Learning through play: preschoolers try out their new playground equipment. (Photo:David Gurr)	Vanuatu's preschool revolution: A partner's perspective
Since 1999, VSA has sent early childhood educators like Ans and Peter Van Sabben to work with Pri-skul Asosiesen Blong Vanuatu (PSABV) – an organisation dedicated to ensuring young ni-Vanuatu get the best possible start in their schooling. The first volunteers were Dianne and Eric Thorne-George (now with VSA in East Timor), followed in 2001 by two couples: Ans and Peter Van Sabben, and Carol Smith and Michael Rodger. As these volunteers near the end of their assignments, they have been joined by Alison Grumball who becomes the first PSABV volunteer to be based permanently outside of the capital, Port Vila. Alison is living in Luganville, the main town on Vanuatu’s largest island Espiritu Santo, and will make regular field trips to the northern provinces of Torba, Sanma and Penama. All seven volunteers have helped the PSABV introduce quality early childhood education to a country where the regimented educational philosophies of the nineteenth century missionaries still hold a firm grip. The PSABV is introducing an alternative approach; "encouraging the idea of kids discovering the world around them through play," as Carol Smith describes it.
Janet Bunyan, president of the PSABV, has been involved with the organisation since its early years. She says the PSABV has had to overcome some common misconceptions among local communities. "Firstly, there is the idea that children can’t be learning if they’re playing. Secondly, the idea that anything which takes place in a ‘schooly’ setting (preferably where the teacher looks serious and tells the children all they need to know) must be better than having children stay at home. And finally, the idea that all the talking to, playing with and involving of children in everyday activities – which most parents do – is not very important."	Ans Van Sabben and children in the sandpit, filled with sand carried by hand from the beach: "They value every grain," she says. Photo: David Gurr
Since beginning its nationwide Preschool Training Programme, the PSABV has worked to over-turn these misconceptions and galvanise widespread community support for ‘learn through play’ preschool education. Says Janet Bunyan: "Where parents are well-informed through the PSABV programme, they begin to understand the reality of how small children learn, what is important to them at this stage and how much they have already contributed to – and can contribute to – their children’s development." Community support has been essential to the achievements PSABV has notched up so far. To date, 175 kindergartens have been established to PSABV ‘Model Kindi’ standard. This means a kindergarten building and playground has been constructed to Ministry of Education-approved specifications. A trained teacher (sometimes also an assistant teacher) is in place, as are play-learning materials made by the teachers as part of their training. The final requirement for a PSABV kindergarten is that there is a local community committee providing support to the teacher and helping maintain the building and equipment. Volunteers in the villages Volunteers from VSA and other agencies have played an important role in spreading the PSABV model throughout the country. It’s no easy task: Vanuatu consists of a total of eighty-three islands, and travel between them is both time-consuming and arduous. Every few weeks, the volunteers leave Port Vila (and, now, Luganville) for village visits usually lasting several weeks. During their time in each village, the volunteers give on-the-job training to key teachers, who in turn train other teachers from their local branches. Depending on how far the community has progressed with their kindergarten plans, the volunteers will sometimes help supervise the building of playground equipment and facilities. They may work alongside the relevant provincial preschool coordinator. However, thanks to previous training and mentoring by volunteers, most of the coordinators are now able to work on their own. With more ‘trainers’ working individually, the programme can now achieve wider coverage in a shorter time than before.
"We both worked hard every day. The people from Tongariki had worked even harder during the previous months. They carried all the materials from the beach to the school by hand to build the kindy... The island has no sandy beaches, but somehow they got sand from a neighbouring island and carried that up for the sandpit for the kindy. It was amazing how committed they were to the education of their children.Chief John told us that his island had nothing to earn money with and that the only thing they could ‘export’ was the knowledge that the children of the island would acquire with a good education." Ans Van Sabben, early childhood educator in Vanuatu, describing the trip she and husband Peter made to the remote island of Tongariki, where they helped establish a kindergarten.	The workshops are always a community affair, especially in the remoter villages. When Ans and Peter Van Sabben visited Tongariki recently, it was for the first ever workshop to be held on this island of 300 people where a kindergarten had recently been completed. "Chief John Wilson gave an emotional welcome speech in the newly built kindy... Soon requests came in for more and more ‘students’ to participate. Three kindy teachers from neighbouring Buninga Island arrived in their small boat too. How could we refuse any of these people, eager to learn? Instead of teaching one teacher and one assistant-teacher, as was the plan, I ended up teaching 20 women during the next 2 weeks. And everyone benefited from the learning opportunities: the mothers, the children, the fathers, the teachers and we!" Janet Bunyan says over time, PSABV would like to establish about 500 kindergartens across Vanuatu – one for each village and several in the main urban centres. NZAID has recently announced it will fund the upgrading of another 72 preschools, including teacher training – part of its broader contribution to Vanuatu’s education sector which covers primary and secondary sectors as well.
Ross Cassells of VSA’s Pacific programme says while VSA currently supports both preschool and secondary education in Vanuatu, it would like to make a contribution in primary education too if asked. He has had preliminary discussions with the Ministry of Education about the possibility of VSA supporting a programme to upskill school principals in areas like management. But for the time being, he says preschool remains "a strong plank" of VSA’s Vanuatu programme. "The PSABV programme is very grassroots, very effective." Preschool vital for the future How important is early childhood education for Vanuatu’s future development? For Janet Bunyan and the PSABV, it’s vital. A forthcoming national conference has been charged with developing a vision for Vanuatu’s whole education system: Janet believes it will endorse the need for future leaders educated to think, question and be creative – qualities the PSABV approach to preschool education prizes: "I predict that [at the conference] a lot will emerge about creating ‘thinkers’, because that’s what we don’t have at the moment. More people are seeing that thinkers and problem-solvers are what is needed most in a country fraught with the prospect of little conventional economic development." But it’s not only educationalists who believe in the importance of high-quality early childhood education. Janet says Vanuatu parents and communities value it highly too: "They see that sending children to preschool gives them a good start in preparation for primary school. In spite of poor prospects for employment, the majority of parents want their children to have the best education they can." •