Guinea-Bissau: Improving early learning in poor neighbourhoods

When Nené Mané Anssumane was pregnant she hoped she would have the chance to take her child to kindergarten. “Before my son was born, I watched mothers take their children to the kindergarten and dreamt that one day I would do the same,” says Nené.

Education has not been something that Nené took for granted. 

She explains, “I had never been to school as my father didn’t believe in education. He thought we should all work on his land.”

Three years later, Nené is attending a monthly parent/teacher meeting at the Jardim Ajuam Kindergarten in the urban suburbs of Bissau, the capital, a catchment area for mostly poor families.

Nené is early for the meeting. While she waits, she sits with her three-year-old son, Anssumane, in a well-stocked resource centre that adjoins the classrooms. Anssumane’s large eyes scan the room packed with colourful toys. He has been given finger puppet elephants to play with, but instead he reaches for the football on the top shelf. Nené gently reprimands him and he settles, at first reluctantly, for colourful building blocks.

Then, when Anssumane hears his teacher, Aramata Mané, spell out his name, he looks up from the blocks, and repeats each letter of his name as his mother smiles at him. “The kindergarten has taught him so much,” says Nené. “He has changed. He greets us at home and tells us what he has done that day.”

Nené adds the kindergarten is also teaching her things. 

“Before I didn’t vary our food, now I cook with more vegetables and we eat fruit,” she says. 

“I have also learnt how to better discipline Anssumane, although I sometimes feel tempted to give him a little tap as he has his hands in everything. But If I ever do, I feel guilty as he then looks so sad.” 

As the meeting starts, Nené takes her place, preferring to sit at the back of a semi-circle of chairs placed outside in the kindergarten grounds while Anssumane accompanies his teacher, Mané, to the classroom where there are even more toys to keep him occupied, including a traditional drum which he beats with vigour.

Around 30 caregivers, mostly mothers, arrive with their children. The facilitator has a barrel of water in the centre of the semi-circle which he uses as an aid to spark a lively discussion in Kriol about good hygiene. Mothers take it in turn to share their experiences; for example some households lack piped water in their house and struggle to afford other necessities.

Besides, the monthly teacher/parents meeting, the teachers also do home visits, explains Mané.[1] “We pay particular attention to how the child is being treated at home and how he or she  is relating to his family,” she says. 

“We tell the parents that they should never beat the child and that they need to talk to the child and show the child what is good and bad.”

Support to early childhood education is a UNICEF priority. During the first five years, young children’s brains grow at a rapid pace, molding their cognitive, emotional and social development. The brain is nurtured through positive early experiences, particularly through stable relationships with caring and responsive parents or caregivers, safe and supportive environments, and proper nutrition.  This critical five year-window is when the child has the chance to develop to his or her potential. Also, research shows children who are prepared for school are more likely to do well in school.[2] 

In Guinea-Bissau, only about 14.3 per cent of young children are in an organized early childhood education programme. UNICEF’s partnership with the Ministry of Education and the National Network of Kindergartens (RENAJI) is gradually changing that. Carla Jauad, the Guinea-Bissau Education officer who oversees early childhood education, points out, “RENAJI now reaches about 600 preschools across the country and we have supported the upgrading of the educators’ skills benefitting around 17,000 children. We will continue to scale up this support across the country, particularly in remote rural areas, to change a child's developmental trajectory, improve outcomes for children, families and communities, and ensure all children have access to quality preschool education.”

[1] The teacher, Aramata Mané, is no relation to says Nené Mane although she has the same surname

[2]ELDS GB, 2018.

UNICEF has also supported two educational resource centres, one in Bissau and the other in Oio region, equipping them with up-to-date education materials that kindergarten teachers can borrow. “We would like to have these resource centres in every region,” says the National Coordinator of RENAJI, Quecuta Indja. “The teachers come from afar to borrow these much needed materials.”

Meanwhile, the parent/teacher meeting has come to a close. Anssumane wants to continue to play but after some persuasion from his mother, he waves to his friends and teachers, and then takes his mother’s hand. Nené turns around and smiles, she is now living her dream.