Tokyo Japan
NIER 2009
Published by
RW/YS/MA/TN/HM/2009
CONTENTS
Foreword 1
Section I: Introduction 2
Forward
NIER Study Visit Programme on ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) Policy
and Practice is one of the ODA programmes organized by our institute, and
researchers and policy makers on ECEC from Asia and the Pacific region participated in
it from 27 to 30 October, 2009.
It is our honor to be able to invite excellent experts on ECEC policy and practice from
such countries as India, Malaysia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Turkey on
this opportunity. I am glad to hear that all the participants enjoyed study visit to typical
or new type of ECEC settings in Tokyo, and not only this field trip, but they also joined
the lectures on Japanese educational history and ECEC system on the first day and held
a last day seminar exchanging the latest cross-country information on ECEC (ECCE).
This final report includes the whole process of this study visit programme, especially,
the country papers which all the participants kindly handed in are very precious (see
Annex 3) to Japanese educational policy makers and researchers.
We would like to express our deep appreciation for the great .contribution of the
participants and kind co-operation of the institutes where they visited during the
programme.
Tomiji Sugawa
Director General, NIER
1
Section I: Introduction
Background
Today, much attention goes to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) more than
before in the world of education. Many governments, policy-makers and researchers
found its importance because some remarkable research findings across countries are
available. For example, OECD Reports, Starting Strong I and II (2001/2006), and one of
UNESCO-EFA Global Monitoring Reports, Strong Foundations (2007) show the
influence and impacts of the governmental investments and initiatives towards ECEC.
Japan is not an exception: Its ECEC policies and practices have been promoted for
recent years and ECEC is still a nationwide concern. Because child population declines,
ECEC relates with the societal issues on not only education for children and
lifelong-learning but also economy as well as human resource and labour.
The programme was held from 27 to 30 October 2009 at the National Institute for
Educational Policy Research (NIER) for country reports and ECEC fields for
observation and interviews. The participants were experts on ECEC, belong to academic
and/or research institutes. The participating countries were from India, Malaysia,
Mexico, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. The participants prepared a short
country report in addition to presentation (Annex 3). The report covered the following
themes:
2
Section II: Visit to ECEC in Japan
Places visited
Type: Integrated Public Kindergarten and Day Nursery, Bunkyo -ward, Tokyo
Age range: 1-5 years old (Yanagicho Day Nursery for 1-3 year olders:36 children /
Yanagicho Kindergarten: 4 -5 year olders: 84 children)
Number of Teachers/Staffs: 10 child-minders, 7 teachers, 18 part-time staffs
Location: Urban area (15 minutes from Tokyo center by subway)
Yanagicho Kodomo no Mori is an integrated public kindergarten and day nursery. For
the purpose of implementing integrated ECEC for 1-5 year old children in the
community, local government attached the original kindergarten and the day care center,
in the same site. 1-3 year-old classes provide day care services for the working parents
and 4 and 5 year old classes include half day ECEC (basic course) and one day ECEC
(extended course). This new system has started in 2006, and this was the first case in
Bunkyo ward,Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
3
Mitakeno Oka Hoiku-en
4
Observation shared
The common observation from the field trip to the Japanese kindergarten and nursery
school during the two days were summarized as follows:
1. Space & Environment: All the Japanese institutes seem to have playground,
open-area, green nature. It is good for child development, especially nourishing
their respect for nature. The value of cleaning room is important as a goal of
learning informally, comparing to some of participants' countries have an issue of
keeping campus clean. Although the institutes the participants observed were much
better than average ones in Japan, all the equipments seemed to be very well
organized and designed.
3. Time: the Japanese institutes provide service in limits. Others offer flexible time in
diverse social background like race and poverty as well as climate and natural
conditions such as warm weather and remote areas. Same as elementary school
close at 4pm so that parents want them to stay on campus longer for their work.
4. Personnel: The young Japanese private kindergarten teaching staff quit their job
after marriage. Almost all of them are female (c.f. 6% of male for the total staff,
including managers) and accumulate their experience as a kindergarten/nursery
teacher for four or five years before they leave the institute. One of the reasons they
leave is lower salary (200,000 to 230,000 yen/mo). Another is availability of
residence around the institute. ON the other hand, they look very happy in working.
For the training, the four-year system is longer than other countries. Part-time
teaching staff also commit to the activities in the institute. Two professional
teaching staff stayed in the class of around 30 children.
5. Family & Community: Several participants pointed out the social pressure to
mothers for caring small children. The social change creates the various needs from
the parents. Parents come to the institute to help its management and they also used
its equipments for their own activities.
5
6. Problem: The largest problem was identified that the coordination and integration
were needed between kindergarten and nursery school. Private kindergartens are
decreasing and the needs for nursery school are increasing. Governmental supports
may be needed more.
7. Human Communication: The most impressive scene in the field was smile from
staff and children. Taking series of small notes by teachers was also observed as
sign of how much they pay attention to the children in every moment. The staff
share the notes among other teaching staff, management and sometimes with
parents.
8. Other issues raised from the country reports: Special education needs,
minority/indigenous groups in remote areas, Holistic approach, teacher's license
system, children-centred approach. Dilemma between development and
implementation of curriculum. Drawing picture is one of the children's common
channel for their little language skills.
6
Section III: Discussions on ECEC
Teacher:
Salary of teachers:
Teachers receive low salary except Turkey. Education is not popular for young
generation in most of countries.
Teachers easy quit their teaching profession and move to other business sector.
(India, Malaysia)
Official agreement of minimum wage for teachers is not reflect reality (not enough
for their professional burden and/or lower than other business sector); Government
try to increase the salary in India. (In the context of government sponsored scheme
While public school teachers are paid higher than private in the high competitive
(Korea)
Training of teachers
Qualification of teachers:
Certificate from higher educational institutions is required but still many untrained
teachers (most of them have no certification) are working (India and Taiwan).
