, who work on volunteer basis under management of khoroo coordinator. The section supervisors also assist khoroo social workers.

In rural settings soum is divided into baghs, which has only one administrator, the bagh governor. The bagh governor has almost the same role as khoroo section leader, but works alone. The bagh governors report sick children to local medical personnel or clinic, deliver information such as available assistance for small children to families, and prepare data for authorities on preschool aged children to ensure attendance at kindergarten.

Issues and Recommendations

Though social workers have no direct participation in providing kindergarten for children, they do have close contacts with households and know very well the actual situations of children living in difficult circumstances. Therefore, more involvement of social workers in early childhood services is recommended in the following ways:

Social workers act as facilitators for local parents support groups. Interviews with parents indicated close relationship of families with the section leaders.

The section leaders be more informed about ECE and have regular contact with local Government offices and the khoroo governor’s office. This way, the section leaders may obtain commitments from the local Government on local parents’ ECE groups.

In rural areas, bagh governors often perform the same duty as section leaders. However, bagh governors have other duties under contract with the Government. Therefore, alternative ECE teachers may act as the facilitators

Conduct parent support groups

Parent support group facilitators need to be trained in ECE in order to raise awareness among parents, to ensure ongoing progress within the parent support groups and to network with local ECE stakeholders.

Have a social worker at soum level to work with families that have young children and to act as an advocate for them. Currently, the soum social worker does not exist, and to have this position funded by the Government would be very challenging. The main responsibility of the social worker would be to work with parents who have children with no ECE coverage. The duties may include training of parents and organizing advocacy activities for better early childhood services. Therefore, the soum social worker needs to be an experienced kindergarten teacher or ECE professional.

38 The section leader or mobilizer is a volunteer, who works for khoroo under supervision of khoroo coordinator. The main task is to deliver news, information to khoroo population, and mobilizes people for government policy implementation purpose.

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IMPROVING ADVOCACY FOR AND PARENTAL AWARENESS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

The issues of promoting ECE and improving parents and caregivers’ involvement in ECE are actively discussed topics among Government agencies, international organizations, mass media, non-governmental organizations, and private sector.

National Policies

Mongolian Preschool Education Law39provides that parents and caregivers have the rights to be counseled, assisted and informed on their children’s health, development and education. In addition, the law provides two “responsibilities” of parents and caregivers: They may assist kindergarten staff in the creation of a positive environment for their children and they may participate in the kindergarten activities by providing professional assistance in line with their employment and job specifics.

In 2007, a decree40 by the Minister of Education was released to guide early childhood institutions in their work on increasing participation of parents, caregivers and community in early childhood education activities. The following four ways of cooperation were advised:

To create constant communication with parents and families

To increase ECE knowledge of parents and families

To allow parent participation in decision making process on child related matters

To promote public relations on ECE

One of the priorities of the Mongolian Education Master Plan is to establish an education information management system (EMIS) in Mongolia. In addition, it highlights the importance of creating family centered, mobile seasonal, parental and distance learning services to ensure the development of nomadic children in rural areas.

Since 2008 MECS and UNICEF have been working on a draft of the new ECE standard41 that highlight the integration of ECE with the participation of health and social service institutions, and parent and family involvement to ensure extended ECE coverage for all children of 0-6. One of advantages of the new ECE standard is that it provides detailed roles of parents and caregivers in the facilitation of the education of their children according to age group and developmental indicators.

39 The Preschool Education Law of Mongolia 200840 MECS (2007). A decree on parents participation in ECE41 UNICEF and MECS (2008). A proposal on ECE new standard, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Local Policies

At the local level, the Ulaanbaatar governor issued an order on the implementation of the Education-2012 programme42. Among many other issues the programme addresses advancing school management through participation of parents, using information technology in the public education activities, providing parents with home-based education for children with disabilities, and establishing an ECE information database. Particularly, the programme aims to connect city schools and kindergartens to the ECE database for the purpose of information exchange, training, monitoring, and reporting. Likewise, aimag and soum governors develop local plans that have a section on ECE. The local plans are devised in line with respective long term area development programme as well as Mongolia’s education sector master plan, which in turn highlights emerging ECE issues such as parents’ training.

Community Activities

ECE advocacy and awareness activities for local communities are organized mainly through sport and cultural competitions among parents with young children. For instance, UNESCO project43 organized dual training-competition activities, which involved about 1745 nomadic parents. The competitions were aimed providing knowledge for parents on working with their pre-school-aged children and preparing their children for school. The project mobile ger kindergartens were training spots for providing of non-formal education services and different types cultural, sports activities for herders. In addition, cultural events were effective in disseminating ECE information to nomadic parents(e.g. a mobile photo exhibition of local historical and cultural heritage, cultural performances, concerts, various activities of knowledge challenging competitions such as karaoke, riddles and question competitions, family competitions and sports competitions involving nomadic families).

“The number of children per household has decreased in recent years. Now parents focus on their children’s development more, but they have insufficient knowledge and experience in developing their children. Young parents in particular have had no experience in raising children. It is very unclear where they should seek the necessary information and who should provide this information. Only they are able to get some sporadic information on TV.”

-Governor, aimag level

International Organization Support

42The Ulaanbaatar city Citizen Representatives’ Khural (2009). The Education-2012 program, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia43UNESCO (2008). Annual Report for the “Provision of Comprehensive Mobile Education and Cultural services for Herders in Mongolia Phase-II” project, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Since 2005, UNICEF has supported trainings for parents and facilitated workshops on preparing young children for school by mentors from the IOE and kindergarten teachers, as parents and caregivers have poor knowledge and little appreciation of the importance of early childhood care and development. The aim of this initiative was to train parents about the key skills necessary to ensure children’s school readiness within the family and to change their attitude from passive recipients of services to active educators for early childhood education programmes and school preparedness. In 2008, in conjunction with the Institute of Education, it conducted training for 210 parents in Khovd, Dornod, Uvs and Bayan-Ulgii aimags, and in Ulaanbaatar city with support of the Department of Family Studies at Ulaanbaatar University. The training module for parents focuses on communication within the family, not only with children, but also between parents as a fundamental step. The module helps parents to improve communication with young children by improving the children’s socio-emotional and language development. Low-level participation by families in preschool education and over-reliance on service providers remain to be addressed. UNICEF has also supported development of toolkits for parents. The purpose of the development of family-based early childhood development toolkits for parents (in VCD format) is to empower parents and families as partners in supporting their children’s growth and development, blending traditional child-rearing practices and cultural beliefs with evidence based approaches, and empowering children by enabling them to initiate and carry out their own learning and exploration of their surroundings with age-appropriate activities. In the reporting period, the toolkits on development of children aged 0-3 was completed. In the next stage, the toolkits on development of children aged 4-6 will be developed. More than 5,000 families in remote soums of Bayan-Ulgii, Khovd, Uvs, and Dornod aimags received comprehensive knowledge on early childhood development through the introduction of toolkits.

Within the Quality of Basic Education project implemented by European Union and Save the Children, in 2006-2009, three programmes were developed, one of which was dedicated to strengthening school, parents and teachers partnership in Bayankhongor, Zavkhan, Khovd, Khuvsgul, Selenge, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Bayan-Ulgii provinces and Chingeltei, Khan-Uul districts of UB city.

Under the Soros foundation, Mongolian Education Alliance conducted the trainings for parents with EC in 7 aimags and their khoroos of UB for 2 years. Moreover, training for parents with disabled children was organized jointly with World Vision Mongolia.

World Vision Mongolia has provided various support in the education sector, namely training for parents, rural mobile teachers and other alternative training programs, school supplies for 1st grade school students, books, and construction of kindergartens in 6 districts of Ulaanbaatar city as well as in 19 aimags.

Caritas Mongolia organization produced handbooks for parents on working with children age of 3-5 along with an exercise book for children. Also, training DVD with classes for kindergarten teachers working in rural areas was an innovative approach that provided a distance learning opportunity for teachers. This video class was taught by professional ECE teachers.

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“In the last decade, community attitude on early childhood education has been changed positively. A current focus of early childhood activities should be on strengthening parent’s capacity in working with their children and their participation in ECE community initiatives.”

Tsendsuren Tumee, Early childhood development officer, UNICEF Officer for Mongolia

Issues and Recommendations

Policies, Activities, and International Support

According to MECS (2007), one of the pressing issues of ECE is insufficient […information] for stakeholders at the local level. Moreover, another issue identified was the attitude of parents towards early childhood development, which is changing slowly. Therefore, it is recommended that:

A local network of ECE stakeholders is established that aims to supporting participation of parents along with technical and financial support of the Government and/or international organizations.

Support be provided in the training of teachers, as well as parents and caretakers of young children, to develop skills and capacities in cooperation and communication44.

The Mongolian Education Master Plan and the Ulaanbaatar city education programme both highlight an establishment of the EMIS however; it has not been started yet. An integrated source of ECE relevant information or ECE database would be useful to preschool sector professionals as well by parents. Furthermore, distance learning options have so far provided limited opportunities for parents due to distribution in selected areas. Recommendations include:

An integrated source of ECE relevant information or an ECE database would be useful for preschool sector professionals as well for parents. Piloting of mobile phone applications in dissemination of information from the ECE database may work well both for urban and rural settings.

Different options of ECE distance learning should be available for parents in order to support their positive behavior that leads to more participation of parents in early childhood development and education. For any distance learning, availability and coverage should reflect the needs of that particular area (e.g. to produce sufficient number of copies or to make parents learning materials available in the best communication means). The distance learning options shall not be limited only by the

44MECS, UNICEF, and UNESCO (2007). Review of the Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy Implementation, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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video class. It could be a television or radio series class for parents, or a mobile phone messaging service for parents that ensures continuous support to parents in addition to alternative ECE training for their children.

In accordance with the Preschool Education Law, kindergartens teachers are responsible for counseling and informing parents of topics related to their children. Because the state funds all expenses of kindergarten, parents may not be engaged in kindergarten’s decision making processes that affect their children. However, there has not been any clear guidance nor action plan that instructs on how to do so. Therefore:

The current Preschool Education Law should be amended to provide a convenient legal environment that supports early childhood institutions in engaging parents and families in ECE

The 14th article of the Preschool Education Law should be clarified in order to strengthen a partnership of kindergartens with parents. Particularly, the article should focus on equal responsibilities of parents and ECE institutions in development and education of young children attending kindergartens.

