From 7th to 10th, July 2015, the Foreign Loan Office of Yunnan Bureau of Education - in order to promote rural community preschool education for local education bureaus in a new World Bank loan project – organized a visit of 23 officials and experts to the HPP Zhenkang Preschool of the Future Project.  Participants came from: Zhaotong University, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming University, Qujing Prefecture BoE, No. 1 Kindergarten Zhanyi County (Qujing), Xichou County BoE (Wenshan) , Jianshui County BoE (Honghe) , Dali Prefecture BoE, Weishan County BoE (Dali), Yangbi County BoE (Dali), Eryuan County BoE (Dali), No.1 Kindergarten Eryuan County (Dali), Qiaojia County BoE (Zhaotong) and Yunnan BoE.
 
In the morning of 8th, the delegation headed for Wanzitian Preschool to visit the class and school grounds, and then discussed the preschool operation experience and the challenges in groups.

A question from Teacher Li, Dean of Pre-school Education Depart in Yunnan Normal University, question:
“During this project, what is the most pleasant thing that motivates you to do this? Is it just a job? Or is there anything else that drives you?”
Chen Jinfang, HPP China Zhenkang County Project Leader, answers:
“Initially, when we came to the village, villagers didn’t know us. But after we did POF here, they all know us and they are friendly to us. What motivates me are the emotions and love between villagers and us. Although doing a project is very hard, but we are happy when we see kids developing over time, and parents are very satisfied with what we have done, so we think it is worthwhile doing it.”

In the morning of 9th, the delegation visited Xiangzhuanba Preschool.
Qin Tianyue of Yunnan Bureau of Education, questioned:
“Which POF is running for the longest time? How does the local BoE support you?”
Answer:
“The oldest POF is called Taozizhai, is has been operating for 7 years so far, on average annually 25 children enjoy this preschool class. In Zhenkang, our cooperation department is the county poverty alleviation office, and they support us. To be honest, local government supports us mainly in materials. But when BoE has any teacher training, they will invite us to attend and also the local Village primary schools will support and help us.”




Xichou BoE questioned:
“If we are interested in your project, we want to do it in Xichou, what shall we do? What is the step?”
Li Jiancai, Sector Manager, HPP China:
“If it is World Bank’s project, then you already have funding. And then you can sub-contract us and we need to sign agreements with the bank, local BoE or poverty alleviation office. And local BoE will recommend some suitable villages for us, and we will conduct baseline research. If this village met all criteria of opening POF, then we will hold a parents meeting. If parents accept our model, then we will train teachers they selected and renovate classrooms, and then buy material and open POF.”

On 10th July, we have visited one of kindergartens in Zhenkang County, and had a brief summary meeting with local BoE. Each BoE spoke highly of our POF. They all thought our POF has dealt with the Early Childhood Development problem in rural minority area. We are very honored that other BoEs have been inspired through visiting our preschool.