In September 2021, TAF introduced its Let’s Read’ Initiative in Mongolia, to promote reading and improve education outcomes. The Initiative was a comprehensive program to increase the availability of high-quality Mongolian-language children’s books, and to encourage adults to establish reading routines with young children. The Initiative was to help parents and caregivers use children’s books as critical ‘tools; actively contributing to early childhood development.

The Study was to collect the baseline data for monitoring changes in the course of the Initiative. The Study explored the existing situation regarding reading habits of parents and caregivers (with children aged up to five years. It also looked at the awareness of benefits of reading books to children, access to books, and educational simulation at home and kindergarten.

Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used. A total of 834 parents with children aged up to five years were interviewed from within selected education institutions. Indepth interviews were conducted with the key stakeholders of the Ministry of Education and Science, Municipal Education Department, district education departments and kindergarten and school managers. The Study was to be measurable, comparable and repeatable across time.

According to research, IRIM has:

• Developed in inception report including survey methodology and questionnaire;

• Organized pretest and revised the tools;

• Prepared data collection and conducted researchers’ training;

• Conducted data quality check and ensured data quality;

• Used SPSS for quantitative data analyze and MAXQDA for qualitative data analyze;  

• Developed final report in English and in Mongolian;

• Presented key findings.