PLAY TO LEARN / JOUER POUR APPRENDRE
Providing equitable access to high quality preschool education in Djibouti – challenges and constraints
Romain Babagbeto, COP
Mott MacDonald
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 1
Context
• Djibouti, a small country (23,180 Km2) at the horn of Africa
• Just over 1 million inhabitants
• 35% of the population under 15 years old
• 70% of the population lives in the capital city Djibouti
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 3
Political will, investment and leadership
• Strong commitment from the Djibouti Government to reach universal coverage for one preschool year for all five-year-olds by 2030.
• Preschool strategy in place, to manage public, private and community contributions.
• Division of labour between Ministry of Education (MENFOP) –responsible for one preschool year for 5-year-olds – and Ministry for Women and Families (MFF) – responsible for ECD for 3- and 4-year-olds.
• Important investments from development partners in ECE and ECD (World Bank, USAID, UNICEF).
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 4
Regulating, monitoring and supporting
• MENFOP developed a set of quality standards for preschool education (infrastructure,TLM, teacher development) – not operational yet.
• Further improvement needed with regard to regulating and monitoring private preschool provision (MENFOP capacity, compliance with norms and standards, managing the challenge of wanting to provide better access but also quality teaching and learning)
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 5
Access to pre-primary education
• Access currently limited due to infrastructure constraints.
• High demand from families and communities.
• Important increase in public preschool places.
• Better coverage in urban areas – equity concern for vulnerable children.
• Play to Learn is supporting better access for children with disabilities (screening tools, equipment, parental engagement).
• Play to Learn supporting efforts to find a sustainable financial model for community preschool centers.
• Play to Learn is supporting efforts to encourage further private investments in preschool education (infrastructure, teacher salary payments, preschool management, etc).
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 6
Program quality
• MENFOP has a dedicated preschool inspector since 2022 and a preschool Director.
• Pedagogical counsellors specifically trained on preschool education support public preschool teachers with coaching and supervision; no support to private and community preschool teachers and educators.
• World Bank supported development of a new preschool curriculum (5-yearolds), a new student booklet and a teacher guide.
• USAID is supporting a stronger playbased approach (in-service teacher training, adjustments to the curriculum and TLM)
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 7
IDELA domain IDELA score preschool no preschool Emergent literacy (score max 55) 29,65 19,81 Emergent numeracy (score max 45) 24,87 16,28 Motor skills (score max 30) 21 16,69 Socio-emotional skills (score max 25) 11,60 9,99
Pre-primary teaching workforce
• MENFOP’s teacher training center CFEEF is offering a specific preservice training for preschool teachers since 2021.
• All preschool teachers in public preschools have received pre-service training.
• Teachers in private preschools and community preschool centers are accepted with a lower degree and no pre-service training.
• CFEEF offers in-service teacher training for preschool teachers.These trainings are rarely attended by private and community preschool teachers.
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 8
Family and community engagement
• Important demand from families and communities for preschool education (economic benefits, women empowerment, school readiness).
• Play to Learn supports parental education around play-based learning, nurturing care, importance of parental engagement in preschool education.
• Play to Learn supports community engagement for community preschool education (community savings groups).
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 9
Main challenges and constraints
• Limited budget at MENFOP to build new preschool classrooms.
• Limited space in highly populated sub-urban areas in DjiboutiVille.
• Most community-led preschools centers are not operational.
• Weak leadership at MFF to reach a sustainable model for community preschools.
• Lack of initial and in-service training for community teachers.
• Private preschools not affordable for families in sub-urban and rural areas.
• Insufficient community engagement.
• Insufficient parent involvement in the life of public and community-based preschool education structures.
3/6/2024 FOOTER GOES HERE 10