Teachers are trained in two phases either during pre-service or in-service courses.
(Malaysia)
The universities and teacher training institutions are given the responsibility to train
teachers at the pre-service level. Criteria are specified and candidates will have to go
through strict interviews in order to be selected for training. At the in-service level
teachers are invited to attend short courses to upgrade their knowledge and skills.
However this poses problem because it creates a situation whereby there are classes
where there are no teachers. Efforts are made to ensure that there will be not too many
teachers attending in-service courses at one time so that parents will not complain over
the absence of teachers.
7
System:
Tuition free:
There are wide range of tuition fee in private schools.
Tuition fee for public school is lower than private in general.
Public pre-school is all free including children's uniform (Mexico).
Promotion/awareness:
National campaign for complete enrolment to kindergarten (Taiwan)
Integration between kindergarten and day care center (Japan, Korea and Taiwan):
Attached institute (kindergarten and day care center share building, playground
and human resources etc.). To comply different low is major source of complexity.
Ministries' responsibilities are also different.
Difficult to enroll because of small capacity/number of day nursery schools, on the
other hand, some kindergartens are face shortage of children (Japan).
Curriculum: continuity to upper schooling (Korea).
Evaluation: government or authority's inspection/monitoring for public schools.
Teacher-children ratio: varies from 1-35 to 1-10
Social Backgrounds:
Young parents have to work and leave their children to nursery school.
Children have to study after school. Academic skills development will be required from
their parents and little attention is paid to the personality development (Korea).
Gender balance of teachers (Turkey has increasing number of male students for
are female.)
8
Challenges and Innovations
The number of teachers will decrease while the child population decline or
Partnership:
Malaysia will definitely appreciate the cooperate and private sectors to play active role
and forge partnership especially with regards to networking and funding. The Malaysian
government have formulated strategies so that more public centres and classes are built
to meet the ever growing needs of preschoolers. At the moment certain percentage of
parents have to send their children to private centres due to the lack of classes at the
public schools.
New institute:
9
Annex 1: List of Participants
India
Mr. G.C. Upadhyay
Reader Department of Preschool and Elementary Education, NCERT Shri Aurobindo
Malaysia
Ms. Mokolus Binti Kattubawa Rowther
Principal Assistant Director Policy Planning and Curriculum Evaluation Sector,
Curriculum Development Division,
Ministery of Education Policy Planning and Curriculum Evaluation Sector,
Curriculum Development Division,
Ministery of Education
Mexico
Ms. Angelica Lopez Ortega
Republic of Korea
Ms. Soon Hwan Kim
Professor (full-time lecturer) Department of Early Childhood Education,
Ewha Womans University
10
Taiwan
Dr. Yu-ching Yeh
Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education, National
Chiayi University
Turkey
Prof. Dr. Caglayan Dincer
Professor Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences,
Ankara University
Resource Person
Ms. Yuko Tarumi
Assistant Professor, Ochanomizu University
NIER Secretariat
Department for International Research and Co-operation
Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher
11
Annex 2: Agenda and Schedule of Work
27 October (Tue)
28 October (Wed)
Field Trip
9:30-11:30 Shirokane Yochi-en (Meguro-ku) Kindergarten
14:00-17:30 Yanagicho Kodomo no Mori (Bunkyo-ku,) ECEC Center
29 October (Thu)
Field Trip
9:30-10:30 Tamagawa Gakuen Yochi-bu Kindergarten (Machida-city)
11:30-12:30 Tamagawa University, Faculty of Education
Lecture on Teacher Training
12
~
12:30 14:30 Lunch Break & Campus Trip
16:00-18:00: Mitake no Oka (Shibuya-ku) Child-care Center
30 October (Fri)
10:30 - 12:30 Country Presentation & Round Table Discussion -1 (including Q&A)
10:30 -11:00 India by Mr. GC. Upadhyay (NCERT)
11:00 -11:30 Malaysia by Ms. Mokolus Binti Mo Kattubawa Rowther (MOE)
11:30 -12:00 Mexico by Ms. Angelica Lopez (Government of Mexico City)
13
Annex 3: Resource and Country Papers
Japan
Yasuo Saito
NIER
The introduction of a modern education into Japan, taking several Western countries
as models, began in the latter part of the 19th century. The arrival of modernization in
Japan was therefore comparatively late, but education underwent very rapid
development within a short space of time. In that time, in Japan, there were some
particular socio-cultural conditions that were favorable for its development as follows:
(1) the educational heritage of the Tokugawa shogunate Edo era (1603-1968), (2) the
secular tradition in education, (3) the linguistic homogeneity that allows using Japanese
as the sole medium of instruction, (4) recognition of urgent necessity for formation of
nation-state through education, (5) the emergence of system of recruiting people on the
basis of academic attainment, (6) the lack of any colonial legacy in education and the
possibility of choosing models from different countries.
14
divided into 8 university districts, each of these was divided into 32 middle school
districts, and each of these was further divided into 210 elementary school districts. In
principle, all children were required to attend to elementary school, regardless of sex,
parental occupation or social status.
Traditional educational institutions were transformed and incorporated into the new
systems. Many Terakoya,, or popular learning houses for the teaching of reading and
writing and the practical skills to the commoners, became elementary schools. Many of
the Hanko (fief schools) for samurai worrior class were transformed into local middle
schools. Although the ShOhei-zaka Gakumonjo, the suprime Confucian education
institution established by the shogunate government, was abolished, two other
Western-style educational establishments set up in the Edo era, the "Kaisei-jo" and a
medical institute, continued to exist after the Meiji Restoration and eventually
developed into the University of Tokyo. To modernize the content and methods of
elementary education, in 1872, the government invited Professor Marion Scott from the
United States a specialist in teacher education, and the Tokyo Normal School was
established.
