“One Kindergarten for One Village” and “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” are pilot policies of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education in the field of preschool education, with the aim of transforming the preschool into an independent kindergarten and establishing kindergartens in large administrative villages, and gradually realizing the preschool education layout of “One Model Kindergarten in One County, One Public Kindergarten in One Township and One Kindergarten in One Village”. Ning’er County was designated as one of the pilot counties. After the previous communications, field visits and investigations, The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement  (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office cooperated with Ning’er Education Bureau to assist it in training and supervising the teachers, who were employed under the policy of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village”, mainly in the aspect of preschool education knowledge, curriculum management and teaching, so as to change the method of teaching primary-school-level lessons, thus improving the quality of teaching.

The Project will cover 36 classes of 34 school sites under the policy of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village” in Ning’er County, involving about 50 teachers. In the course of the Project, the teachers will be trained to improve their teaching skills through various trainings, including 5-day initial training, twice 2-days monthly training in each semester, holiday training and teacher internships etc.. At the same time, Project Team will also conduct monthly field supervision on all the preschool sites, and give field guidance to the teachers.

In August 2018, Ning’er Project Team of HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE and Ning’er Education Bureau finally developed a 5-day teacher training plan upon several discussions and communications, in combination with HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Project and actual situation of the local preschools (kindergarten). 44 preschool teachers totally were trained from September 17 to September 21, 2018, who came from Ning’er County Central Kindergarten, various township and town kindergartens, and preschools involved in the “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation and One Kindergarten for One Village” Project.

Mr. Liu, Deputy Director of Ning’er Education Bureau, and Mr. Zhou, Head of Education Unit, attended the training and delivered a speech

Mr. Liu, Deputy Director of Ning’er Education Bureau, delivered a speech at the training meeting, introduced the status of Pilot Project of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village” launched by Ning’er Education Bureau and HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE in Ning’er County, and detailed the focus of Pilot Project of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village” and key points and philosophy of early childhood education at the present time; he also put forward the requirements for the preschool teachers involved in the Project of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village”, placed special emphasis on the need for teachers to alter the mind of “teaching primary-school-level lessons to preschool-age children” in the future work and prevent “teaching primary-school-level lessons to preschool-age children” in the kindergarten.

Preschool teachers took an active part in discussion

 This training extended to 31 teachers in 34 preschools involved in the Pilot Project of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village”, as well as 13 preschool teachers from central kindergartens in various townships and towns. The training was given as an opportunity for building a platform for mutual learning and communication among preschool teachers, so that they can learn from each other in daily teaching and management of preschools.

Luo Ruhong, the Project Leader, introduced the situation of HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE and Preschool of Future Project.

In the course of training, all teachers were also organized to carry out observation and study in the county kindergarten. Every 4 teachers observed and studied the daily life of children in one class of the kindergarten. After one-day observation and study, the teachers had a basic concept about the daily life at the kindergarten, which is beneficial to the preschool teachers to design daily activity for preschool;

Ji Xiaolong from HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE trained teachers

Li Jiayan, the teacher of kindergarten, and Mr. Ji Xiaolong from HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE have trained teacher in the aspect of the Guidelines for Study and Development of Children from Three to Six and the age characteristics of children aged 3-6. The introduction of these two knowledge points allowed teachers to fully understand and recognize that children aged 3-6 are the most important stage of the whole preschool education, and at the same time, so that they are capable to design and carry out teaching activities in the future teaching in compliance with the Guidelines.

Li Yanmei from HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE was giving training

Teacher Li Yanmei explained on the home-kindergarten joint education, daily routine, how to organize the sports game course in the kindergarten, the status of local children, and children's rights and protection, so that teachers can fully understand the importance of each section.

Director Jiang of Hygienic Supervision and Administration explained to the teachers the Regulations on Hygienic Supervision and Management in Preschool and Kindergarten Organizations

During the period of training, Mr. Jiang, the Director of Ning’er County Hygienic Supervision and Administration, was invited to explain the Hygienic Knowledge of Preschool and Kindergarten Organizations, and Guo Hui, a kindergarten teacher, gave a lecture on How to Design Classroom Teaching and How to Write a Teaching Plan.

The teachers were taking notes seriously

Observation and study in the kindergarten

County kindergarten teachers were trained

Zhang Chunmei from HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE was giving training on teachers

This training is well prepared and rich in contents. In particular, Guidelines for Study and Development of Children from Three to Six were explained in details, and the importance of enabling children aged 3-6 to accept preschool education has been emphasized for many times; the training was performed by powerful and strong team and the teachers participated in the training seriously and actively.

In the summary and feedback, each teacher made a serious summary, and put forward valuable feedback on the training, which provided a good reference for subsequent training of the Project Office.

Luo Ruhong from Project Office did a training summary

Group photo of teachers involved in the training 

About the Project:

As the pilot policies of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education in the field of preschool education, “One Kindergarten for One Village” and “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation”  aims at transforming the preschool into an independent kindergarten and establishing kindergartens in large administrative villages, and gradually realizing the preschool education layout of “One Model Kindergarten in One County, One Public Kindergarten in One Township and One Kindergarten in One Village”. Ning’er County was designated as one of the pilot counties. After the previous communications, field visits and investigations, The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement  (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office cooperated with Ning’er Education Bureau to assist it in training and supervising the teachers, who were employed under the policy of “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transformation” and “One Kindergarten for One Village”, mainly in the aspect of preschool education knowledge, curriculum management and teaching, so as to change the method of teaching primary-school-level lessons, thus improving the quality of teaching.

The Project is funded by Beijing Xingyi Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. and HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE

The Project is implemented under the co-operation of The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office and Ning’er Education Bureau.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the donor.