Home \ Preschool of the Future \ ‘Preschools of the Future’ Project – Stop the Cycle of Intergenerational Poverty
Project Background
Early childhood is a critical stage for a person’s cognitive and emotional development. Prior to the existence of institutions for formal education, learning begins from the infantile period and continues to last a whole lifetime. Preschool education is crucial for a child’s growth, creating lasting impacts for future behavioural and personality developments.
It is unfortunate that in China still 9 million rural children remain without access to 3 year preschool education; there are basically no preschool classes within administrative and natural villages due to government support only reaching to township level. HPPC hopes to see that all children can have a good start to life in order to fully develop their potential. Through providing preschool education for underprivileged children in China, we strive to create a brighter future for these kids and help them break the vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Our Work
HPP Preschools of the Future are established in natural villages. Every preschool class has a parents’ committee which is responsible for electing potential candidates from within the village to become teachers for the classes after receiving related training. HPP trains the teachers and provides them with a holistic child centred teaching curriculum. We also give guidance to the parents’ committee on topics of early childhood development, nutrition, health and hygiene. Preschools of the Future not only provide a high quality learning environment, but also guarantee that children can grow and develop under optimal circumstances.
The aim of our community preschool classes is to prevent poor children from becoming poor adults; our project is targeted at remote and impoverished natural villages. The curriculum includes lessons on: nature, nutrition, hygiene, numbers, simple mandarin, storytelling, musical and artistic expression, games, dance and physical exercise . Through these lessons, we see that children make progress in their abilities to control body movements, understand and use language, math and logic, increase creativity and imagination, self-confidence and happiness, develop curiosity, interact with the wider community, develop good health habits and self-control.
Project Mapping
The Preschools of the Future Project reached the following geographical locations: Zhenkang County (Lincang City), Yuanyang County (Honghe Prefecture), Longling County (Baoshan City), Shangri-la and Deqin County (Diqing Autonomous Prefecture), Heqing County (Dali Autonomous Prefecture), Ximeng County (Puer Prefecture) and Butuo County (Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province), and Qichun County (Huanggang City, Hubei Province) .Until l 2016 the project has benefitted 9487 preschool aged children. Currently there are 2689 children enrolled in POF.