The low teacher: child ratio in many kindergartens negatively affects the communication and partnership between parents and teachers. Teachers lack of time to communicate with parents. In addition, lack of funding provides a distinct challenge to the development and implementation of parent-related activities. Recommendations to address these issues include:

Kindergarten teachers, including assistant teachers, should be trained on working with parents and families. The training should reflect geographical, ethnical, cultural and other specifics of the regions

Each kindergarten should have own programme on partnership with parents. Adequate funding should be provided for these programmes. The provision of more teachers at kindergartens would allow for increased opportunity to work on ECE awareness raising among parents.

The national ECE policies should support current good practices and initiatives of international organizations in supporting parents’ participation in ECE. For instance, UNICEF established a counseling center for parents and community at aimag level but it does not yet have commitments from the Government in terms of funding. Ownership and commitments from national and local governments on engaging parents and caregivers in ECE is another major challenge. These issues may be initially addressed by:

Raising awareness through spreading best practice strategies of international organizations

Mass Media Coverage for ECE

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Currently, Mongolia has 383 media organizations, including 110 newspapers, 109 TVs and 76 radio stations (68 of them FM stations). The numbers of daily newspapers, television stations, and FM radio stations have tripled in the last decade.

The ADB JFPR 9138 MON ECE Project team conducted a mapping of TV and Radio Children’s programmes in Mongolia. The mapping studied programme policies regarding 3-5 year-old children, details of children’s programmes (focus areas, target groups, type of programmes, results) as well as their experience on reaching out parents. Also, the ways of promoting parents’ participation in ECE were analyzed.

The mapping report shows that only the Mongolian National Broadcasting (MNB) has a separate Children’s Television Programme department within its structure. As part of MNB, the Mongolian National Radio (MNB) also has a separate Children’s Radio Programme department within its structure. The MNB is a public funded station with a nationwide broadcasting.

In addition, many private television stations broadcast programmes for young age children and for teenagers, however none address parents nor promote parents and care givers’ participation in the early childhood education except for occasional advice for parents.

The daily newspaper “Today” (Unuudur) had issues in the third quarter of the 2010 extensively devoted to child development topics, including child’s physical and psychological well-being. Also, the newspaper advertises child entertainment performances such as a photo exhibition, a children’s fashion show, and movies. In addition, a few newspapers release a section named “A World of the Children” with a size of half or full page of those newspapers. The children’s section reports on child development issues, advice to parents, and tells new children’s stories.

There are many websites, blogs, and portals that actively discuss child development issues. The web site www.kindergarten85.com was created by the Parenting Council of Kindergarten No. 85. The website includes icons such as schedules, study groups, activities by kindergarten staff, learning environment, food and nutrition, 2-5 year-old children’s characters, and counseling for parents and caregivers. Detailed descriptions of the programmes are available inAppendix10.

With a purpose of assessing current media coverage for ECE, a national consumers’ survey of Press Institute of Mongolia was also reviewed. This survey has been conducted since 2003 on a quarterly basis. The survey identifies the most used media. The third quarter issue of the 2010 was reviewed, which identified the most used media, including the most watched television programmes, popular radio shows, the most read newspapers, successful advertising, and the most surfed websites/portals for April – June 2010.The survey identified 100 television programmes that have the most viewers. Just two of these programmes focused on child development issues.

According to ECE communications field survey45 in Bulgan aimag, 26 out of 26 households at the soum center had televisions, but electricity is an issue, and television is only watched for limited hours (usually between 6-9pm).The most popular radio station among rural residents is the Mongolian National Radio. In fact, it is a dominant communication channel in rural areas, where infrastructure is less

45JFPR 9138-MON ECE project (2010). A pre-survey on needs of parents/caregivers for ECE information and educational resources and ECE communication tool for the project target areas, Bulgan, Mongolia

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developed. The peak hours of the MNB radio is 7- 9 am and 12- 3pm. Therefore, for nomadic parents, who lack of communication devices, the radio is most accessible information source. However, it does not have any parenting-focused programmes. In UB city, the Auto radio and Family radio have the most listeners. Complete results from the analysis of National Consumers’ Survey is contained in Appendix11.

Issues and Recommendations

A weak infrastructure challenges distribution of newspapers and periodicals to rural areas. Also, the magazines are sold at prices that may be difficult to afford. Internet web sites that provide counseling children’s development and their education issues are not regular. Moreover, news, information and recommendations on ECE for parents on web sites are mainly translation materials from foreign resources. Lastly, the financial difficulties of rural and migrant, or poor families compound the distribution of ECE information. To address these issues, it is recommended that:

A dedicated ECE website is developed with the purpose of exchanging information and strengthening teacher-parent collaboration is developed

The establishment of an ECE database and dissemination of ECE information to parents via mobile phones.

Training of media professionals on ECE is important in order to increase publishing and broadcasting on the issue of parents’ participation in ECE, and to raise awareness among parents to about their roles in the development and education of young age children. The following recommendations may result in more regular media coverage of ECE:

Organize a regular open discussion on ECE policy level issues such as care giving by parents, child health advice, parent and community participation, parents’ positive behavior on ECE, and solutions to emerging ECE problems.

Launch a TV or radio series programmes that engage parents in live interviews

Deliver information, education and communication (IEC) materials on ECER through television, radio and other media sources.

As the country’s largest ethnic minority, the Kazakh people’s language and cultural needs should be considered. Currently, Кazakh people in Bayan-Ulgii watch three Chinese channels and three of Kazakhstan on television. Kazakh children watch children’s programmes of the Mongolian television stations, however due to the language barrier they only see images and have little understanding about the contents of those programmes. Kazakh people listen to a one-hour long programme in Kazakh language that is produced in Bayan-Ulgii but broadcasted through the Mongolian National Radio channel. This programme has no component for children or parents. In addition, parents in Bayan-Ulgii wish to have both children’s radio and television programming in the Kazakh language. Recommendations in this area include:

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Make available television and radio children’s programmes that are popular among Kazakh children in their language

Extend the current hour-long local programme for parent education purposes

Launch new early childhood education-focused and culturally appropriate television and radio programmes for children and parents in Bayan-Ulgii.

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PARENT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

Different national and international organizations conduct trainings for parents on child developmental issues, and there are a few television and radio programmes that provide advice to parents. However, most of the media programmes are for children and their parents’ programme time is irregular. In rural areas, parents receive early childhood information on an occasional basis (e.g. during cultural events).

The Education Master Plan of Mongolia recommends support for ECE training for parents, however in reality there has not been much support from the Government in terms of raising awareness on ECE among parents and care givers.

There are three main cultural celebrations for children in Mongolia each year. Children’s Day is celebrated on the 1st of June. Also, the 1st September, (the beginning of academic year) and the New Year are celebrated as children’s events. A national campaign dedicated to children is usually organized during these celebrations. In addition, the Puppet Theater of Mongolia performs for two seasons, autumn and winter.

There are many clubs, short-term courses, competitions, and contests run for children on various subjects. However, these activities do not usually focus on promoting parents’ commitment towards their participation in the development and education of young children.

In fact, the needs assessment survey of the “Provision of comprehensive mobile training and services to herders in Mongolia-2”46 project indicated that when asked where they receive information from, 30.4% of the participants answered ‘television’, 25.1% reported ‘friends and acquaintances’ and 21.9% replied that radios are usually the source. Moreover, 48.8% of participants responded that one of the major reasons for the failure to obtain useful information is a lack communication and discussion among herders. On the other hand, the survey indicated that herders are often self-conscious and do not enjoy discussing matters with strangers. Also these herders do not receive regular guidance from teachers, assistants or counsels nor do they have nearly an adequate number of books or manuals to help them. Therefore, before conducting any ECE trainings, dissemination of news and updates or carry out cultural services and entertainment, encouragement of herders to take part in such activities, and promotion of their enthusiasm in working as a group is essential.

The international organizations that implement ECE projects conduct training for parents, but only those living in their target areas. Most parent training is conducted by the Mongolian Education Alliance.

“There are many challenges that we face in conducting parents training. Particularly, parents of poor families living in outskirt of the city not likely to attend parents training unless proper incentives are offered.”

-Mr.Batjargal, Mongolian Education Alliance NGO

46 UNESCO (2008). Annual Report for the “Provision of Comprehensive Mobile Education and Cultural services for Herders in Mongolia Phase-II” project, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Meeting Parents’ Needs in ECE Settings

Within most state preschools, because of the large number of children enrolled, teachers simply do not have enough time to meet with each parent on a regular basis. Information is usually disseminated through infrequent parent conferences and “information boards” at the preschool sites. However, this information typically addresses preschool activities or needs, or children’s growth and development topics- not parenting issues.

In private kindergartens a ratio of children and teachers is kept within normal range (1:12). Teachers therefore have more opportunity to pay a close attention to each child and are enabled with more opportunities to spend informal quality time with parents to discuss individual development of children. However, parenting workshops or seminars are also not organized within private kindergartens.

In addition to kindergartens, children’s play centers became very popular in urban areas. Currently, Ulaanbaatar has number of play centers. These centers are fully equipped with modern and attractive resources. Parents are instructed to wait outside while their children play inside. This waiting time of parents could be used to provide information and materials on child development issues, or parents could be invited in to interact with their children. For example, in 2010 a center for Indigo children was established in Ulaanbaatar. The center has activities for children, a full-time kindergarten, parent education, and counseling for parents. This center is the first to apply a new approach to ECE that includes education of parents alongside of children’s activities.

Training Handbooks for Parents

Training handbooks that address parenting skills and behavior have been published by international and national organizations, including the Mongolian Education Alliance (MEA), MECS, UNICEF, UNESCO, and Save the Children. Most books cover child growth and development and they have instructions for parents how to work with their young children. There is a handbook for nomadic parents as their culture and daily regime are very different than the urban life style. Some of the books have children’s section or a separate children’s exercise book. The exercises are intended to be done by children but some call for parents’ involvement. A list of currently available training handbooks and their main focuses are included in Appendix 12.

Issues and Recommendations

As stated earlier, the Education Master Plan of Mongolia recommends support for ECE training for parents, however in reality there has not been much support from the Government in terms of raising awareness on ECE among parents, and caregivers.

