Preschool: A Long-Term Investment in the Future

When she arrives at the Plubá Preschool in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, five-year-old Beneciana picks up her name card and clips it onto a string. This is how the children in teacher Zinaida Imbana’s class mark their attendance in the preschool classroom. This simple gesture helps children learn about responsibility, practice hand-eye coordination, and develop fine motor skills that will later help them, for example, hold a pencil correctly. But before anything else, Beneciana must say the first ‘magic word’ of the day to her classmates and teachers: "Good morning".

At Plubá Preschool, everything is designed to promote children's learning and development.

"People think that in preschool, children just sing and play, but it’s much more than that, and it makes a huge difference in their development," says Zinaida, 29.

What many call play, the educator calls activities. "When a child fills a bottle with sand, they are practicing concentration and fine motor skills," Zinaida explains, gesturing to illustrate. "When a child beats on cans as if they were drums, they are learning about rhythm and motor coordination. And when they invent songs or sing along with the teacher, they are practicing language, imagination, and creativity," she continues enthusiastically.

"Children need to play."

In her classes, Zinaida follows the new curriculum for preschool education for five-year-olds. Developed in 2024 in partnership with the University of Minho and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, this curriculum aims to standardize early childhood education in Guinea-Bissau. With support from UNICEF Spain and funding from Deloitte, 550 preschool educators, including Zinaida, received training in January on how to make the most of this new teaching tool. 

"I learned a lot about organizing the educational environment and how to explore the curriculum’s content areas," the teacher shares. "This is going to help the children a lot," she adds, with a smile.

"The training introduced new principles that will have a positive impact on the lives of five-year-old children," says Ensa Camará, a specialist from the National Network of Preschools (RENAJI). Ensa received training as a trainer and later passed on his knowledge to a group of educators in Biombo. RENAJI has been involved in the curriculum development process from the beginning, supporting the work of the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education, and Scientific Research (MENESIC) and the National Institute for Educational Development (INDE).

In this pilot phase, thanks to the training of 550 educators, around 13,000 children are already benefiting from the new curriculum. The goal is to observe initial results, assess the curriculum’s reception, gather feedback from teachers and students, and then expand its implementation to all preschools in the country. To support this process, RENAJI uses a tool for assessing the quality of early childhood education, known as BEQI (Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory), which provides essential data to support informed decision-making in education. In Guinea-Bissau, only 14% of children under the age of five have access to preschool education.

For Ensa, preschool education is "a long-term deposit" in the future. "A child who attends preschool adapts better to the school environment, is more independent, knows how to behave in society, develops better fine motor skills—which allows them, for example, to hold a pencil correctly—and achieves better academic results," explains Ensa, enthusiastically. He admits he feels happy when parents notice the difference in their children's learning.

Additionally, in preschool, children also learn "how to behave, respect others, and be respected," adds Zinaida. A perfect example of this is the ‘magic words’ that her students already know by heart. "Good morning, good afternoon, sorry, excuse me, please, thank you, welcome, and see you later," they say in unison.