The work is about how the Ministry of Pre-school Education of Uzbekistan has reinvented its strategy to address the absence of pre-primary education

Situation: Uzbekistan had a low enrollment rate for preschool.

73% of children had to walk for miles to get to the nearest kindergarten.

Preschoolers and their parents had to devote so much time traveling to and from kindergarten. This forced parents to give up their jobs to take care of their children at home.

The construction of kindergartens solved the problem in regional centers and cities but the hard-to-reach villages remained to be a challenge. It was not economically feasible to construct a kindergarten for only a small population because of the high maintenance cost.

Brief: Give equal opportunities to all children in Uzbekistan.

Objectives: Find ways to increase preschool enrollment in hard-to-reach areas without building full physical kindergartens.

Uzbekistan had a low enrollment rate for pre-school.

The construction of kindergartens solved the problem in regional centers and cities but the hard-to-reach villages remained to be a challenge.

It was not economically feasible to construct a kindergarten for only a small population because of the high maintenance cost.

The MPE recognizes that preschool is a critical age to shape children's ability to learn and to lay a solid foundation for the future.

And you can not leave pre-schoolers in hard-to-reach places without a chance for education.

We found out that 73% of children had to walk for miles to get to the nearest kindergarten.

Preschoolers and their parents had to devote so much time traveling to and from kindergarten.

This forced parents to give up their jobs to take care of their children at home.

And we came up with the strategic idea — since kids can’t go to kindergarten, kindergarten will come to them itself.

We decided to convert buses into mobile kindergartens to provide more space and opportunities for education at a fraction of the cost compared to building physical kindergartens.

The number of children who now have access to pre-school education in hard-to-reach villages has increased from 0 to 6,260.

And pre-school enrolment nationally increased from 27% to 67%