There are both television and radio programmes for children, but there is a lack of parent-focused programming.

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Meeting Parents’ Needs in ECE Settings

Although there are array of clubs and centers for children there is no interactive activities for parents and children. Parents have positive attitudes and knowledge about preschool education and are aware that their children must attend kindergartens, but they do not have enough experience in participating in the education process. Parents and caregivers who involved in local meetings during a field visit, expressed their interested in obtaining advice on early childhood development. Many of the parents noted a lack of ECE counseling services for parents.

During consultants’ fieldwork in the project target areas, the idea of launching a local parent support group was appreciated by parents and caregivers. Parents who live in bagh or in remote areas had a preference for establishing this group based at the bagh center or mobile kindergarten. Parents whose children go to kindergarten want to a version based at the kindergarten, preferring a professional kindergarten teacher as leader.

To address these issues, it is recommended that:

Organized campaigns on building of positive behavior changes in parents are conducted through joint activities with the organizations such as the Puppet Theater along with preschool institutions or community based organizations.

Counseling of parents through websites at kindergartens, children’s play places, or at child development centers. Therefore, relevant conditions for these places should be taken into consideration

Consideration be given to the fact that most nomadic families live in remote areas, far from kindergartens. Therefore, a kindergarten-bus service should be established based on local needs.

Local parents groups with membership of parents and caregivers on a voluntary basis be established in order to promote parent participation in ECE. Commitments and close cooperation of the Government, at aimag, soum, and bagh levels is important.

A guide or regulation be developed that reflects parents’ ideas to ensure sustainability of the local parents groups.

Training Handbooks for Parents

Some books have limited availability as they were printed before 2008 or the there are no funds to print out more copies after the completion of the initial project. Furthermore, few of the handbooks target rural, nomadic, and migrant parents. Another issue is that books and handbooks developed and published by national and international organizations and private companies have high prices and low distribution to rural areas. In addition, there is a lack of resources for parents with children in special needs.

Most parents and caregivers who were interviewed during field visits of the project consultants responded to the question on how to educate your children at home stated that they have been using books of school-aged children for their preschool-aged children at

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home. Moreover, parents teach songs and poems that they know or use information obtained from TV. Also, parents assist their children to repeat at home what was taught by kindergarten teachers. These responses indicate that parents lack tools, especially handbooks, to support their child’s education.

The following recommendations support solutions to these issues:

To ensure the availability of parent education, handbooks, and other resources in lo-cal languages, as well as adjusting the resources for parents who have children with disabilities.

Essential ECE books and handbooks for parents and children should be distributed to parents living under poverty line in order to support their active engagement in ed-ucating their young age children. There could be even criteria established to select parents or households to receive the free-of-charge resources. This initiative would support the implementation of national policies that have been developed on enhanc-ing parent participation in ECE, but are not yet operational.

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION

There are two main bodies that have the authority to monitor and examine aspects of the preschool education sector:

Health, Education and Science Inspection Office in the General Agency for Specialized Inspection and its Departments

Information, Monitoring and Evaluation Department in MECS

The Information, Monitoring, and Evaluation Department in MECS maintains an information and management system which provides statistical information through its databases. Most of data are based on administrative records. The data are recorded and reported initially by each kindergarten and then aggregated by aimag/soum/city/district levels until they comprise national figures. MECS also conducts other activities for monitoring and evaluating the sta-tus of preschool education, including legal regulations, conducting studies, and support of re-search studies.

The General Agency for Specialized Inspection is an independent, central and specialized body responsible for inspection, monitoring, and supervising a wide range of components (health and sanitation, management and curriculum, professional development and progress made by kindergarten staff to ensure conformity of use with regulations, standards and qual-ity requirements). Monitoring and inspection usually covers all types of preschool education institutions and includes monitoring visits as well as close scrutiny of a sample of records or teachers’ documents. The central agency may direct more extensive or additional monitoring where this is deemed appropriate, for example, with a newly established kindergarten or those kindergartens performing less well than it might be in some circumstances reasonably be expected to perform, or kindergartens whose overall performance was judged signifi-cantly satisfactory within district and city (soum and aimag) and therefore is expected to be selected as the “best kindergarten” in the national level.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Teachers

Monitoring and evaluation of teachers occurs in several stages. First, monitoring and evaluation is conducted within each kindergarten. Preschool Education Law requires head teachers to evaluate teachers’ and employees’ performance, and to provide them with incentives, support, and to hold them accountable. In this situation, the head teacher and methodologist are responsible for the evaluation of a teacher’s daily work and the results of the work. 47Typically, there is a set of criteria developed internally within each kindergarten.

Teachers who receive high scores on wide range of activities (e.g. quality of class performance, completeness of documentation, evidence of participation of children from one’s group in various competitions, evidence of teacher’s participation in various activities within kindergarten, district, city and state; evidence of teacher’s professional development) would be eligible for receiving extra incentives or upgrading of her/his professional

47 Law of Preschool Education. Ulaanbaatar. May 2008 75

qualification48. Teachers who had low scores may also receive some penalty, such as salary reduction.

The next stage of monitoring and evaluation is the subject of District or City Education Department. Although officers from District and City have no authority related to financial incentives, they provide systematic monitoring on teaching and curriculum and standard implementation.

The widely recognized “Teacher’s skills competition” is one of the activities that exercises teachers’ knowledge and skills awards ‘best teacher’ in language or music, within district and city, or soum and aimag. For teachers, particularly those from countryside, it is prestigious to participate in these competitions since it gives opportunities for travel to Ulaanbaatar, and financial and other incentives.

However, teachers report that inspection brings anxiety because their work is monitored through paperwork, which requires a tremendous amount of time to generate. Teachers would prefer on-site observations that reflect the teaching-learning dynamic to be used in performance assessment.

I am getting really nervous when we hear that “inspection” will come. It comes suddenly and so often, so we, teachers, getting to check our every our paper in order to be sure that all required papers are on the place. Frankly speaking, our ‘paper works’ heavily influence our work. Besides sleeping time (when teachers have only time to prepare for next activities or write down curricula, plan or whatever), I usually bring my paper home. My husband, of course, does not like when I do it, because instead of spending time for my own child I continue my work at home. But what I can do if I do not complete those papers? My salary will may then be reduced when a head teacher or any inspector will realize that there are some papers are not enough. I buy paper sheets from my own pocket do not saying about other expensive for copying and printing. We, teachers are tired with all these paper preparation duties, since number of papers that we have to prepare is increased in the past years while classes are coming overcrowded. We are really striving between creating of papers and working with children. Papers that we produce are for inspections rather for children. That’s all.

-Kindergarten teacher with 20 years of teaching experience. Bayanzurkh district, Ulaanbaatar

48 There are three categories of professional qualifications: senior-teacher, methodologist-teacher and consultant-teacher.

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Recommendation:

A more authentic assessment of the performance of teachers be introduced that focuses on the teaching and learning dynamic of the classroom as well as the achievement of set educational standards.

Monitoring and Evaluation Data

Monitoring and evaluation data on ECE within MECS is included in the annualEducation Sector Statistical Digest49. The data set includes indicators such as enrollment information, types of ECE service offered, teacher: child ratios, and family information (Table 16 below).

The Digest has been expanded considerably and a number of new indicators have been introduced since 2005, including data on nomadic children, disabled children and those children who have taken social care service. In addition, the latest Digest of the school year 2009-2010 presents data on the existence of information technology equipment, in building maintenance, and central heating connections across aimags and Ulaanbaatar city. These data will allow future monitoring of the preschool environment throughout the country.

Table 17: Major Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators Collected at each LevelIndicator Individual Kindergarten

LevelAimag/Soum/City Levels National Level

(Aimag and UB City)Age Cohort x x xEnrollment by Age and gender

x x x

Number of non-enrolled children

x x

Number of Kindergartens x Disaggregated by public/private

x Disaggregated by public/private

Location of kindergartens x x (Disaggregated by bagh/soum/district)

x

Enrollment by type of preschool education (regular/alternative)

x x Disaggregated also by other types of care centers

x

Enrollment by type of alternative ECE programme

x x x

Enrollment of nomadic children in alternative preschools by age and gender

x x x

Number of disabled/orphaned children

x (Included in child information)

x x

Number of newly enrolled children

x x x

Teacher/child ratio xNumber of kindergarten staff x x xNumber of age groups x x xKindergarten capacity x x xFamily information x (Including social/economic

information)Child information x

49 Education Sector Statistical Digest 77

As shown in the above tables, monitoring and evaluation databases within MECS and other preschool related departments/or divisions provide a large continuum of data related to the preschool sector.

However, there is little information collected on the situation of children that do not attend preschool education and in particular there are no indicators that allow understanding the characteristics of those children who are not in preschool education. In addition, there are no indicators that identify the number of enrolled children from rural poor or migrant families (as differentiated from nomadic children)at the national level.

Data reliability and completeness remain a difficult issue. Data collection is based on administrative records and may yield incomplete and/or inaccurate data. There appears to be incomplete information about financing preschool education disaggregated by type, and children who attend alternative preschool education programmes for part of the year are counted the same as children who attend regular programmes of much longer duration. In addition, enrollment fluctuations are dramatic, and there is little analysis of the reasons for this. It may possible to associate these fluctuations with increase or decrease of incentives such as financing schemes or availability to secure funding for organizing of alternative trainings in local areas (this has implications for sustainability); or the fluctuations may also be related to data collection issues.

Recommendations

The discussion above highlights the importance of developing a range of approaches that relate to aspect of data collection, imputation and methodology procedure. Recommendations include:

Use of other sources of data, particularly household surveys or the population census to examine in detail participation in ECE programmes across soums level, in terms of rural poor or migrant household, and characteristics of their children who are out of such programmes. Indeed, there exist some data at soum level of statistical departments which show how many migrant households, including poor, in their areas.

An education management information system (EMIS) could be developed in order to collect data at kindergarten and bagh level, where there is a great potential for including more detailed indicators. At this time data collected at this level are limited to those variables mentioned above, and these data flow vertically to higher levels; therefore very little horizontal data sharing takes place. This makes data analysis and interpretation at the national and aimag levels more difficult. Through EMIS a new set of indicators and instruments could be developed for improving not only of databases but also methodological aspects of data reporting process at national, regional, and grassroots levels.