[A clash of ideologies]
Also around the end of the 1870s, changes began to appear in the ideological context
of education. Opposing the course of Westernization that had been followed since the
Meiji Restoration, a movement emerged, driven primarily by the conservatives in the
Imperial Court, seeking a change in education policies. They alleged a decline in public
15
morals resulting from excessive Westernization, and emphasized the need for a
restoration of morals based on traditional ethics. In 1879, the Emperor sent the Imperial
Will on the Great Principles of Education (Kyogaku Taishi). In this document, emphasis
was placed on Confucian ideas such as duty, loyalty and filial piety, and patriotism. In
the revised Education Order of 1880, education of "morals" (Shushin) took on new
importance.
16
school or girls' high school took specialized training course such as medicine. pharmacy,
law, engineering, and commerce. In 1897, a second imperial university was established
in Kyoto, and others followed, in 1907 in Sendai, in 1910 in Fukuoka, and elsewhere.
17
and democracy was promulgated. GHQ requested the U.S. to dispatch "United States
Education Mission to Japan" to examine the postwar Japanese education reforms. The
Education Mission arrived in March 1946 and issued a report containing a series of
recommendations. The large-scale postwar reform of the Japanese education system was
carried out on the basis of the recommendations of this mission.
[The laws concerned with improving the school and learning environment]
From the 1950s on, a series of laws were enacted with the aim of improving the
school and learning environment. In 1954, the "Law for the Promotion of Education in
Remote and Isolated Areas" was enacted with the aim of improving educational
conditions in mountainous areas or on remote islands. Special financial provisions were
made available for the purpose of upgrading facilities and equipment in schools in these
areas, and special allowances were paid to teachers who worked in them. Also in 1954,
to set out criteria for the improvement of school lunches, the School Lunch Law was
established. In 1958, the "School Health Law" was approved with the objective of
making provisions for maintaining children's health, administering a hygienic
environment in schools. Finally in 1963, the "Law concerning the Free Provision of
Textbooks in Compulsory Education Schools" was promulgated.
18
Also enacted were two laws which aimed to promote specific areas of education,
namely the "Industrial Education Promotion Law" in 1951, and the -Science Education
Promotion Law" in 1953. These laws set out national criteria relating to the laboratories,
facilities and equipment needed for industrial education and science education. All
schools, public and private, that want to improve their scientific facilities to satisfy the
criteria could apply for a national subsidy that would meet all or part of the costs.
19
development in Japan. Looked at as a whole, Japanese education has provided a large
number of people who acquired the qualities demanded by the industrial world and
Japanese society, specifically people who possessed the basic knowledge and skills to
respond to technical change and innovation, who were disciplined, diligent, and
constant and who had the collaborative skills needed to work in a group.
[The Central Council for Education and the Third Educational Reform]
With Japan's entry into the 1970s, voices were increasingly heard advocating the
need to reform the whole education system. In 1971, the Central Council for Education
(Chukyoshin), an advisory body to the Minister of Education, submitted a report
consisting of "a fundamental policy for the comprehensive expansion of the education
system". It contemplated a comprehensive reform aimed at restructuring all levels of
education from kindergarten though university and called it oneself as "the third major
educational reform".
The report engendered a fierce debate. In particular, the Japan Teachers Union
adopted a clear oppositional stance, claiming that the CCE put forward reform proposals
without making a critical examination of the postwar reforms. In addition to oppositions,
the economic retrenchment and budgetary cutbacks following the "oil shock" of 1973
had made it difficult to implement large-scale education reforms.
20
At the end of 1982, Mr. Nakasone came into power. Prime Minister Nakasone
showed great eagerness to bring about education reform. In 1984, as an advisory body
under the direct jurisdiction of the Prime Minister, the National Council on Education
Reform (NCER, Rinkyoshin) was launched. Great interest was shown by the mass
media in the launching of the NCER. It remained in existence for 3 years and issued a
total of 4 reports.
In August 1987, the final report was published. Fundamental perspectives on
educational reform are presented in the form of three principles: (1) the principle of
putting emphasis on the individuality of students; (2) the move to a system of lifelong
learning; and (3) the response to changes such as internationalization and advancement
of information technology.
Many of the principles and concepts put forward by NCER were passed over to the
Ministry of Education. And with the advent of the 1990s, educational reform came to
assume a concrete shape.
(1) The abilities and the qualities conducive to identifying problems for themselves,
studying on their own initiative and thinking for themselves, exercising their own
judgment and acting independently, and solving problems properly;
(2) A rich sense of humanity, embracing a ability to control oneself, a willingness to
cooperate with others, and a heart that thinks of others and to be sensitive to variable
and precious things;
(3) The health and physical strength enable them to live an active life.
The Council summed up the abilities and qualities outlined here in the phrase "Ikiru
chikara"(competences for positive living or zest for living). The Council stressed that
for this "competences for positive living" to be cultivated in the children, it was
important for the school, the home and the community to collaborate together. In
addition, the Council said, in order to develop these competences, it was important for
children, for their schools, and for the whole of society, embracing the family and the
community, to have "Yutori Ilatitude or relaxed feeling). For some time after this,
chikara" and "yutori" were taken up and used as the key words in any debate
about education reform.
