Enact is a new Early Years Education Consultant Company. It has been founded, with the support of investors, by specialists from Drama Rainbow in Beijing, China, a privately-owned business which runs a Centre for drama education for 3-8 years olds. Enact is the only affricated company in the U.S. sponsored by Drama Rainbow (Enact's parent company). 

 

It is nearly a decade since Drama Rainbow (Enact's parent company) first entered the field of drama and theatre education. The Centre offers its membership a transformative experience that enables children to develop a strong sense of self, be creative, think independently, and explore the world they live in socially. It is experiential learning based on narrative thinking that liberates the child to become active agents in their own lives.

 

In August 2019, we will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary. There are many reasons to celebrate the Company’s success, not least its survival and stabilisation in a very competitive, and to some extent hostile environment. During this time Drama Rainbow has evolved a structure and business model that remains true to our Core Values and represents best practice in the field, which is widely recognised even by our competitors. Whilst we recognise the importance of profit in any business enterprise, we believe that it must not come at the price of integrity at a time when our culture increasingly knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.  As pioneers, our journey has been one of ‘firsts’ and trial and error. We have learned a huge amount about drama and early years education and development along the way, most of all from our mistakes. We have developed a radical holistic approach to teaching and learning. But Drama Rainbow (Enact's parent company) is a unique organisation and the potential for growth in this market is limited. We therefore want to share our experience and knowledge and apply it in another context, Kindergarten education. This is why we have incorporated Enact.

 

 

Why is this? Why now? First and foremost, we believe that drama methodology represents the most creative and active method for imaginative, creative teaching and learning through doing; enhancing higher order intellectual capacities whilst nurturing a sense of social and moral responsibility that create human values. As we near the end of the second decade of the 21st Century, Chinese society (like the rest of the world) faces many social, economic, political and environmental challenges. In order to meet them, we need concerned and actively engaged citizens. To become one of those requires active, engaged and creative minds fulfilling their potential. The most effective way of achieving this is through education, particularly early years education. These formative foundation years are critical to child development, a time when we are most open, flexible and adventurous in our thinking. As Aristotle noted, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” These early years are our once in a life time opportunity to fundamentally shape who we are, on a journey towards becoming the kind of person we want to be and to creating the kind of world we want to live in. Early years education is also the least restrictive educational environment, in curriculum terms, in China and offers greater scope for change.

 

Early years Kindergarten education is also a business opportunity in China, which is why we have created Enact to make a much-needed intervention into the culture of education. At present, attendance at Kindergarten in China is not compulsory. The present enrolment rate stands at 77% (19th Congress of the C.C.P) and Ministry of Education issued a target of 85% to be reached by 2020, the next step towards the realisation of mandatory provision for all children. An increase of only 8% may appear to be modest but given the levels of investment required to achieve this, it is an ambitious target. The government is simply not able to fund this alone and the private sector therefore is expected to fill the gap left by limited State provision. The advent of the second child policy is increasing demand for places and the Kindergarten market, according to Frost and Sullivan, is expected to reach a value of RMB 298.4 billion by 2021.

 

Enact’s strategy is to apply the values of a what Bruner defines as culturalist approach to education and, by transferring the expertise we have gained at Drama Rainbow (Enact's parent company) into Kindergartens, to bring about much needed change to early years education which lacks both innovation and professionalism. Enact will provide a number of services and consultancy tools for investors and Principals to upgrade existing Kindergartens as well as setting up new Kindergartens that embrace the Company’s ethics and philosophy of education.