A more systematic approach will be needed in monitoring and evaluation to determine impact of ECE projects. It is specifically recommended that the JFPR 9138 MON: Early Childhood Education for Rural, Nomadic, and Migrant Children project include a more systematic approach to verify changes brought by the project. A set of systematic surveys such as baseline survey, monitoring field surveys, and an impact evaluation are multiple ways of collecting not only quantitative data but also quality data which help to offset complexity of monitoring and evaluation within

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MECS and be relevant to policymaking on ECE. An example of a data collecting system is shown in Figures 4 and 5 below.

The models of performance indicators for bagh and soum, khoroo and district levels are indicated in the Appendix 13.The modes would enable to estimate and count of children who are in- and out-of-preschool education for the corresponding years. Therefore it would be able to predict the number of all targeted children including migrant poor children and/or nomadic children that JFPR pilot project aims to involve during its implementation if those data will be collected.

Figure3 reflects the range of assets which connects conceptual framework of JFRP project to MIS that consists of a set of indicators and measures for monitoring and examining the quality of the intervention programmes across soums and khoroos over time. Conceptual framework of the project illustrates the need to develop a set of tools and procedures for measuring children’s school readiness, parents’ attitude and etc, in order to better target interventions and resources.

Figure 4: Flow diagram of the project data collecting system

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Figure 5: Data collection and dissemination schema of the project

Figure 6: Connection of conceptual framework of JFRP project with MIS

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SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Government of Mongolia has started to take its initial steps to change the policy towards young children’s development, in light of not just preschool education content but with a much broader view according to the new millennium plan to develop education with priority.

However, this situation analysis indicates that there are additional steps needed to be taken in order to facilitate the development of the preschool sector, as well as to address the needs of young children and their families.

Below is a summary of issues facing early childhood education in Mongolia, and specific recommendations for the JFPR Project to implement in order to improve ECE for rural, nomadic, and migrant children.

Preschool Education Policy, Planning, and Implementation

ECE access and quality policies are reflected and carried out at the national and local level. The government has continuously increased budget to implement the policies. However, children from vulnerable families still are not able to fully benefit the contributions by the government.

Therefore, besides maintaining support for increasing access targets, the government needs to put additional emphasis on improving access for vulnerable groups as well as the quality aspects of the overall early childhood education.

To further improve implementation of ECE policies, there is a need for increased collaboration among government authorities at all levels, improve involvement of the community and parents in child education via legal provisions and advocacy interventions.As stated in the report there various Government-led programs and plans. To ensure the implementation of these interventions it is essential to:

Develop and enforce learning environment, teaching, and evaluation standards for all preschools, regardless of the ownership type

Establish a proper accreditation system

Improve the funding, organization, evaluation, and quality aspects of alternative ECE aimed at children from poor, vulnerable, and nomadic families

Improve the planning and monitoring skills of national and local ECE officers, including international and best practice planning

To address these issues, it is recommended that the JFPR Project:

Provide assistance for MECS in developing and/or revising policy and legal documents

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Organize policy forums and workshops for national and local ECE authorities to increase planning and monitoring skills, and to familiarize them with international best practices

Preschool Education Funding

This situation analysis shows increased funding on education, including the preschool sector, reaffirms the Government’s commitment on education. Nevertheless, limited overall budget does not allow the Government to solve all the funding issues, including investments for constructions and equipments. In addition to seeking other resources to increase funding, the available budget should be used in a more efficient way.

The coordination of donor contribution and the reduction or elimination of funds to kindergartens. There is a need for a unified database of all donor contributions.

More involvement in the budgeting process by kindergarten directors.

The introduction of an output-based funding system to improve the efficiency of funding.

To improve the quality of ECE services, funds should be attributed to teaching staff who directly work with children instead of non-teaching staff.

Funds allocated for alternative ECE services provided by private kindergartens should be used for public kindergartens.

A comprehensive analysis to determine the effectiveness of the funding formula be conducted in order to, if needed, revise the budget

The JFPR Project should address some of the above issues:

Assist MECS in analyzing and revising the budget formula

Collaborate with MECS in developing and/or revising funding aspects within the ECE laws and regulations

Collaborate with MECS and MOF on revising the existing budget lines

Organize workshops to improve budgeting practices for local authorities and kindergarten directors

Alternative ECE

It is concluded that quality and performance of alternative ECE services in Mongolia are not consistent among kindergartens. Particularly, in the future there is a need to establish output (school readiness)-based funding and monitoring mechanism, provide fixed costs for alternative ECE such as fuel and heating costs (particularly for kindergartens in soum and city outskirt areas), improve clean water and food supply, improve safety and sanitation.

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In addition, the stipulation in the Preschool Education Law, which states that alternative ECE should be taught by professional teachers, does not allow participation of volunteers who are willing to teach in alternative ECE.

The project can address some of the above issues by:

Assisting the MECS in developing and initiating implementation of regulation on alternative ECE

Stronger and better furnished gers need to be built to ensure the safety, and health and hygiene of children

Organizing sessions for teachers on alternative ECE management and methodology

Providing recommendation for the MECS on the amendment to the Preschool Educa-tion Law to reconsider the stipulation that mandates only professional teachers to teach alternative ECE services

Teachers

Due to workload of kindergarten teachers, the necessity for teachers in rural aimags to travel long distances to UB and low salaries limits their opportunity to receive in service training. In addition, the existing in-service training programs require further improvements.

The existing training program in the Preschool Education College provides only long-term education without providing any special courses on the tasks of assistant kindergarten teachers and alternative ECE teachers.

It is recommended that the JFPR Project:

Develop and implement on-site in-service training programs using ICT tools

Improve supply and quality of books and learning materials for students in the Preschool Education College

Insert special short-term training courses for assistant teachers and alternative ECE services in the Preschool Education College

The Project will:

Train 300-400 kindergarten teachers based on alternative ECE curricula developed by the project

Provide learning and teaching materials for kindergarten teachers in the target areas

Curriculum and Learning Materials

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Although the Preschool Education Standard was adopted in 2005, there is still a need to improve teachers’ capacity to develop curricula. In this regard, one of the major issues faced by teachers is the lack of guidebooks to develop and implement ECE curricula. Many of the existing guidebooks are obsolete. In addition, there is a lack of tools to assess and monitor child growth and learning progress.

Children, particularly those from poor and nomadic families, also face shortage of learning materials mainly due to limited government budget.

Based on the studies, it is evident that Kazakh children need learning materials in their language and which suits their distinct culture.

Increased supply and support is needed for teachers on professional and methodological guidance and guidebooks on development of curricula and lesson topic contents by different ages

Guides or instructions on assessing children in migrant, nomadic, or shift groups, or how to assess creativity through observations

Handbooks and working guidelines working with children with disabilities

Increase the availability of resource materials for kindergarten classrooms which are consistent with the Preschool Education Standard

The Project could address the above issues by:

Providing additional visual aids to assist teachers in implementing the curricula as well as learning materials for children

Developing and implementing flexible e-curricula based on the individual needs and interests of children

Developing a list of resource materials for preschool classrooms by ages and developmental stages

Establishing mobile library corners for children and parents

Provide learning materials in Kazakh language for the Bayan-Ulgii community

Parents and Communities

There is little support by the Government to raise awareness on ECE among parents and community, and lack of incentives to improve their involvement in early childhood development and education. Currently available TV and radio programs are target mainly on children. There are available newspapers, periodicals, and web-based sources on parenting. However, poor and nomadic families cannot afford the price and have limited access to internet.

For Kazakh community language is the key barrier to receive access to media programs for children and parents.

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It is recommended that the JFPR Project:

Develop a dedicated ECE website with the purpose of exchanging information and strengthening teacher-parent collaboration is developed

Launch a TV or radio series programmes that engage parents in live interviews

Deliver information, education and communication materials on ECE resources through television, radio and other media sources.

Provide periodical trainings and materials for kindergarten teachers on working with parents

To ensure the availability of parent education, handbooks, and other resources in lo-cal languages, as well as adjusting the resources for parents who have children with disabilities.

Distribute essential ECE books and handbooks for parents and children to parents living under poverty line in order to support their active engagement in educating their young age children.

Improve skills of parents on working with their children at home

The Project should focus on:

Establishing local parents groups with membership of parents and caregivers on a voluntary basis in order to promote parent participation in ECE. Commitments and close cooperation of the Government, at aimag, soum, and bagh levels is important.

Using MECS web-site create a link for parents

Disseminating ECE information to parents via mobile phones

Developing and broadcasting TV and radio programs for children and parents

Developing communication packages for children and parents

Conducting advocacy campaign to raise community awareness on ECE

Launch new early childhood education-focused and culturally appropriate television and radio programmes for children and parents in Bayan-Ulgii.

Organizing trainings for media professionals on ECE in order to increase publishing and broadcasting on the issue of parents’ participation in ECE

Organizing workshop to improve parenting skills on children’s learning and development

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Monitoring and Evaluation

The mechanisms by which MECS collects preschool education quantitative data is adequate at the moment; however, there is still a need for data to track student migration, to accurately monitor alternative ECE enrollment, and data on learning material and toy provision. With regard to qualitative data, MECS is not able to gather sufficient information to assess involvement of parents, classroom learning process, quality of in-service program, and school readiness.

On a larger scale, donor contributions are not effectively monitored at the MECS and local level (Education Department), which leads to duplication of funds.

It is recommended that:

An education management information system (EMIS) which is able to track student migration, obtain reliable enrollment data on alternative ECE, and obtain data on supply of learning materials, as well as to collect qualitative data is adopted

A school readiness assessment system which conducts readiness tests on annual basis is established

An integrated system that inputs donor and government contributions, including the investment amounts, target beneficiaries, and types of contributions is established

The JFPR Project should focus on:

Assisting the MECS in adopting effective EMIS

Developing a design or regulation on school readiness

Collaborating with other donor organizations to eliminate duplication of efforts and funds

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APPENDICES

1. Review Table of the Implementation of Key Rules, Regulations, and Legal Acts in the Preschool Education Sector

2. Review of Preschool Education Targets of the Education Sector Master Plan for 2006-2015

3. ESMP Recommendations 4. Funding Gaps in the Preschool Sector5. University Enrollment6. Sample of Courses Offered7. Books, Manuals, and Guides used by Teachers in Khentii and Umnogovi Aimags8. Hidden Kindergarten Costs for Parents9. Donors Operating in Early Childhood Education in Mongolia10. Mass Media Coverage of ECE in Mongolia11. Results of National Consumers’ Survey of Press Institute of Mongolia12. Currently Available Training Handbooks for Parents13. Monitoring and Evaluation Performance Indicators

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Appendix 1: Review table on the implementations of key rules and regulations and legal acts in preschool education sector

Document, endorsement date

Implementation status Feedbacks by teachers, specialists, public and parents

Law on Preschool Education endorsed by the Parliament in 2008

The law that has been regulating all aspects pertaining to acquirement of preschool education.

