The Alola Foundation has established 138 alternative pre-school centers in Viqueque and Ermera to help improve access to early education to children aged 3 to 5 years in rural areas.
Alola’s Education Program Manager, Emma de Sousa, said the pre-schools were the first to be established in rural areas yet.
“Children should wait until they are 6 or 7 years old to study at basic school,” she said.
She said early education was important to prepare children for basic school.
She said the facilitators would use the national curriculum for pre-school as prepared by the Ministry of Education and there was no difference with formal education.
She added there were currently more than 200 children attending the centers.
She said Alola continued to provide training to the managers (the representative of the communities) to the managers of the 138 centers so they could improve the learning process.
Meanwhile, Viqueque Education Director Emilio Amaral said the presence of this center was giving children the opportunity to access early education.
“We have good cooperation with the Alola Foundation itself and currently we are providing training to the school managers,” he said.
He said that almost 100 pre-school centers had been establishedin Ossu and Uato-Lari administrative posts in the Viqueque municipality, with the remainder in Ermera.