21
[The reform of school education]
With regard to school education, the CCE made the following recommendations. (1)
Review carefully the content of education to reduce the teaching of the mere knowledge
or of rote memorization material, and make a strict selection of content and ensure that
children have a firm grasp of the fundamentals. In order that children can have -Yutori",
shorten the number of teaching hours; (2) With a view to encouraging individual
children to develop their own distinctive personality, promote more flexibility in the
curriculum and work toward creating schools that have their own distinctive
characteristics; (3) In order to cultivate children with a rich sense of humanity and a
vigorous physique, strengthen hands-on activities such as volunteer work, contact with
nature, work experience; (4) With a view to promoting cross-curricular, comprehensive
studies such as international understanding, information education, environmental
protection, nature experiences, set up -school periods for integrated learning". The
integrated learning period (Sogo gakushu no jikan) is a time slot, in which each school
is expected to develop their own synthetic leaning activities without textbooks. A further
recommendation was the proposal for a phased introduction of the five-day school week
(once a month from 1992, and twice a month from 1995).
7. Controversy in progress
22
implemented since April 2002. But this type of controversy has continued further.
Some people feel anxiety over the result of OECD-PISA (Programme for
International Student Assessment. According to the evaluation of 2003, Japan's 15-years
olds were in the top class internationally. However, in the reading literacy, the Japanese
students dropped their rank and were not considered the world's top class.
[Establishment of ERC]
In October 2006, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe _established a new advisory body called
Education Rebuilding Council (ERC, Kyoiku Saisei Kaigi) emphasizing his
government's intention to tackle the educational problems. In the mid-term reports,
ECR recommended some policies such as 10% increasing of curriculum contents and
school instruction-hours in primary and secondary schools, introduction of renewal
system of teacher certificates, speedy treatment for bullying problems in schools. The
possibility for introducing education voucher system to Japanese education was also
discussed. However, by the abrupt resignation of Prime Minister Abe in September
2007, ECR lost momentum. In 31 January 2008, the final report of ERC entitled
"Education Rebuilding by Society as a Whole" is presented
. As the final report,
previous radical tone of discussions in ERC is weakened and some all-purpose
recommendations are presented. Attention to the final report of ERC in the mass media
was not notable so much.
[New Curriculum]
In 28 March, the Ministry of Education announced new Courses of Study for
elementary and lower secondary schools that would be implemented from April 2011.
According the explanation of the Ministry, even in the new curriculum, basic idea of
Ikiru chikara would be maintained as a principle of education. However, there are some
changes in the new curriculum as follows:
1. In Primary school and Junior Secondary School, the total number of teaching
hours would be increased by around 10%.
2. In Primary school, two teaching hours in a week would be increased for Grade 1
and 2 and one teaching hour for Grade 3-6 in a week.
3. In Junior Secondary School, in all grades (Grade 7 to 9), one teaching hour in a
week would be increased.
4. In Primary school, for Grade 5 and 6, in each week one hour of Foreign Language
(English) Activities would be introduced.
5. In Primary school, the integrated learning period would be reduced from 3 hours
to 2 hours in a week
6. Also in Junior Secondary School, the integrated learning period would be reduced
from 2-3 hours to 1.4-2 hours in a week.
23
[Inauguration of the new government]
In the general election of the Lower House of the Diet held in August 2009, the
long-dominated LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) was badly defeated by opposition
parties. In 16 September 2009, the new government leaded by Prime Minister
Hatoyama (Democratic party) is inaugurated. They declared a new policy-making
process that emphasized the political leadership and less-dependant on the bureaucracies.
According to their Political Manifest, the new government started to review thoroughly
the policies which were decided by the former government.
Until now, the ministerial team of the Ministry of Education, consists of politicians,
proclaims new policies such as the abolishing of the tuition-fees for public senior high
schools, revising the system of annual national assessment of academic achievement
(from complete survey to sampling survey), and reviewing the teacher certificate
renewal system which was just introduced in April 2009.
24
Japan
Yuko Nonoyama-Tarumi
Ochanomizu University
25
Law in 1947: Article 77-Kindergartnes shall provide a suitable environment that
helps young children grow and develop their minds and bodies; Article
80-Kindergarten was to be for young children from three years of age until they
Rapid gain in 1960s (Enrollment of 5 year olds 28.7% in 1960, 53.7% in 1970)
and 5 year olds who desire to go to kindergarten in the coming ten years; increase of
After World War II, day nursery was codified as child welfare institutions (Child
Welfare Law in 1947: Article 39-institutions for the purpose of caring for infants
and young children on the basis of daily contracts from the parent or guardian;
day nurseries; later Article 39 amended-limit the coverage to infants and children
lacking of early childhood care due to parents" work, illness, etc.); Development of
day nursery for children in households with both parents working; Greater role of
day nursery with the increase of nuclear family and female labor participation.
26
Teacher-Student Ratio 0 year old: 1:3 Max 1:35
1-2 year old: 1:6
3 year old: 1:20
4-5 year old: 1:30
Number of facilities 22.288 14,061
(Public 12,414; (National 49; Public
Private 9,874) 5,649; Private 8,363)
Number of enrolled 1,959,889 1,753,396
children (Public 1,080,067; (National 6,626;
Private 1,390,001)
Parental cost: 300,000 yen/year (varies according to family income, age, hours)
(4) Day nursery (3 years and older): Nation (19.5%), prefecture (9.8%), district (9.8%),
parents (61%)
achievements.
(2) Close relationship between the classroom and teacher training school. Universities,
colleges, and vocational schools that are responsible for training early childhood
teachers, not only train teachers but develop methods that are useful for actual sites
and attempt to support teachers on the sites.
(3) Several philosophical streams in early childhood education, with distinct
methodologies for each. However, in actual practice, these streams are not applied
mechanically but with flexibility, based upon a finely tuned approach to the life and
actions of each individual child.