Since its adoption, the law has been in force and implemented by kindergartens and relevant administrative authorities at all levels. For instance, full state provision of kindergarten meals for children, funding for private kindergartens and alternative ECE have been fully enforced. Nevertheless, implementation of some of the law provisions on construction, learning environment, and safety standards need more focus.

In the future, coordination of early childhood care and development provision, support for alternative ECE delivery, and evaluation system on quality of preschool education need to be improved and reflected in the law.

Order #20, 2007, of the Minister of ECS

Policy on preschool education delivery

The Ministerial order identifies the approaches and actions for the implementation of objectives, contents, forms, and evaluation of preschool education delivery. The order also specifies the minimum hours required for development of ECE curriculum, and delivery of educational and training activities.

Since order was put into effect, the officers of Aimag and City Education and Culture Departments have been providing recommendations, organizing training sessions, and developing guiding materials for kindergarten directors and teachers on effectively linking training plan timeframe (annex to the order) with training curricula of every kindergarten, learning session of teachers, and class subject plan.

To focus on addressing the practical needs of teachersTo develop training syllabus timeframe for lower classes

Order #12, 2007, of the Minister of ECS

Focus of preschools on encouraging involvement of parents and public in the early child development

The order specifies guides and activities on receiving efforts, resources, and supports of parents, families, and communities in preschool activities, such as: establishing continuous communication with the parents and families; improving the educating skills of parents; involving parents in decision-making process related to their children; collaborating with the community.

Kindergartens have taking various initiatives to implement this policy, for instance, establishing and running a parent center, developing methods on collaboration and partnership with the public, etc.In addition, under this policy document, UNICEF has provided technical assistance in creation of parent information and learning center. UNICEF has also been organizing trainings to educate parents.

Collect data on the implementation of this policy document, and identify the implementation mechanisms

Order #74, 2008, of the Minister of ECS

Regulations on granting and revoking teaching license of preschool, primary, and secondary education teachers

The purpose of the regulation is to: continuously improve the capacity of pre-service training as well as in-service training of teachers from preschool, primary, and secondary education schools; enforce ethics and prestige of a teacher; improve the sense of accountability of teachers.

Reports show … preschool teachers were granted teaching licenses under this regulation. However, teachers who have worked for many years in kindergartens, new graduates, and private kindergarten teachers have troubles obtaining their teaching licenses.There were few cases resulted in revocation of teaching licenses due to mistreatment of children.

Parents and the public suggest to use parent-involvement-based mechanism to improve ethics and accountability of teachers.

Order #85, 2008, of the Minister of ECS

List of learning and sanitation materials to be provided by

The order specifies the list and the amounts of the materials.

As stipulated in the order, kindergartens are now accustomed to receive the mentioned materials from parents. Studies show that such parental costs are causing a burden for children from vulnerable families.

Parents suggest that supply of the materials to kindergartens should be monitored by representatives of parents.

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parents of kindergarten childrenJoint order #30b/237, 2008, of the Ministers of ECS and Finance

Endorsing the coefficient for calculating variable cost per kindergarten student

The order specifies the coefficients for calculation of variable costs per child with a disability and one who is studying in alternative forms of preschool education (shift classes, mobile kindergarten, mobile teacher)

Since the order was put into effect, preschools have been using the coefficient formula for budget planning and execution. Budget for alternative preschool education is approved based on this order.

Kindergarten directors and accountants are suggesting there is a need to increase variable cost per child, particularly, the transportation costs for alternative preschool education.

Order #72, 2008, of the Minister of ECS

Regulations on in-service training for teachers and managers of preschools, and primary and secondary schools

Provide nation-wide and local in-service training and training accommodations for teachers and managers at all organizational levels.

In accordance with the order, a team of organizations and individuals – with analytical expertise – have been accrediting training curricula that met the required qualifications and criteria. For instance, over 20 training curricula of organizations such as Preschool Education College, City Education and Culture Department, MEA have been approved.Most specialized trainings of donor-fund projects and programmes, District Education Divisions, provincial Education and Culture Departments are organized without credit hours.

There is a need to: improve the capacity to develop curricula of specialized in-service trainings with and without credit hours; monitor the quality of trainings; provide support for improving training content and methodology of organizations.

Order #73, 2008, of the Minister of ECS

Regulation on issuance of teacher’s professional rank

The regulation is intended for determining the profession and skill development of teachers, and evaluating and improving their performance output and quality.

Within the scope of the order kindergartens are issuing a “methodologist”, “lead teacher”, and “advisor” rankings are issued by kindergartens, provincial Education and Culture Departments, and MECS, respectively. Based on the professional rank, teachers receive additional 20%-bonuses on their basic salaries. Since the adoption of the regulation, the process of issuance of teacher’s professional rank has been refined resulting in better teaching quality.

Order #1, 1995, of the National Professional Inspection Agency

Regulation on hygiene of training and educational organizations for children and adolescents

The regulation mandates educational institutions of all level to follow the hygiene standards

All education and health inspectors of the Professional Inspection Agency follow and implement the regulation for monitoring and inspection activities.

The regulation should be detailed down at the preschool level, and a new standard on kindergartens should be developed and adopted.

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Appendix 2: Review of Preschool Education Targets of The Education Sector Master Plan for 2006-2015

2005 ESMP Target Performance Indicator Assessment1.1 Number of beds/seats of children in kindergartens increased by 3,650

2,445 kindergarten beds/seats established since 2005 representing 66% of target

Target partially achieved

1.2 85% of city children and 35% of rural children enrolled in kindergartens.

Total enrolment of 99% of cohort

In 2009, 60.6% of city cohort and 55% of rural children enrolled in formal kindergartens and 5.2%.of city children, and 22% of rural children enrolled in alternative preschools

73% of preschool cohort currently enrolled in pre-schools – 102,000 in formal pre-schools and 28,000 in alternative preschools

Target partially achieved

1.3 Percentage of children in private kindergartens increased to 6.5%

In 2009 6,899 children enrolled in 87 private preschools kindergartens 6899. children enrolled.

6.7% of pre-school enrolment is in private preschools

Target achieved 1.4 Teacher pupil ratio target of 11.6 and number of children per group target of 25

In 2009 teacher pupil ratio is 12.1 including assistant teachers and average number of children per group is 28.4. Targets partially achieved

2.1 14% of city children and 64% of rural children to be enrolled in alternative pre-school training

In 2009 5.2% of city children and 22% of rural children enrolled in alternative preschools.

City target is 37% achieved and rural target is 34% achieved.

2.2. Enrolment of children from very poor families with income below poverty thresholds to be increased by 50% in comparison with 2005

In 2009, children from very poor families were 8.5% of formal preschool pop’n and 32% of alternative preschool pop’n. The % of very poor children enrolled in all forms of preschools has increased by more than 50% over 2005 levels

Target achieved

2.3.Pre-school educational services for children of rural herders to be institutionalized

The 2008 Preschool Law defined alternative forms of preschool education for the first time and provided for state funding on the basis of defined norms. In 2009, MNT2.9 billion was allocated for alternative preschools

Legal target has been achieved and alternative preschools are now in situationalized.

Practical fulfillment of target is ongoing

2.4Training programmes, content, methodology, teacher’s manuals and learning and teaching materials to be developed

Fulfillment of target has started but more needs to be done. Target fulfillment is ongoing

2.5.Management, organization and human resource capacity to organize alternative preschools trainings to be developed

52% of preschools teachers have attended in- service professional training for alternative preschool methodologies

Target Fulfillment Ongoing

3.1. Enrolment of disabled children in preschool services to be increased by 50% over 2005

In 2005 disabled children were 0.9% of total preschool enrolment. In 2009 disabled children were 1.0% of total preschool enrolment

Target Not Achieved

3.2 Technical, social and psychological environment and human resources to be developed to ‘include’ disabled children in regular preschools

2008 Preschool Law established ‘inclusive’ preschool education as national policy. Less severe disabilities can be educated in regular preschools and up to more severely disabled children.

Legal Target Achieved but Practical Implementation still has a long way to go

4.1 Comprehensive preschool feeding programme to be introduced from school year 2006-2007

Parental contributions to preschool feeding replaced by full state funding of preschool feeding programme as a result of the 2008 Preschool law

Target Achieved

4.2 Drinking water and food will be developed to meet basic hygiene and quality standards to ensure risk-free conditions

Target not achieved

4.3. Toilet facilities of all kindergartens will meet Government standards

60% of kindergartens do not meet Government standards

Target not achieved

4.4. Standards for kindergarten constructions and training environment to be developed

Preschool construction and environment standards have not yet been developed

Target not achieved

4.5. Supplies of toys, games and learning and teaching materials tools in

60 % of kindergartens have been supplied with toys and teaching aids.

Target achieved in terms of numbers of schools supplied

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kindergartens will be increased by 1.7 times over 2005

but most preschools report a shortage of toys, games, books and teaching aids

4.6 29.8% of kindergartens in need for repairs will be renovated

From 2005 to 2008 30% of kindergartens made repairs in buildings, heating systems and water supply.

Target achieved

5.1 Develop complex standards for the development of children of early childhood education

A UNICEF project “Complex Standards for Early Childhood Education” developed and piloted complex standards. However, MECS has not yet decided how these standards link current standards for primary and secondary education.

Target not yet achieved pending decisions from MECS

5.2 Not less than 4 types of teacher’s manuals and training materials to be developed for preschool teachers and children

83 handouts and manuals have been published. However quality and accessibility of this materials is not considered to be sufficient

Quantitative target achieved but qualitative targets considered to be unsatisfactory and there is a shortage of materials in many preschools

6.1 At least 50% of preschool teachers to be involved in annual re-training annually

In-service training reports note three types of training attended by 60% of preschool teachers: (a) new standards based curriculum development; (b) reform methodology; (c) teachers’ continuous professional development.

