Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

CASE STUDIES
tors have had access to relevant international research
and experiences to apply in the task of
finding suitable ways forward which are consistent
with Lao culture, needs, and opportunities. It
has been quite different from the importation and
imposition of external models that can result from
short term consultancies.
One very important side effect of this way of
working has been the strong development of a
group of educators able to devise, plan, and implement
change and development. This group is
now contributing to the development of new directions
in village family support which are being
piloted and, as can be seen later in this paper, are
key personnel in the introduction of integration.
Experiment in
a National
Implementation
Strategy 1995
Expansion was planned within the Vientiane municipality
(three kindergartens and five primary
schools) and the southern province of Savannakhet
(one kindergarten and one primary
school) so that a possible system could be tried
out. It was largely based in Vientiane so that the
Vientiane based implementation team could
monitor the situation closely in the first year. On
the other hand, experience outside of Vientiane
was also needed, so a modest start was also made
in Savannakhet.
It was decided that a sustainable and expandable
programme would need to ensure that the
continued development of the schools was in the
hands of local administrators and individual
schools. This would keep support from the central
implementation team (now expanded to include
administrators and technical staff from the
MoE, teacher trainers and head teachers from
both sectors and the rehabilitation centre staff) to
a minimum. Both now and in the future it would
not be financially possible to employ visiting resource
teachers or other forms of support staff
outside of the general system. Continued support
would have to come from experienced teachers,
head teachers, and administrative staff in local areas.
Therefore the process and habit of discussion,
sharing, and problem solving would be a
key aspect, which would have to be developed
from the start.
Programme planners felt that initial training
should be kept as short as possible so that it
would not become over-theoretical. It would be
impossible to provide practical experience before
starting, so training opportunities would have to
UNICEF/5694/Mainichi/Shinichi Asabe
be split, with opportunities given after work had
started, which could then be based on initial experiences.
Because planners felt that kindergartens
had valuable insights into working with
families and in understanding child development,
they took the unusual step of training teachers
from both sectors together.
Based on this thinking, the project board and
implementation team carried out the following
work plan for the academic year 1995/96 for the
ten new schools. Sapanthong school was used as
a resource.
■ five-day workshops, first for local administrators
and head teachers and then for
deputy head teachers, grade one and two
teachers and at least two teachers per
kindergarten, with the head teachers acting
as group leaders;
■ recruitment of a maximum of two age-appropriate
children per class into lower
grades and the targeting of all other children
in the school with a history of failure;
■ ongoing support—including staff meetings
and discussions, support from local administrators,
assessment visits from Rehabilitation
Centre staff, and visits from members
of the implementation team;
■ occasional extra bits of training for any
school showing difficulty—such as allowing
a delegation from that school to spend
some time with a stronger school;
■ a mid-year seminar which included some
parents and other members of local communities
and during which each of the Vientiane
schools hosted visits from seminar
participants;
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