Encouraging Learning through Play to Develop School Readiness

- Maliphet Soukhaseum, Education Specialist, UNICEF Lao PDR 

Leuan Thon is a village, mostly populated by Khmu ethnic group, located in Saravan District (Saravan Province) which is about 24 km far from the district town. It took us 30 minutes to get there from Saravan town through a partially paved road. The pre-primary school here that we came to visit was established in 2012 and is one of the 30 schools supported by the Japan Committee for UNICEF.

One of the first things that strikes my mind is the cleanliness of the classroom where children follow attentively the lesson. The efforts to create a learning environment for children immediately caught the attention of the visitor.

Ms. Kaison, a pre-primary teacher who was trained on pre-primary education management with UNICEF support in January 2018, agrees to demonstrate how she applies lessons learnt into practice. “The training has helped me a lot as we were taught how to create a conductive learning environment which is child-centered. We also learnt new methodological approaches to encourage and support learning of pre-primary aged children through play, and they actually love it,” the teacher explains.

20 children (14 girls) sit in a circle on the mating attention to the pre-primary teacher who is giving  instructions for a learning activity. 

Pre-primary education is one of the early childhood education services stipulated in the Education Law. With UNICEF’s support, the Ministry of Education and Sports aims to improve the quality of pre-primary education to ensure that children get ready for school, schools get ready for children, and families understand the importance of supporting their children's learning and holistic development. 

In the class

While I was observing Ms. Kaison’s class, I had the opportunity to interact with some of the pupils and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were quite talkative. Normally, it takes a while for children to open up, but I started to get questions from them right away. This was the case of a 5-year old girl called Chomsy, who came straight to me and without being told by her teacher asked me “what is your name?”

“She is a fast learner and speaks with confidence. She is always the first child to raise her hand when I ask questions, “ Ms Kaison explains.

And I can clearly see that. We are all sitting in a circle and the teacher has asked for a volunteer to do an exercise with cards. Chomsy has taken the initiative and has quickly grouped the picture cards in pairs correctly as Ms Kaison requested.

Chomsy during a class exercise

“Chomsy is the youngest daughter in her family. She has two brothers and one sister, and all of them study at the primary school which is located in the same compound as the pre-primary school. Chomsy comes to school every day and loves to play with her friends as she learns new things.  The good thing is that not only she learns fast, but she is also a good fellow and always helps other children when she realizes they need help,” explains the teacher with pride. 

Learning while playing

At this pre-primary school children are encouraged to learn while playing. “We have outdoor activities and children sign and dance. They have so much fun,” says Ms. Kaison while explaining that they organize creativity sessions where children are given certain materials to build or create what they want. “I still remember what Chomsy did. I gave them clay and she made some big nails. When I asked her about her work she said that she had made ten nails for their parents to repair their house,”

and outdoor activities

Chomsy activity participates
in the class-room

Active learning through play, which Ms. Kaison learned from the UNICEF-supported teacher training, has been very well received by pre-primary children not only here but elsewhere. Not only it helps them to learn but it also promotes creativity and critical thinking and builds their communication skills.

Investing in early years

For the Ministry of Education and Sports of Lao PDR, pre-primary education is a key strategy to equip young children with school readiness and thus is putting special efforts in strengthening its early childhood education systems and programmes with the support of key partners like the Japan Committee for UNICEF.

School readiness helps children to develop essential skills, knowledge and attitudes that are required to succeed in school and to continue learning later in life. Physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development are all essential ingredients of school readiness.

Acknowledging the importance of investing in early years, UNICEF will continue to support equitable access to and improve quality of pre-primary education in Lao PDR.