Accessibility to Pre-school Education and Other Social Services for Children from Families of Different Social Groups

Author(s):

Sigita MontvilaiteOna MonkevicieneKristina Stankeviciene Marija Joniliene Vitolda Sofija Glebuviene

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 02 D, Education and Social Inequalities

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

11:15-12:45

Room:

HG, HS 21

Chair:

Anja Sinikka Heikkinen

Contribution

The Communication from the European Commission “The Updated Strategic Foundation for European Cooperation in the Field of Education and Science” (Brussels, 16.12.2008) to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and Regional Committee underlines universal equal opportunities for children to use services provided by pre-school education institutions. Lithuania, similar to any other country, faces an urgent need to evaluate accessibility to pre-school education services for children from families of different social groups and to base strategic development of education policy on researches. The article presents the research conducted by the lecturers and Master programme students of the Department of Childhood Studies of VPU, which aimed to analyse the situation in pre-school education as well as in informal education. The aim of the research: to identify accessibility to education and informal education services for children from different social groups. Moreover, an attempt was made to evaluate possibilities for expansion of the accessibility to these services as well as to identify obstacles met in this process.

Method

1. The analysis of the context for expansion of pre-school education and related services to evaluate favourable and unfavourable strategic decisions on education policy to the accessibility of services. 2. The survey, employing fact and opinion questionnaires, which aims to identify the supply of and accessibility to primary education and related services for children from families of different social status. 3. The method of document analysis. The sample of the research included 230 heads of pre-school education institutions, 221 educators, 94 representatives of informal education and other institutions. The respondents represented state institutions and institutions established by private individuals or organisation as well as institutions operating in cities and rural areas. To evaluate the accessibility to services for children, 1190 parents of children were surveyed. The sample embraced pre-school children’s parents and caregivers of different material and employment status, different educational background, living in the city and in the country.

Expected Outcomes

The number of education programmes and forms that eet exceptional needs of parents and children is very limited and, thus, accessible only to a limited number of children. It was established that the services of institutional pre-school education institutions are more accessible for city children compared to those living in rural areas. Two thirds of children in the country do not attend pre-school education institutions because of insufficient number of places there or unavailability of such services. The services of educational assistance or informal education are best accessed by city children (used by approximately 50 % of children) and almost inaccessible for children in the rural areas (used only by 5-8 % of children). All the services related to pre-school education are less accessible or inaccessible to children from families of low or very low material status from the rural areas in particular.

References

1. Allodi M, W. Child Care and Pre-schools in Sweden: an Overview of Practice, tendencies and Research. Retrieved from http://rpd.cib.unibo.it/archive/00000075/01/child2_TEMPLATE_stampa.pdf 2. Avramov D. Child Care, School Time Schedules and Professional Activity of Parents. In: European population. Volume 2: demographic dynamics, edited by Alain Blum and Jean-Louis Rallu. 1993. 343-69 pp. 3. Barnett S, W. Preschool Education and Its Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/resources/research/PreschoolLastingEffects.pdf 4. DiPrete T, A, Morgan S, P, Engelhardt H, Pacaliva H. Do Cross-National Differences in the Costs of Children Generate Cross-National Differences in Fertility Rates? Retrieved from http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/40633/dp355.pdf 5. Diversity and Accessibility in Early Childhood Education . EU Conference Childcare in a Changing World, Groningen, 21-23 October 2004. Retrieved from http://www.childcareinachangingworld.nl/downloads/introduction_anke_van_keulen.pdf 6. Early Childhood Education: Federal Policy Issues. Retrieved from http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/permalink/meta-crs-5864:1 7. Herzenberg S, Price M, Bradley D. Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education Declining Workforce Qualifications in an Expanding Industry, 1979-2004. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ece 8. Marcon R, A. Moving up the Grades: Relationship between Preschool Model and Later School Success. Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/marcon.html 9. Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. ISBN: 9264035451 Publication: 11/9/2006 Pages: 444

Author Information

Sigita Montvilaite

Vilnius Pedagogical University

Childhood studies department

Vilnius

126

Ona Monkeviciene

Vilnius Pedagogical University

Childhood studies department

Vilnius

126

Kristina Stankeviciene

Vilnius Pedagogical University, Lithuania

Marija Joniliene

Vilnius Pedagogical University, Lithuania

Vitolda Sofija Glebuviene

Vilnius Pedagogical University, Lithuania

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