Target achieved

6.2 100% of Kindergartens to be provided with trained teachers and assistant teachers

In 2009 93.3% of teachers in formal preschools were professionally trained and 100% of assistant teachers

Target mostly achieved for formal preschools but not achieved for alternative schools

6.3. Involve 30 teachers per year in external training and study tours

25% of Target achieved

6.4. Training and re-training programmes for teachers will be renewed

MSUE preschool teacher training curriculum and standards was revised in 3 parts (a) general; (b) professional (c) and retraining in accordance with preschool education objectives

Target achieved

6.5. Training programme to implement new standards will be created

In order to implement preschool education standards, each kindergarten has been developing its curriculum. MECS and IOE have developed model curricula and manuals in order to provide kindergartens with methodological assistance. A new preschool curriculum has been developed by IOE in conformity with the new 12 year system, which is still due to be implemented.

Target in process of achievement

6.6. Training modules for assistant teachers in alternative preschools will be developed

Retraining for assistant teachers and other staff were organized and content reviewed but training module not yet developed

Target not yet achieved

6.7 Training modules for preschool management will be developed

Training modules for general school management are available but specialist preschool management modules not yet developed

Target not yet achieved

7.1 Types and number of services, such as caring centers, looking after children at work and at home, nursing, and consulting for children of early childhood will be diversified

Some child care centers have been developed but insufficient information to establish clear indicator.

Target probably not yet achieved

7.2 ECE standards and monitoring mechanisms will be created

In 2008 National Standards Agency has approved a standards document “Requirement of child Care organizations for 0-!7 year children” This standard has been used for monitoring non public early childhood care centers.

Target mostly achieved

7.3 Intersectoral management and information integration for ECE will be developed

There is some cooperation in exchange of information between MECS and MoHSW. However there is no established system of management and cooperation.

Target not achieved

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Appendix 3: Preschool Education Sector (ESMP) Recommendations

Based on the review on Preschool Education Sector (section of the Education Sector Master Plan), the following strategies are recommended to achieve the objectives in the medium term:

Objective 1. Achieve 93% gross enrollment rate for preschool educationRecommended strategies

Increase kindergarten capacity and construct new kindergartens in the suburban districts and new residential districts of the capital city as well as centers of aimags and other areas in need based on school mapping, and responsive to future demographic and economic development perspectives and trends

Review parental cost implications for poor families of attending pre-schools and take appropriate action to ensure equity of access

Introduce well organized, family-based ECE services in rural and remote areas that meet nomadic life-style requirements

Improve access to kindergartens for poor and migrant children, as well as for children with special needs

Improve access to quality preschools for “out-of-preschool” children by standardizing the quality of alternative preschool services

Implement policies and programmes to ensure school-preparedness of all preschool children

Objective 2. Develop preschool education service that meets the needs of child development

Improve the health environment in kindergartens including food, water supply, and sanitary conditions to ensure healthy growth and development of children

Provide basis for social services that meet the needs of child development by designing and implementing a comprehensive child development standard

Develop and implement minimum acceptable standards for kindergarten buildings, facilities and the learning and teaching environment

Improve the professional capacity of kindergarten staff through targeted training and make progress in the resolution of social issues of kindergarten staff

Establish minimum standards for and increase the provision of toys, games, learning materials, and training manuals

Objective 3. Improve policies and the legislative and regulatory environment for the provision of preschool education services

Develop policies and regulations aimed at providing incentives for private sector and community investment in setting up preschool.

Improve coordination of tasks and responsibilities between the Government ministries and agencies involved in children’s food and nutrition, health, education, and social welfare aspects

Improve cooperation between the private sector, individuals, NGOs and preschools in order to improve access to and quality of preschool services

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Appendix 4: Funding gaps in Preschool sector

    2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015  

    2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total

Total Construc-tions & other in-vestments

Per class-room unit cost 5,282 24,844 20,172 15,586 11,317 9,254 12,811 99,266

New constructions 36 2,050 19,390 14,612 9,986 5,746 3,577 6,447 61,808

New equipment (incl. furniture) 4 219 2,075 1,563 1,068 615 383 690 6,613

Toys and other re-lated equipment 1 1,887 2,025 2,438 2,807 3,105 3,331 3,533 19,126

Reconstruction 10 1,125 1,354 1,559 1,725 1,851 1,963 2,141 11,718

Total (million tug)                 198,532

Source: Education Policy and Strategy simulation model of the draft version of the Education Sector Master Plan (2010)

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Appendix 5

University School of Preschool Education Enrollment Information

Table 1. Total number of students at the School of Preschool Education Within the last 5 years

Year 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010Number of students

720 745 859 982 1287

Number of freshman and graduate students of the School of Preschool EducationWithin the last 5 years

Year 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010Freshmen 190 288 366 264 385Graduates 188 179 196 163 351

Comparison of freshmen for the last 2 years:

№ Province Academic year 2009-2010

Academic year 2010-2011

1 Arkhangai 49 672 Bayan ulgii 43 853 Bayankhongor 44 1004 Bulgan 49 605 Govialtai 51 796 Dornogovi 42 807 Dornod 45 738 Dundgovi 32 709 Zavhan 53 7210 Uvurkhangai 46 5511 Umnugovi 40 10612 Sukhbaatar 72 6213 Selenge 33 6014 Tuv 49 3815 Uvs 44 4016 Khovd 43 3117 Khuvsgul 42 4218 Khentii 38 5819 Darkhan Uul 52 4320 Orkhon 79 2121 Govisumber 76 3622 Ulaanbaatar 265 119

Total 1287 1397

Table 3: The number of teachers who attended professional training courses№ Year of course The number of kindergarten

teachers who had some sort of vocational training

1 2008-2009 4002 2009-2010 5733 2010 1-р семестр 442

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Appendix 6: 2010 courses organized at The School of Preschool Education№ Course type Time Teachers attended1 Young children’s development standards 2010/02/01-05

2010/10/04-082010/12/06-10

156

2 The use of ICT technology for the school of preschool education.

2010/01/04-082010/10/11-15

55

3 Management of Preschool education 2010/01/ 25-29 2010/10/11-15 243 Teaching relationship 2010/01/04-08

2010/10/ 04-0822

4 Arts and Crafts methodology 2010/ 04/26-302010/10/25-29

136

5 Musical education content and methodological update 2010/01/11-152010/10/18-22

32

6 Physical and health education 2010 /10/11-15 52Total 497*

*As of 2010/09/2

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Appendix 7: Books, Manuals, and Guides Used by Teachers in Khentii and Ulmnogvi Aimags

According to the survey teachers use the following books:

1. Bayantsetseg,Ch.(2001).Kindergarten primary class' curriculum. Ulaanbaatar, Admon printing company

2. Bolormaa,Z.(2009).Alternative course curriculum for young children development.Ulaanbaatar: BCI printing company

3. Kirsten A.Hansen.(1999).Step by step program pedagogical standard. Ulaanbaatar:Admon printing company.

4. MECS. (1991).Children's kindergarten nurture curriculum. Ulaanbaatar

5. MECS. (1999). Preschool children core curriculum and its recommendations. Ulaanbaatar

6. MECS. (2003).Elementary education standard. Ulaanbaatar

7. Narmandakh,A. (2010) Variant course curriculum for young children development . Ulaanbaatar. Orgil printing company

8. Norjkhorloo, N. (2002).Methodology to develop preschool curriculum. Ulaanbaatar. Ekimto printing company.

9. Norjkhorloo,И. (2008).Young children curriculum. Ulaanbaatar. Ekimto printing company

The books teachers use in methodology:1. Batdelger,J.(1999). Training the young children.Ulaanbaatar. BCI printing company

2. Bolor,T.Munhtsatsral,T.Purevdolgor,B.Narangerel,D.(2009). Mobile teachers course model.Ulaanbaatar. Save the children

3. Bolor,T.Munhtsatsral,T.Purevdolgor,B.Narangerel,D.(2009). Handbook for mobile teacher.Ulaanbaatar. Save the children

4. Bolormaa,Z.Munkhtuul,Ts.(2009). Child cognition development workbook. Sansudai design and printing company.

5. Bolormaa, Z.Dulamjav, G.( 2000 ) Let's train our child . Ulaanbaatar. Admon printing company.

6. Chimedlkham,T. Purevsuren,H. (2000).Music class technology update.Ulaanbaatar :Yalguun printing company.

7. Densmaa,J.(2004). I am growing up.Ulaanbaatar. EDO Publishing Co,ltd.

8. Dulmaa , P. (1986) A methodology to introduce the environment and nature to young children.Ulaanbaatar. Orbic printing company.

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9. Kirsten A.Hansen.(1999). Handbooks for teachers.Ulaanbaatar. Admon printing company.

10. Mongolkhatan,G. Bayantsetseg,Ch. Tserennadmid, Sh. (2004).Short and summer courses proforma recommendations.Ulaanbaatar. Best printing company .

11. Natsagnyam,Ts. Uranbileg B. (2005). I am growing! Everybody.Ulaanbaatar. Empathy printing company.

12. Nonna,D Uderpil, Ts. Puntsag, D. Gombosuren, T. Vaanchig, L.( 1987).Methodology to develop child's language skill s .Ulaanbaatar.

13. Nonna,D Uderpil, Ts. Puntsag, D. Gombosuren, T. Vaanchig, L.( 1987).Methodology to teach physical education class in kindergarten children. Ulaanbaatar.

14. Nonna,D Uderpil, Ts. Puntsag, D. Gombosuren, T. Vaanchig, L.( 1987) Methodology to develop preschool children language skills.Ulaanbaatar.

