Early Childhood Education Project

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The purpose of the Early Childhood Education Project is to assist the government of the Dominican Republic to increase the availability of high quality educational services for young children ages zero through five by means of targeted early childhood interventions. With a particular focus on the poor, the project will expand access to and improve the quality of integrated services that address young children's basic needs, including preprimary education, psycho-social stimulation, health care, and nutrition. Specifically, the project assists the State Secretariat of Education (SEE) to expand and improve formal, center-based preprimary services for five-year olds and will work with sub-national governments, local communities, and non-governmental organizations to increase access to high-quality, nonformal early childhood development services for children between the ages of zero and five. There are three main components. The first component expands preprimary educational services by establishing Regional Model Centers and new classrooms. The second component improves the educational quality of early childhood development centers (ECD) by funding teacher training and staff development, applying the pedagogical model, creating educational resource centers, providing educational materials, renovating classrooms, and launching a family-based initiative. The third component supports policy and strategy development and institutional organization, and sets up a grant program.