Support for Parents in Home-based Early Childhood Education: Case Study of Herder Households in Mongolia

Abstract

Existing research has shown that Early Childhood Education (ECE) positively affects children's social, cognitive, and intellectual development. In addition, the experience of ECE exerts favorable influence on students and improves school performance, reduces dropout rates in primary school, and lowers crime rates during adolescence. However, almost half of children worldwide do not have access to a formal ECE institution, such as preschool. The enrolment rate of ECE institutions is dramatically lower in developing countries. For those who do not attend any formal ECE institution, home-based ECE can be a solution to support children's school readiness before entering primary school. In some countries, however, many parents have difficulties in conducting home-based ECE by themselves due to the lack of knowledge and materials required.

This research focuses on nomadic herder parents in rural Mongolia whose children have limited access to formal ECE institutions. The purpose of this research is to support nomadic herder parents in finding how they can assist their children's home-based ECE. In order to provide an opportunity to understand what to do for home-based ECE, the author designed a workshop and implemented it in two districts in Uvrukhangai province, Mongolia. The data was collected from the participants of the workshop through questionnaires before and after the workshop, as well as interviews conducted at the end. To analyze the data, both data sets were compared with each other and interviews were utilized to ensure the result.

The result shows that the workshop helped the participants from both districts to understand what to do to assist their children and to promote home-based ECE. Moreover, the participants were highly motivated to implement home-based ECE after the workshop.