15. Norjkhorloo,N. (2000). Mathematics and experiment cognition. Ulaanbaatar. Ekimto printing company .

16. Norjkhorloo, N.(2005). Teaching toys (games).Ulaanbaatar. Ekimto printing company.

17. Norjkhorloo,N. Tserennadmid,Sh. ( 2002). My book 1, 2.Ulaanbaatar. Ekimto printing company.

18. Oyungerel,N.(2001). Developing child's creative activity.Ulaanbaatar. Admon printing company.

19. Tsendsuren,T.(1999) Together with your child.Ulaanbaatar. Orbis printing company.

20. Tumenjargal,Z.(1999). Kindergarten study book.Ulaanbaatar: Soyombo printing company.

21. Zagdragchaa,T.(1969).Methodology advise to teach Counting in kindergarten.Ulaanbaatar.

22. Ganchimeg,T.(1986).Methodology to give a music education in kindergarten.Ulaanbaatar: BIT press printing company.

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Appendix 8: Hidden Kindergarten Costs for Parents

Table : Parental investment costs for Ikhtamir Soum kindergarten of Arkhangai aimag ( 525 kms from UB, 27 kms from aimag center) 50

Required Items Number of pieces

Unit Cost (MNT) Total Cost (MNT)

A4 paper (piece) 10 20 200Notebooks 8 150 1200Water Colours 2 3000 6000Painting brush (complex) 1 3000 3000Pencil 3 150 450Colour pencils (complex) 1 2000 2000Water crayon (complex) 1 3500 3500Notebook for drawing and painting 4 800 3200Big painting paper 1 600 600Binder 1 1500 1500Colour paper (complex) 3 500 1500Plastic paper (complex) 1 2000 2000Scissors 1 800 800Glue 3 350 1050Large sellotape 2 2000 4000Oil pencil (complex) 1 2000 2000Toilet soap 4 1000 4000Toilet paper 3 450 1350Toothpaste 2 2000 4000Tissues 3 350 1050

Total 44,400

50 Tony Read. (2009) Education Sector Crisis Action Plan Draft. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.98

Appendix 9:DONORS OPERATING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN MONGOLIA

Programme/Project name

Activity Project coverage Duration Budget

UNICEF Early Childhood Development

Improving the 1) access, 2) quality, and 3) effectiveness of ECE

Dornod, Khovd, Uvs, Bayan-Ulgii, Khentii, Umnu-gobi and 4 districts of UB

2007-2011 240000 US$

SAVE THE CHILDREN (UK)Quality Basic Education 3 sub programmes at the National level targeted to

1) improve the capacity for school administrations and teachers for management and planning and improve the cooperation and partnership among parents, community and NGOs; 2) improve the content and methodology for Pre-school education and strengthen the capacity of parents and teachers;3) improve the disabled children’s access to education and 9 sub programmes at the local level which aims to improve the access, quality and effects of the Pre-school and primary education

Bayankhongor, Zavkhan, Khovd, Khuvsgul, Selenge, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Bayan-Ulgii provinces and Chingeltei, Khan-Uul districts of UB

2006-2009 1.388.470 euro

FAST TRACK INITIATIVE (FTI)Mobile kindergarten To provide ger, equipment, furniture and resources for

summer mobile kindergartens dedicated to nomadic children in rural kindergartens.

“My Book” was presented to nomadic children who attended the mobile ger kindergarten in project implementing soums as well as providing their parents with the necessary handbooks.

-to organize pedagogical training courses on establishment and operation of “ger kindergarten” for provincial pedagogic, principals and teachers of project implementing soum kindergartens in 2007 and 2008.

100 fully furnished gers were provided to 50 soums (2 gers per soum) in 21 provinces of Mongolia in 2007. whereas 10 soums of 4 provinces and Bayanzurkh and Baganuur districts of Ulaanbaatar city were provided with 28 fully furnished gers in addition to 6 kindergartens of Bayangol and Songinokhairkhan suburban districts of Ulaanbaatar supplied with equipment, furniture and toys.

2007-2009 311,000 US$

UNESCO“Provision of comprehensive mobile education and cultural services for herders

Ger kindergartens and support with necessary equipments, training ger kindergarten teachers, organizing training for parents, provision of nomadic children with exercise books

1 soum of the Uvs, Gobi-Altai, Uvurkhangai, Dundgobi, Huvsgul, Bulgan, Khentii, Sukhbaatar,

2004-2009 483,500 US$

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in Mongolia-1 and 2” and supply the nomadic parents with the relevant handbooks

Umnogobi and Dornogobi

The second phase of the project covered 1 soum of Arkhangai, Bayan-Olgii, Bayankhongor, Gobisumber, Dornod, Zavkhan, Khovd, Khuvsgul, Selenge and Tuv.

SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS

The Sustainable Livelihoods project

building 9 new kindergartens, the capacity of kindergartens and kindergarten enrolment has been increased. To support the running of summer ger kindergartens which increased accessibility for children of nomadic households in remote areas to take part in preschool classes by ger kindergartens.

670 sub-projects on rehabilitation, extension, heating, lighting, and facility and equipment improvement of kindergartens

2002-2014 Each soum US$8-15 million

WORLD VISIONLocal programmes-general education sector

Renovation and extension of kindergarten buildings, supply of equipment, furniture, toys, study materials and operating summer ger kindergartens in soums.

Support in education sector was provided to the following 19 aimags, and 6 districts of UB city: Bayankhongor, Arkhangai, Zuunkharaa, Bor-Undur, Gobi-Altai, Tuv, Erdenet, SelengeKhovd, Bayan – Ulgii, Bayankhoshuu, Darkhan, Zavkhan, Outer Bulgan, Khuvsgul, Arvaikheer, Uvs, Bulgan, Dundgobi, Uvurkhangai, Dornod, Khentii,

UB city: Nalaikh, Chingeltei Tolgoit Khailaast, Dari-Ekh, Amgalan, Khan-Uul

-WVIM has been operational since 1993 with the formalizing of a country office in 1995 to establish and direct development, and other specific sectoral programmes. The Education was one of the priority areas of World Vision’s main programme—Area Development Programme (ADP).

-The total financial contribution of WVM for the 2009 was 24,555,979USD. However, WVM did not provide a separate report on education nor on ECE therefore it is impossible to report a certain figure here. On the other hand, WVM annual report for 2008 notes that this organization supported education sector with training for parents, rural mobile teachers and other alternative training programmes, school supplies for 1st grade school students, books, and construction of kindergartens in 6 districts of Ulaanbaatar city as well as in 19 aimags.

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Appendix 10: Mass media coverage for ECE in Mongolia

TELEVISIONThe Mongolian National Broadcasting (MNB) is the only TV that has a separate Children’s Programme department within its structure. The MNB recent children’s programmes include “Mazaakhai”, a programme for up to 6 years old, “Boroldoi’s time”, “Morning stars”, “Apple”, “Daddy, mommy, and me”, and “Can you do this?” that are for children of all ages. These programmes are educational and entertaining, and promote parents participation through sport/art competitions. The MNB cooperates with UNICEF, international and national NGOs on programmes focusing on parents with children from 0-6 years old. However, currently the programme for parents is withheld due to financial difficulties.

Recently the MNB agreed to collaborate with ADB JFPR 9138 MON ECE Project team and held an open TV discussion on ECE emerging issues including ECE policies, current challenges and solutions. Participants included relevant preschool education professionals from MECS, State Education University, UNICEF, and independent researchers. It is the first time to discuss openly and independently about ECE issue on TV and Radio. If the programmes like this or a counseling talk show are broadcasted regularly, parents’ knowledge and awareness certainly be increased. - Interviewers of TV and Radio open discussion on ECE (MNB TV)

The city-funded station is Ulaanbaatar Broadcasting System (UBS TV). Since 1992, this television delivered programmes for Ulaanbaatar residents and few years ago it began to disseminate programmes to aimags. The UBS is experienced in implementing reality and entrainment show also in live coverage of international events. However, it has few children’s programmes: “Red Hat”, a paid entertaining programme based on parent’s request, “A way back home”, which reports on MSWL project for homeless children, and “Ulmedeh in Flower Town”, a programme for young children but parents have to payfees. The city’s Youth Development Department recently requested for a new programme for teenagers that focuses on children up to 14 yrs old. The UBS does not have its own team for children’s programming- e.g. “Red Hat” is produced by independent studio and broadcasted through UBS.

The NTV is a private television station that has been broadcasting since 2005. It has journalists in 11 aimags and broadcasts nationally. The NTV introductory brochure says that 11% of total programmes are for children; however it includes mostly cartoons translated from English to Mongolian. The only existing children’s programme is “DX Music”, a music programme for teenagers. On semi-annual basis NTV contracts an evaluation firm to assess the existing programmes and the assessment report indicated that children’s programme should be a priority for the TV. Accordingly, a new proposal on children’s programme is under their discussion. The team is not experienced in producing children’s programme though it has a fully equipped high tech studio. In addition, the team is considering an idea of devising a programme dedicated for solving social problems to explore emerging issues of ECE.

Mongol TV is a private television established in 2008. The report says that 12% of total programmes are for children; however it also includes mostly cartoons translated from English to Mongolian. The “Buudii”, a programme that features a girl and her friend a hedgehog targets

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younger aged children. Due to business competition among private televisions, Mongol TV was not able to share details of the Buudii children’s programme.

SBN TV started “Nahia”, a children’s programme in 2004. The programmehas 7 different sub-programmes dedicated for each day of the week. Also, the programme has a special section for children up to 6 yrs old and it is called as “Grandpa Pe Pe’s time”. Children of all ages are the audience of this entertaining and educational programme. It is prepared by a professional team, who address parents and caregivers’ behavior through their programme.

The C1 television is also the newest among private TV stations, however it has already become one of the favorites of urban residents. Particularly, its children’s programme named “Unagaldai” has been getting the attention of more viewers, both children and their parents. But, the programme content is literally decided by one person, a producer and the only staff of the programme.

The Dream TV was established on October, 2010. It has number of children’s programmes:- Good morning kids- News for kids- Music programme- Good night kids- Science for children, a series programmes- A programme for children with hearing disabilities, in a sign language- Weekend entertaining programme for children- Sport for kids- Foreign language series- A programme for teenagers- Open discussion among kids- Economics for kids- Children’s movie- Children’s TV drama Focus areas: child development issuesTarget groups: all age childrenType of programmes: educational, entertaining, sport or art competitions, programmes with parents participation.

The Dream TV is the only television dedicated for children and it has all types of Children’s programmes that cover variety of issues related to children. Also, this TV aims to promote participation of children. Indeed, the television has a Child Development Center that supports talented children through its music and drama classes. Moreover, it produces a bi-monthly magazine for teenagers. It covers also variety issues, such as reproductive health, music, sport, education, fashion, and cognitive behavioral specifics of youth.