(4) Early childhood education comes in a diverse array of forms. Each kindergarten or
day nursery works to establish its own methods for early childhood education
through the productive interaction of the specific content and methodology of
multiples forms, or through the adoption of better features of other forms. However,
27
some centers are closed into their own ways of doing things, adhering rigidly to one
form and making no attempt to try anything new.
28
of second-class license and female in kindergarten teachers may be due to the low
compensation. Especially, in private kindergartens, teachers' salary is low compared
to other levels of teachers. Related to this, ECEC teachers leave the profession
earlier compared to other levels of teachers. (Tables 4-1, 4-2, Figure 4-1, 4-2, p. 53
in The History of Japan's Preschool Education and Care) In order to provide
kindergartens with teachers with higher levels of expertise, it will be necessary to
improve their treatment (salary).
29
certification.
The nursery teacher exam covers the following subjects. The written exam includes
principles, and childcare practice and theory. Those that pass the written exam also
take an examination that tests their practical childcare skills. Scores of 60% of
higher are required on each subject in order to pass, and people that pass all
sections of the exam are certified as nursery teachers. People already holding a
educational principles and practical childcare skills portions of the exam. Whether
teacher exam, the licensing system has been designed to ensure that certified
teachers have the knowledge and skills necessary to accommodate the various
Integration of kindergarten and day nursery: Since 1990, with the diversification of
child care needs due to the declining birthrate and the increasing prevalence of
dual-income families, the dual system of kindergarten and day nursery has been
under debate. In 1996, the Committee for Promotion of Decentralization decided to
allow the sharing of facilities between kindergarten and day nursery depending on
the situation of each community. In March, 1998, Ministry of Education and
Ministry of Health and Welfare established the guidelines related to the dual use of
facilities as kindergartens and day nurseries. Since 1997, kindergartens have
promoted day care services after kindergarten hours. In 2004, 2,328 public
kindergartens (41.92%) and 7,091 private kindergartens (85.3%) provide such day
care, and thus the actual differences between kindergartens and day nurseries have
diminished. Local governments are also taking concrete measurements to unify the
managements of kindergartens and day nurseries as a part of administrative
streamlining efforts. Thus, the trend toward systematically unifying kindergartens
and day nurseries is expected to continue to accelerate.
The situation surrounding early childhood education has changed with the times,
and the problems are both complex and wide-ranging. The integration of
kindergartens and day nursery is drawing attention as a government policy, but
many other issues remain as well, including collaboration between kindergartens
and elementary schools (for smooth transition), and expanding the functions of
kindergartens and day nurseries so that they serve as local support centers for
child-rearing, especially with the increase of child-abuse. The most suitable
education for the development of young children needs to be reconsidered from the
perspectives of both education and welfare.
30
India
G. C. Upadhyay
1. Introduction
Features of Indian Education System
It is 10+2+3 system. 10 years' Common Scheme of Studies (5 primary
education+3 upper primary and 2 secondary) + 2 years' senior secondary + 3
years' graduation
8 years of free and compulsory elementary education for 6-14 years' of age
children as a right (Right to Elementary Education Act 2009)
Free and compulsory ECCE for children below the age of 6 years as per the
Article 45 of the Directive Principles of Constitution
Near universal access to elementary education
No detention policy at primary stage
Great diversity -regional, religious, lingual, cultural and socio economic
High heterogeneity-multilingual multi level classrooms
Mid day Meal Scheme is a significant input at elementary education stage
Large role of private, non-governmental and voluntary organizations
Education for all called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, implemented since 2001 has
achieved universal enrolment and satisfactory retention rate now focusing on
quality of education at elementary level
Heavy investment on compulsory education. Now focusing on universal
secondary education
Quality of teacher training is the area of concern for improvement
India has a wealth of traditional practices of early childhood care and education that
dates back to about 5000 years. Scriptures advocate an attitude of indulgence as the
desirable mode of child rearing at this stage. Consequently much of the early childhood
care and education was informal, within the family and through grandmother's caring
practices- lullabies, stories and traditional infant games in a joint family setup. The
wealth of developmentally appropriate child care practices is gradually becoming
extinct in the changing social realities i.e. emergence of nuclear family and women's
participation in workforce. It is in this context the need for institutionalized early
childhood care and education is growing day by day.
The first formal institutions for the pre-school age children in India, opened mainly by
foreign missionaries in late nineteenth century, were the kindergarten schools, which
expanded further in the next two to three decades. Singh U.K. et.al 1996 records that
Loreto Convent School started in 1874 at Lucknow Uttar Pradesh, St. Hildas Nursery
School at Poona in 1885 and Saidapeth High School as training school for nursery
teachers at Madras in 1888 were some significant institutions. During early period of
Twentieth- Century Mrs. Anne Besant, a British by birth, who became the president of
31
International Theosophical Society in 1907 started many schools for young children
after she came to India and adopted India as her country by her own. She opened a
school in Adiyar Madras which was later shifted to Rishi-Valley, where Theosophical
Society has started educational work. Many schools for young children were opened in
south India during 1920-30. Dr. George Arundale became the president of Theosophical
Society after Mrs. Anne Besant in 1934 and started a Montessori centre at Adiyar as
Anne Besant memorial school. She invited Maria Montessori to India and started
Montessori Training centres in various parts of the country, i.e. Madras. Ahmadabad,
Bombay, Karachi, kodiakanal. In Western India, Montessori schools were opened and
such pioneers as Gijubai Badeka, Tarabai Modak; others expanded the Montessori
approach. Gijubai Badeka started his first institution in 1920. He started his first training
centre in 1924, Dakshinmurti Training College, Bhavnagar. He formed Bal Nutan Sang
in 1926 covering Gujarat and Maharashtra states. Bal Nutan Sangh also started training
centre at Dadar in 1938. In 1945 a rural centre was started by Bal Nutan Sangh at Bordi
in district Thane, Maharashtra, and named as Gram Bal Shiksha Kendra. These were all
private efforts. The need for an inexpensive system of pre-school education was
emphasized and conceptualized by Mahatma Gandhi, which was called pre-basic
education. Under pre-basic education children up to the age of seven years were covered.
