by Johnny Baltzersen, CICED chair.
The kick-off conference for the Better School Start-Better School Life project in Mongolia was in early November 2019. Over two hundred participants from 63 rural areas attended, along with representatives from the Mongolian Ministry of Education and professors and teachers from the Mongolian State University of Education. And of course, the management of MAPSSD, CICED’s Mongolian partner.
Now, just 3 months later and despite the usual harsh winter, many of the local chapters are in full swing with the two major challenges that the project aims to find solutions to: The children of the nomads must be provided with appropriate and versatile educational support to prepare them for school. And, when they are in school and have to stay at the school for weeks at a time, the boarding facilities need to be as child-friendly as possible.
The project has no set templates or recipes to handle these two tasks. We want to include ideas and experiences from all communities involved. Therefore, MAPSSD local chapters are discussing and planning how to best roll out the project in their respective areas. Discussions and planning are done in close collaboration with parents and other community members, local authorities and the school’s students, teachers and food service staff.
The photos in this slideshow show a selection from a number of local workshops and meetings held around Mongolia. Although the image quality is variable, there’s no doubting the interest in the project.
