Save the Children's Early Childhood Education Program aims to increase local children's access to a quality education. We build kindergarten management structures and train local teachers on the skills required to deliver good preschool education.

Early childhood education in Vanuatu has largely evolved from individual community and church managed kindergartens, into a network supported by the Vanuatu Early Childhood Association (VEJA). Unfortunately, early childhood education in Vanuatu has not been a priority area for the government in the past and through our early Childhood Education Program, we wish to change this.

The Facts:

• In some communities in Vanuatu, more then 50% of children aged four and five years old are not attending a pre-school or kindergarten.
• In the Port Vila area of Vanuatu, it is estimated that only 13% of pre-school aged children are actually enrolled in a pre-school.

In August 2010, Save the Children ran a five day program focused on providing home-based training for preschool teachers. The training was run in four seperate communities, Lapo, Lorlo, Hadpol and Tisvel. The specific program provided local teachers with long-term useful skills, such as making exercise books and teaching instruments from local and recycled materials, as well as training in phonetics and child development.

By empowering local teachers with the fundemental skills to run quality preschool education more young children in Vanuatu have the opportunity to gain essential early childhood education.

Read about our Save the Children programs in Vanuatu