The pre-basic education as per Gandhi ji's scheme of things was visualized in four sub
stages. These were: the first stage from conception to birth, second stage from birth to
two and half years, third stage from two and half to four years and fifth stage from four
to seven years. This was expected to be the preparatory stage to Gandhi ji's basic
education. The first pre basic institution was started at Sevagram in 1945 under the
guidance of Shanta Narulkar.
In course of time the focus of pre-school education shifted to meeting the needs of
masses and the first generation learners, instead of remaining confined to those who
could pay for such education. Thus, the concept, focus and forms of early childhood
education have changed significantly over the last few decades. This is evident from the
deliberations that took place in the various meetings of Central Advisory Board of
Education (CABE). The recommendations came from Sargent Report in 1944 to
provide for facilities of pre-primary schooling to give young children social experience
rather than formal instruction. The report suggested that one million places should be
provided as a start in the age group 3-6 years
In the post-independence period, the Government of India took various measures to
address the issues pertaining to children and women. Indian Council for child Welfare
(ICCW) was formed in 1951. Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) was formed in
1953. ICCW and CSWB started grant -in aid scheme for voluntary organizations
running pre-primary centers. National Policy on Children was formulated in
1974.Direct government initiative came when Integrated Child Development Scheme
(ICDS) was launched in 1975.Which has grown in size and coverage and poised to have
universal coverage with quality in 11th five year plan (2007-2011).
32
Population Projections
Table-1
Child population Projections
2006 2011 2016
Number in million Number in million Number in million
<1 infants 24.20 24.29 24.91
1-2 toddlers 45.86 48.17 49.25
3-5 preschool 63.73 70.03 72.49
children
Source: Census of India, Population Projections for India and states 1996-2016, Registrar General, India
As per the Census of India 2001, children in the age group of birth to six years number
around 158 million which is nearly 15.2 % of the total population. The population
projections indicate that by 2016 about 25 million children will be in need of
immunization service and their mothers would need maternal health services. The
preschool age (3-5 years) population would be about 72 million by 2016 (see table -1).
Almost 2.5 million children die in India every year accounting for one in five child
deaths in the world. In almost all cases girl children are 50% more likely to die than
boys. India also accounts for 35% of developing world's LBW babies and 40% of child
malnutrition. According the report on the State of India's Newborns (National
Neonatology Forum and Save the Children 2004) India has the highest births and
neonatal death in the world. Inherent in the health system is a strong gender bias against
the female at all levels. (Eleventh Five Year Plan, India New Delhi)
Legal Framework
Article 15(3) of constitution of India, empowers the state to practice positive
discrimination favoring educationally and economically weaker groups
Article 42 (having relevance to working women also benefits young children
state ) 'enjoins the State to secure just and human conditions of work and
maternity leaves'
Article 45 (directive principles of state policy) reads-the state shall provide free
33
and compulsory ECCE for all children un till they complete the age of six years
Article 47-`the state shall endeavor to raise the level of nutrition and standard of
living of people to improve health
Statutory Provisions
Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques(regulation and prevention of misuse) Act 1994
Infant Milk substitute, Bottles and infant foods (prevention and misuse ) Act
1994
Persons with Disabilities(Equal opportunities, protection of Rights and Full
participation)Act 1995
In addition there are various State Government level acts impacting women and children
Safe Motherhood: Early marriages leading to early child bearing and closely spaced
pregnancies continue to pose serious challenge.65% girls are married before 18 years of
age and 33 % are before 15years of age. There are evidences that younger the delivering
mother lower the chances of safe delivery. Malnutrition is another major concern
because more than 50% of Indian women being anemic. Safe delivery is another major
indicator. The MMR has come down to 3.01 in 2005 from 4.08 in 1997 (SRS) but still
very high. Three fourth of the total deliveries take place at home without institutional
care. The survival of girl child is a major issue as the sex ratio has dipped from 945 in
1991 to 927 in 2001 per 1000 male. Exclusive Breast feeding for six months and
feeding of colostrums within one hour of birth is reported only at46.3% and 23.4% level
respectively. Capacity building of mothers and families for safe motherhood and
ensuring prenatal and neonatal care are important aspects of program for women and
child development.
Child's nutrition continues to be a major priority. Poor health care, sanitation and
moderately malnourished and 37.15 mild malnourished leaving only 21.5% in the
normal nourishment zone (National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau and Food and
Nutrition Board 2002). Child immunization is another major concern as 50% one year
olds and 42% children aged 12-23 months have not been fully immunized. Early
stimulation is important input at this stage along with immunization, health and
nutritional care.
The National Curriculum Framework envisages two years pre schooling to all children.
Some states like Nagaland, Delhi have provision for preschool education within primary
34
school system. In Nagaland two years preprimary is available in the primary schools. In
Delhi, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Corporation provide
one year preprimary in primary schools. In general, state run pre primary schools are
negligible. Private and NGO run primary and secondary school also have provision of
pre primary school in most of the cases.
Six to eight years: This stage is considered important from the point of view of
linkages with primary education and smooth transition from pre primary to primary.
Program focused at this stage are reciprocity between preschool and primary school and
shared understanding of children learning and development needs.
ECCE Services in India: India has 28 states and 7 Union Territories. The
administrative, legislative and fiscal powers are distributed between center and state
governments. ECCE services are available through three distinct channels -public,
private and non-governmental organizations.
