EFA Goal 1: Early childhood care and education; Asia ... - Unicef

Figure 8: Pre-school assessment: Comparison between mother tongue-based education
and non-mother tongue-based education students in Viet Nam, 2010 (second cohort of
students)
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
17
12
Listening
comprehension
16
12
Knowing name
and function
14
9
Implementing
commands
14
11
Knowing names
of people and animals
13
8
Arranging pictures
based on stories
MTBE
Non-MTBE
Note: MTBE= mother tongue-based education
Source: MOET, Viet Nam and UNICEF Viet Nam, 2011. Available at: http://www.unicef.org/vietnam/brief_TA.pdf
4.4 Holistic ECCE addresses the health and wellbeing
of young children and coordination among
sectors
Several indicators can be used to assess the health and well-being of young children. Two of the most
widely used and preferred indicators are measures of stunting and under-5 mortality rates. Under-5
mortality rates are influenced by nutrition, early care, immunization, breastfeeding and gender
issues in nurturing practices. On average, under-5 mortality rates have declined tremendously in
the Asia-Pacific region over the past decade.
Box 3: The DBNA/UNESCO Multilingual Education Project in Malaysia
In 2006, the Dayak Bidayuh National Organization (DBNA) collaborated with UNESCO to undertake
a multilingual education (MLE) pilot project in Malaysia. The project targeted Bidayuh children with
a firm foundation for and a head start in their education by beginning their learning experience in
their mother tongue, then gradually introducing instruction in Malaysian and English. In January
2007, seven pilot Bidayuh-language playschools were launched, spread thoughout the five Bidayuh
language regions. In January 2009, five pilot MLE kindergartens (and one supplementary Bidayuh
kindergarten programme) were launched in the same villages that were already hosting the pilot
playschools. In January 2010, three playschools were started in new villages. The Bidayuh MLE
programme for pre-primary education serves children in two stages of development:
Stage 1: MLE Playschool – 3- to 4-year-old children conducted entirely in the local Bidayuh language.
Children who are 3 years old can enroll and then they repeat the whole curriculum the following
year.
Stage 2: MLE Kindergarten and Year 1 – 5-year-old children, ideally those who participated in the
MLE playschool. A curriculum with daily activities for all subjects was developed for this programme
in the Bidayuh language. Malaysian is then orally introduced through a variety of activities and
games. In addition, a supplementary Bidayuh programme is offered for one hour after a full session
of government pre-school (prasekolah). It is all in the Bidayuh language (specifically, Bukar-Sadung)
and focuses on reading and writing in Bidayuh. A stage 3 for 2- to 6-year olds is being developed.
Source: Joyik et al., 2011.
EFA Goal 1: Early Childhood Care and Education
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