RADIOThe Mongolian National Radio (MNB) is the only one radio station that has a separate children’s programme department within its structure. It is a public funded radio station with a nationwide broadcasting. It has broadcast a number of children’s programmes during its 44 years of broadcasting. These programmes target all ages of children. They are educational, entertaining, sport or art programmes, and one of the programmes is prepared by children themselves. The MNB Radio has a professional children’s programme team that has over 44 years of experience and a long-term commitment for the programme focusing parents with 0-6 yrs old children. It is

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well accepted among the rural population, but is not as popular among young listeners in Ulaanbaatar as most of FM radios are in UB.

The Mongolian National Radio recently collaborated with ADB JFPR 9138 MON ECE Project team and held an open radio discussion on ECE emerging issues. The programme discussed ECE policies, current challenges, and solutions. Preschool education professionals from MECS, State Education University, UNICEF, and independent researchers participated.

The Family Radio – FM 104.5 was established in 2001. This radio station focuses on family education and children’s development. The target groups are 25-45 yrs old mothers, children & youth, men, and families.

The radio has a professional team with extensive experience in conducting social development programmes focused on mothers, fathers, and children. It also collaborates with international organizations. The station’s innovative approach to reaching out to listeners has resulted in a psychological center based at the FM radio, which is available for all radio listeners.

The FM Radio 107.5 is one of the first stations in Ulaanbaatar. It has one programme for children, “Ulmedeh in Flower town”. Parents have to pays in order to let their children to participate in this programme.

The FM Radio 105.5 is a newly established station; however, it has already begun a programme that educates parents on child developmental issues. The State University of Education provides professional support for this programme. The parents’ programme runs on Wednesdays and Fridays and first it airs an educational session then answers to questions from parents.

The National Youth Radio – P3 was established in 2008 as one of MNB Radio branches. Three different programmes of this station are dedicated for young people. It has no commercial advertisement but the radio audience is limited to young adults. The station plans to start a new counseling programme for young parents on their child development and education.

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALSThe daily newspaper “Today” (Unuudur) has the most readers among others. Issues in the third quarter of the 2010 extensively covered child development topics, including child’s physical and psychological well being. Also, the newspaper advertises child entertaining performances such as a photo exhibition, a children’s fashion show, and movies. This newspaper releases a monthly special issue named “A World of the Children” with a size of 4 full sections of the newspaper. This special issue reports on child development issues, advice to parents, and tells new children’s stories. For instance, a regular column named “Please read for your child”, and “How much do you know about your child” are prepared to promote parents participation in development of their children.

Moreover, a daily newspaper “National Post” (Undesnii shuudan) has a weekend issue, which covers child and family development broadly. Also, this newspaper has a section titled as “A World of the Children” on its regular issues. The other daily newspaper named “Udriin sonin” also produces a section named “A World of the Children”. Furthermore, there are children’s magazines such as “A sun”, “Tsondooloi and Tsundeelei”, and “Barbie” “Dinza”, “A little leader” and “Window”

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WEBSITE AND PORTALS: Currently, there are many websites, blogs, and portals that actively discuss the child development issues. For instance, a national NGO named as “Dayar” launched www.khuukhed.dayar.mnthat addresses parents’ needs in development of their children. As of 4 October, 2010, this site had 56 different advices for parents. In addition, sites devoted to children are run regularly, e.g. www. indigohuuhed.blogspot.com, mongolhuuhed.worldpress.mn, and huuhdiin-humuujil.blogspot.com. The Q&A sections of these sites indicate that parents are interested in children’s behavior issues. Moreover, a kindergarten has its website in UB. The web site www.kindergarten85.com was created by initiative and support of parenting council. The website includes icons such as leaning activities schedule, additional study group, activities by kindergarten staff, learning environment, food and nutrition status, 2-5 years old children character and counseling for parents and caregivers.

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Appendix 11: Results of national consumers’ survey of Press Institute of Mongolia

Television: During the third quarter of the 2010, MNB television had most viewers for three months in a row. The UBS and MN 25 televisions were the next most watched channels. The Children’s programmes of MNB TV, SBN, B TV, and C1TV had more viewers than others. Also, the survey identified the 100 television programmes that have the most viewers. Two programmes focused on child development issues were selected among these 100 programmes. The first one is the MNB TV produced “Mazaakhai” programme that goes on air five times a week and it targets children in ages of 2-6. The second one is “Nahia” programme of SBN television, and it airs every day.

Moreover, the survey report notes that teaching a song, dance, drawing, reading, and writing is common among children’s television programmes. The programmes aim to build up talents of children, which in a way attract parents therefore; many commercial televisions ask parents for fee for participation of their children in the programme. But, it is observed that there is still gaps in programmes that promoting parents and community participation in integrated child development is missing. In overall, entertaining programmes, TV series, and sport programmes have more viewers than others. Thus, parents programmes may reach target audience effectively if aired before/ after these programmes or close to pick hours, which was identified as 8 -10.30 pm.

Radio: According to the Press Institute survey, the most popular radio among rural residents is the Mongolian National Radio (MNB). In fact, it is a dominant communication channel in rural areas, where infrastructure is not so developed. The pick hours of the MNB radio is 7- 9 am and 12- 3pm. Therefore, for herder parents, who lack of communication devices, the radio is most accessible information source. However, it does not have any programme for changing behavior of parents except few advices that are provided during children’s programmes. In urban setting, mainly UB city, the Auto radio and Family radio have the most listeners. These FM radio stations have various programmes for children and youth but not for parents and their behavior change issues.

Newspapers and periodicals: The daily newspaper “Today” (Unuudur) has the most readers among others. Issues in the third quarter of the 2010 extensively covered child development topics, including child’s physical and psychological well being. Also, the newspaper advertises child entertaining performances such as a photo exhibition, a children’s fashion show, and movies. This newspaper releases a monthly special issue named “A World of the Children” with a size of 4 full sections of the newspaper. This special issue reports on child development issues, advice to parents, and tells new children’s stories. For instance, a regular column named “Please read for your child”, and “How much do you know about your child” are prepared to promote parents participation in development of their children.

Website and Portals: The Press Institute survey shows that the www.news.mnsite is most popular among readers. It is followed by the websites, www.olloo.mn, www. zaluu.mn, and www.shuud.mn . The www.news.mnwebsite has a portal that is dedicated for families. This portal discusses child development issues, and provides advices to parents. Detailed descriptions of the analyzed programmes are contained in appendix: Mass media coverage for ECE in Mongolia.

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Appendix 12: Currently Available Training Handbooks for Parents

MEA

MEA (2007). Early childhood development, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

A series handbook for parents

/ Under Step by Step programme/

10 series handbooks on educating parents on ECE:

1. Child behavior or temperament 2. A wonder of talking 3. Ensuring child safety 4. Introducing a book 5. Moderator and limitation 6. “Integration and Emotion ”7. “Cute baby”8. “Right feeding from early stage”9. “Learning with playing” /1-5 yrs old/

10. “Learning with playing”” /0-12 months/MEA (2006). Early childhood development, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

A Handbook for teachers, 3-6 yrs old children, and their family

The handbook introduces a list of the sample and teaching aids for child-centered in class training and a methodology of conducting training that meets child’s needs and interest.

MEA (2006). Developing child‘s creative activity, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The earlier version of the book was published in 2000.

A handbook for teachers on working with 3-6 yrs old children

The book shows that when the training on ECE is conducted, there should be a flexible plan that meets children’s needs and their interests. Teachers’ regular activity and parent’s support also need to reflect the same. The book supports teachers, parents, and students with a fine methodology and content on preschool education.  

MEA (2005). Let’s learn together, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

A handbook for 5-6 yrs old children, parents,

This handbook has 2 sections. The parents’ section introduces a methodology of home based training. The children’s section has exercised that are dedicated to develop skills such as listening to others, talking, observing, arithmetic, memorizing alphabets, reading poem, painting, and creating books. Exercises are intended to be done by parent’s involvement but child on his/her own.

MEA (2004). I am growing, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

A handbook for teachers and parents

The handbook “I am growing” is dedicated to parents and it aims supporting parents on their home based care for children. Using the handbook, parents will get involved in their child‘s development. Children will learn skills like feeding, dressing, drawing, holding and will obtain practical knowledge on common hygiene.

MEA (1999). Development of children with special needs, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

(2-7 yrs old)  (A guide book for teachers and parents)

This guide book introduces methods adjusted in working with children with special needs, learning materials, and ways of building of learning environment for children with specials needs. In addition, the book discusses importance of parents, family, and community involvement in development of children with special needs.

Within the other programmes and projects

EU, MECS & SFK (2009). Do you know me?Advice to parents with 1-3 aged children, UB, Mongolia

European Union, MECS, Save the Children Great

The book has advice to parents and care givers on how to support their children’s cognitive, physical, and social developments.

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Britain

EU, MECS & SFK (2009). “Mobile teacher handbook -5 yrs old”, UB, Mongolia

European Union MECS Save the Children

Based on the needs, interests and skills of 5 years old children of herders, the book was developed with 3 components, which covers age specific cognitive & physical development in line with preschool education standard. Lessons include teachers plan, sample exercises, and consultation for parents and tasks designed for both parents and children.

EU, MECS & SFK (2008). “Mobile teacher handbook -3yrs old”, UB, Mongolia

European Union MECS Save the Children

The book is for mobile teachers and parents, who teach out of kindergarten 3 years old children.

MECS, Caritas, and Czech Technical Cooperation (2010). A parents notebook on child development, UB, Mongolia

Czech Technical Cooperation Agency, Caritas Mongolia,MECS

This notebook is dedicated for parents with children 3-4 age and their teachers. The book has note sheets that allow parents to observe their children’s speech, brain development, and physical growth.

MECS, UNESCO &EFA-FTI(2003). “My book ”herders child with 3-4 yrs old, UB, Mongolia

MECS UNESCO EFA-FTI

Under National programme “Preshcool-2“, these books were published dedicating to herders with children with 3-4 and 5-6 yrs old. The books include exercises that support child development in line with their age and thinking features. MECS and UNESCO (2002).

“Мy book”herders child with 5-6 yrs old, UB, Mongolia

MECS UNESCO

MECS and UNESCO (2002). Manual on using “Мy book ”, UB, Mongolia

MECS UNESCO

The manual suggests recommendation on how to use the “My book”.

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Appendix 13: Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators

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