Public Initiatives: There are as many as 130 programs, targeting children below 6 years
of age, under the auspices of various ministries and departments. Major ones are:
35
Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme for Working Mothers: The scheme has been
designed merging two existing schemes namely- National Creche Fund and Scheme of
Assistance to Voluntary Organizations to run creches for children of working and ailing
mothers. Creches are being allocated to states based on the proportion of child
population. The services being provided include; sleeping facilities, health care,
supplementary nutrition, immunization, preschool education etc. The services are
planned in a center for 25 children for eight hours (9am to 5pm).
ECCE under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA): Government of India initiated various
programs for universalization of primary and elementary education in the country. Early
Childhood Education (ECE) was included as an important component in the overall
strategy of universalization of primary education. During the implementation of District
Primary Education Program (DPEP) from 1996 to 2001 large number of ECE centers
were opened in habitations where ICDS coverage was not there. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,
implemented from 2001 onward bringing all programs of universalisation of elementary
education under its fold, used the strategies and experience gained during DPEP phase.
The inputs provided are, relocating ICDS anganwadi centers in primary school
premises, synchronization of timings of anganwadis and primary school, providing play
material and organizing joint training programs for ECE worker and primary teachers.
SSA also has a component of National Program of Education for Girls at Elementary
Level (NPEGEL) under which one child care centers is provide as model center at
cluster level, (a cluster generally has 10-15 schools in its jurisdiction) to facilitate
girls participation in schooling.
Pre schools Attached to primary schools: Currently there are 14.27 % primary
schools having pre primary sections (National University of Educational Planning and
Administration, New Delhi 2003)
Private Initiatives
These are fee charging profit making initiatives in ECCE and cater to children of
economically better off families. It is estimated that about 10 million children receive
preschool education through the privately run kindergartens, nursery schools and pre
primary classes in primary schools.(Sharma 1998). Admission in these English medium
schools is seen as upward mobility. Some of these schools are more of 'teaching shops'.
The cost per child varies from Rs.18000 to 200,000 per annum in Mumbai (Veenita Rao,
CNN-IBN, Nov. 2007). In ICDS the cost per child estimated per annum was Rs 350 per
annum (10 US dollars) in 1992 (NIPCCD, New Delhi).
36
meeting child care needs of diverse communities and establishing linkages between
ECCE and primary education.
Coverage of ECCE
Table 2
Coverage of ECCE under different programs
Sl No. Public Projects Beneficiaries Total
Sector Centres
Programs
1 ICDS* 6291 projects 54.6million 0-6 66.2million
1.053million age children(23
centers million preschool
children) and
11.6million
pregnant and
lactating mothers
2 SSA** 10,000 .42 million .42million
Preschool children
3 Rajiv 22,038 5,50,950 .55million
Gandhi
Creche
scheme**
4 Private*** 10 million 10 million
Preschool children
5 NGO*** Preschool children 3-20million
*11 th
plan document GOI
** Select Issues concerning ECCE in India , A case Study, A paper prepared for inclusion in
2007 GMR, NIPCCD New Delhi
***National Curriculum Framework , Position Paper, National Focus Group on ECCE, 2005
Presently the coverage of 0-6 children in ECCE is about 30% of total population in this
age bracket (See Table 2).As per 2001 census, the country has 60 million children in 3-6
years age group. Current figures suggest that pre schooling under ICDS and other
provisions is available to 34 million children leaving 26 million out of preschool
activities. There are also disparities in provision of ECCE in rural and urban areas.
ECCE provision in urban areas is insufficient as per the corresponding child population.
Table 3
Increase in Anganwadis Centers over the years
37
Table 3 indicates that the increase number of ECCE centers over the years is significant.
Supreme Court of India had directed the Central Government to open 1.4 million
anganwadi by the end of 2008. The government has given an undertaking to the
honorable Supreme Court to abide by it and decided to universalize ICDS by the
eleventh plan period.
Table 4
Expansion of ICDS: Increase in Allocation of Funds over the years
The allocation of funds for ICDS has steeply increased over the last four Five Year
Plans. During Eleventh Plan it is estimated that an allocation up to Rs.450,000 million
will be required for universalistion of ICDS with quality. During the first three years of
the Eleventh Plan period the budget allotted has been to the tune of Rs 52930, Rs.63000,
and Rs.67050 million for 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 respectively.
38
Government of India viewing the seriousness of the issue appointed a committee under
the chairmanship of noted educationist Prof. Yash Pal. He concluded that 'a lot is taught
but little is learnt or understood', at this stage. Teaching of three R's, formal evaluation.
admission at an early age, admission tests. home work, physical load of books, (as many
books of private publishers are prescribed by schools for young kids) are the concerns
of curriculum. National Curriculum Framework 2005 has made significant
recommendations to make children's learning at this stage child centered, play based by
recognizing special features of children's thinking and focusing on constructivist
approach.
National Policy on Children 1974, National Policy on Education 1986 modified in 1992,
passed recently and many such measures speak of India's enabling policy environment
to further the cause of children. However many of the problems and issues in ECCE are
the outcomes of earlier policies and their implementation. Any attempt to give children
a fair deal now requires a major policy shift (National Focus Group Report on ECCE,
NCERT, 2005). The dimensions of this policy shift would be:
i) Recognition of ECCE as part of EFA: Every child has a right to ECCE of equitable
quality. The 86th amendment to the constitution , making education of children in the
6-14 age group a fundamental right, leaves out children of below six years of age.
