In the Khanty-Mansiysk region, as in many other regions of Russia, early childhood development (ECD) is the least reformed segment of the education system. ECD gets a lot of funding but achieves disappointing outcomes. Research shows that early childhood development has a great impact on the future well-being of individuals and society at large. About half of young children (ages 0-3) in the region never received ECD services and were, consequently, unable to develop strong cognitive and social skills prior to entering school.

Through a fee-based arrangement, the World Bank worked with the regional Government on a diagnosis of constraints to providing better quality education services. Experts and the communities were engaged to build capacity and awareness for pre-school education and early childhood development. The goal was to bring service quality and efficiency in line with international best practices.

The first diagnostics stage of the joint work with the region informed the regional policymakers on the issues and opportunities of the system and on how the system can be improved. The second stage helped build local capacity and awareness so that authorities had the skills to assume responsibility for social service quality. The World Bank’s service was aimed, specifically, at senior officials in the sub-sector and regional authorities (including sector and finance ministries), local experts responsible for policy analysis and formulation, municipal authorities, heads of kindergartens, preschool teacher trainers, and local communities.

As a result of the World Bank’s efforts, ECD (ages 0-3 years) became an important area of policy concern for regional authorities for the first time. They have initiated a comprehensive program of kindergarten construction and increasing the coverage of the preschool education system. The children of Khanty-Mansiysk will benefit from a number of program outputs - they will receive new preschool education programs, an updated kindergarten environment adjusted to the best world and Russian exemplars, and the possibility to be earlier in the education system.

Based on the diagnostics, the activity is creating a demand for reform programs which will balance all the elements needed for an effective improvement in the teaching quality (that is, investment strategy and training of teachers). The regional goal now is compulsory preschool education.

"Stock phrase 'Kids are our future' - is a trivial, but an absolutely true statement. In cooperation with the World Bank specialists we have carefully looked into the existing international experience in the early childhood education and development. I am extremely pleased with the results, which we have obtained after carrying out the studies in cooperation with the World Bank. The conclusions of the studies made us revise our approaches and methods, and even to take a look at the legal texts. It is very important to start working with children as early as possible to make maximum use of the most fruitful years of kids’ youth." — Alexander V. Fillippenko, Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, Ugra

"Originally the project was meant to merge a preschool construction project that is under way in the Okrug - 136 preschool establishments to be built within two years - and the new content of preschool training, because in many respects the current preschool education system is the successor of the Soviet system designed for mass-scale training. The new project makes us hopeful that preschool training will be more child-oriented and that children will be developing independently to a greater extent. Ultimately we plan introducing mandatory preschool training throughout the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug – Ugra." — Alexei N. Mayorov, Deputy Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, Ugra

• Policy reforms for ECD were recommended, including public-private partnerships for financing an ECD system, child-centered education methodologies, and enhanced monitoring and evaluation.
• The regional program for the construction of kindergartens has been modified to be in line with recommended modern standards for preschool education environments.
• A strategy has been prepared for teacher training and quality improvement.

• Using a panel of subject matter experts to provide real-time on-going review, and assembling a top-flight international team, lead to high quality on-time analysis.
• A focus on capacity building facilitates the absorption of knowledge by local experts and authorities. Transmission of technical knowledge alone is not sufficient.

• Government of Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra
• Department of Education and Science, Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra

• Isak Froumin, Task Team Leader
• Rebekka Grun
• Tigran Shmis

• World Bank and Early Childhood Development