Enhancing Preprimary Opportunities for Disadvantaged Children: Implementation of community-based school readiness (CBSR) program in Laos

CRS promotes quality early childhood development and education (ECDE) programming as part of its global education priorities. In line with a country’s ECDE context, CRS’ ECDE programs are guided by CRS’ ECE Conceptual Framework for Quality ECE Intervention and implemented through diverse approaches. One approach is the Community-based School Readiness model (CBSR), which has been integrated into CRS Laos LEAPS III McGovern Dole Food for Education program (MGD-FFE) (2021-2026) and implemented based on the Lao PDR CBSR Model.

This document outlines the experiences of the CRS Laos LEAPS III MGD-FFE CBSR program, detailing the Lao PDR CBSR Model adapted for this initiative. It presents the fundamental steps the project has taken to establish, implement, evaluate, cost, and conclude the CBSR program based on this model.

This document aims to:

1. Enhance CRS’ institutional memory regarding Early Childhood Education, with a focus on the CBSR program.

2. Assist program developers and implementers interested in launching CBSR initiatives in low-resource settings by sharing insights from CRS Laos’ LEAPS III CBSR initiative, which was executed through the Lao PDR CBSR Model.

3. Contribute to evidence generation concerning CBSR approaches to evaluate their impact and scalability.

Authors: Selamawit Tadesse, 1^st Author – Sr. Technical Advisor Early Childhood Development and Education (Ph.D.), PIQA Education, Jeane Green 2^nd Author, Technical Advisor Child Literacy Development, PIQA Education