During the socialist period the State administered all kindergartens The first kindergarten for thirty children was opened in Ulaanbaatar in 1930. By 1940 there were more than 40 kindergartens in the country. Towards the end of the 1980s 25 per cent of all pre-school age children attended kindergartens.. During this period they acquire basic physical, aesthetic and work knowledge and are taught the elements of reading, writing and counting. The most of their expenses are being borne by the State. However the strengthening of pre-school education became an urgent objective in view of the drastic decline of the sector due to the eco-nomic and social crisis facing Mongolia at the wake of its transition to a market economy in the early 1990s. In 1995, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Education and Culture adopted a national program on the improvement of the pre-school establishments.
The implementation of the program started in December, 1997 and was completed with great success in March, 2001 with the financial support of the Government of the Netherlands, the British Partnership scheme and Save the Children Fund (UK). In 2004, the enrolment rate of children in kindergartens from 2 to 7 years olds stood at around 40 percent. There are 687 pre-school institutions nationwide catering for 91000 children. 6,000 teachers and assistant teachers work in pre-school educational institutions. Between 2000-2003 10 kindergartens were built with a total of 655 beds. Prior to the socialist era in Mongolia formal education was widely provided in monasteries and among government officials. Stratified sections of society were then chosen to be formally educated in order to either communicate with neighbouring countries or to be able to recite Buddhist texts.
A formal education was exclusive and selective. Informal practical skills were learnt at home and passed on within the family environment. As a result of the People's Revolution in 1921 a new philosophy swept the country including the right to a free education regardless of gender, ethnic origin or wealth. By the 1930s the state first opened schools providing formal education for the populous across the country coupled with boarding houses to provide children from nomadic families with accommodation, food and clothing. Education became uniform, formalised and available to all. By the mid-20* century literacy rates in Mongolia increased drastically and with the shift from traditional Mongolian script to Cyrillic, teachers were sent out into the countryside to ensure all the population could read and write. Pioneer activities allowed for moral and practical teachings outside the formal school environment.
In the countryside cooperatives, eager to attain maximum productivity, ensured that all aspects of a child's education were to be looked after by the state leaving parents free to work. By the 1960s illiteracy was eradicated completely nationwide. UNESCO recognised this fact and rewarded Mongolia for this achievement. By the beginning of the 1990s the socio-economic situation of the country changed radically and the transition to an open market economy hit Mongolia's education system hard. Many teachers chose to abandon their jobs due to the lack of income and turned to new trades and businesses. With the collapse of local cooperatives parents returned to herding with the few animals they managed to reclaim and their children were often forced to help at home with herding. By the late 1990s the situation in the country's educational system started to improve.
Many structural changes were made in the education sector. One of these was the project "Education sector development program" instigated by the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science in 1997. The program funded by loans and a technical assistance grant from the Asian Development Bank aimed at improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of the education system, and restructuring education institutions. The implementation of the project has resulted in a modern secondary and higher education system This shift in the educational sector has been facilitated by a package of laws on education since 1995 crating a legal environment that has helped to make the necessary adjustment in the education system to that of highly developed countries, enhancing the quality of education at all levels, upgrading equipment and facilities.
According to a package of laws on education adopted in 2002 and due to come into force in 2005, the compulsory school age of children in Mongolia will be seven years and they must receive eleven years secondary education. In line with this, a new primary and secondary education model has been developed, which is an important step for reform in the education sector. In Mongolia elementary education is widespread and mostly free, with the result that the country boasts one of the highest literacy rates (97.8 per cent) in the world. According to the statistics of 2004, there are 688 primary and secondary schools, with 550,000 children in attendance. The enrolment rates for 8 year old and 7 year old children in the first grade were 88.2 percent and 36.5 percent respectively.
The enrolment rate of children aged between 8-15 years is 98 per cent. Among these schools there are several specialised secondary schools. The goal of these schools is to provide focused education for pupils with special abilities in certain fields. There are approximately 20,725 highly educated teachers working in Mongolian secondary schools. More than 7,527 of them are teaching elementary classes, and 13,198 teaching secondary and above. There are 32 vocational education and training centres with 20,000 students and over 800 teachers.