However, Article 21 together with Unnikrishnan judgment (that every child has the right
to education up to the age of 14 years) provides an opening that can be used to rekindle
the debate and reserve the policies in place (Position Paper on ECCE, National Focus
Group Report 2005)
ii) Regulating the ECCE System: There is total absence of a regulatory or control
mechanism in the area of ECCE. The need for putting in place a system of regulation
through accreditation or other methods like licensing, registration of centers along with
developing norms and standards for opening and managing such centers has been long
felt.
39
iii)Age of Admission to pre primary and Primary
As per constitutional provision the compulsory education starts from 6-l4years but in
practice most of the *states have 5+years of age for admission to class I. Thus pre
schooling stage becomes 3-5 not 3- 6 years. Free and Compulsory schooling is from
6-14 years.
v). Resources
One of the policy gaps for long has been the low resource outlay for child development.
The resources made available are not commensurate with the demands of the ECCE
stages for realizing the full potential of human development. The pace at which the
brain develops during early years and the allocations made for ECCE stage and other
stages of development during child's life are a total mismatch. It is argued that during
first five years 80% brain development takes place but spending per child for ECCE is
just one eighth of the elementary stage.
40
and UNFPA) to provide support to universal primary education in nine states.
ECCE centers were set up on the convergence model and women's groups were
set up to mobilize and manage ECCE centers in five states. The program was
reported very successful.
ECE centers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)-an Education for All
Program
Education and child development being in the concurrent list states and central
government are free to undertake various innovative activities. State
governments have opened various ECE centers catering to the needs of children
in the age group of 0-6 years, as part of the SSA's innovative activities.
Significant among them are:
. Ka Shrenee (comparable
1 with reception class) in Assam - It means starting a
nursery class in primary school before beginning of formal schooling.
2 Bachpanshalas in the state of Haryana: It means Childhood Schools for
preschool age children opened on experimental basis.
3. ECCE Program for children of convicted mothers in Madhya Pradesh:
Early childhood education organized for children of convicted mothers in the
close vicinity
4. Model Convergence in Nagaland -it attempted to establish convergence
between ICDS and primary schools with nursery classes
Innovations under ICDS: Like education department there have been various
contextually relevant innovative efforts were organized under the ICDS in various
states . Some significant ones are:
2. Why Can't We Do It (kano Parbo Na): ICDS in West Bengal adopts an innovative
approach of Positive Deviance in Early Childhood Care in four districts. It involves
identifying families who have achieved positive outcomes in child nutrition and growth.
An enquiry is conducted to learn from the positive deviants those beneficial care
practices that allow their children to have better health as compared to their similarly
disadvantaged neighbors. Nutrition counseling and child care sessions are conducted in
anganwadi centers (AWCs) for care givers of malnourished children to learn appropriate
child care practices and behaviors from positive deviants.
41
girls' groups. Nutrition health education and income generating skills are imparted to
women and girls.
4. Dular: The meaning is love and affection. Dular is a strategy to promote survival
growth and development of children. Its coverage has been 31 blocks of four district of
Bihar. It focuses on life cycle approach and children under three, mothers and girls.
District Mobile Monitoring and Training Teams have been established. Village level
volunteers are appointed to monitor the child care behaviors in the community and
provide support to families in addressing the problematic cultural beliefs related to
nutrition and health in an innovative manner. A Dular card maintained is used for
monitoring child' growth.
References
1. Sharma, A. (1998) Opportunity, Challenge and Vision, in M Swaminathan (Eds). First
Five Years. A Critical Perspective on ECCE in India, New Delhi, Sage Publication, pp
286-301
2. National Curriculum Framework, Position Paper, National Focus Group Report on
ECE, 2005, NCERT, New Delhi 110016.
3. Select Issues Concerning India-A Case Study, (A paper Presented for Inclusion in
2007, EFA Global Monitoring Report being published by UNESCO), NIPCCD, New
Delhi, 110016
4.Singh,U.K.; Sudershan, K.N.; Child Education,1996,Discovery Publishing House
New Delhi 110002
42
Malaysia
Hajjah Mokolus K Rowther
Ministry of Education
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Malaysia has always place great effort in ensuring education and care for all children.
These efforts are manifested through the many sectors involving in Early Childhood
Care and Education (ECCE) and the amount of allocation given to ECCE each year.
ECCE in Malaysia is broadly divided into two main groups, which are the 0-4 years old
and the 4-6 years old.
In Malaysia, early childhood care and family development is the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD). MWFCD is
the coordinator for national programs on the growth and development of children.
Through its Department of Social Welfare, MWFCD registers all Childcare centers
(TASKA, an acronym in the local language). TASKA offers care and education for
children in the age group of 0-4 years old.
Early childhood education for the 4-6 years old group falls under the responsibilities of
three Ministries, i.e. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Rural and Regional
Development, as well as Department of National Unity and Integration under the Prime
Minister Department. Ministry of Rural and Regional Development is the pioneer in
setting up preschools in Malaysia (beginning early 1970's), currently (2007) there are
8307 preschools set up by this Ministry which are commonly known as the KEMAS
preschool. KEMAS preschools are located in rural or suburban and are set up based
on request by the local community. In the late 1970's Department of National Unity and
Integration set up preschools in the urban areas where there are `Rukun Tetangga', a
friendly neighborhood scheme, these preschools are generally known as the
PERPADUAN preschools, PERPADUAN preschools must accept students from the
different races, currently, there are 1496 PERPADUAN preschools (2007). Ministry of
Education (MOE) is the latest in setting up preschools. In the year 1992, preschool was
set up by MOE in the form of pilot project as an annex to the existing primary school, in
the year 2003, MOE preschool project was rolled out to whole nation; currently there
are 5905 of these preschools which are situated all over the country (2007). Other than
MOE, KEMAS and PERPADUAN, other providers of preschool education include also
the State Religious Department (JAIN) and the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement
(Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, ABIM).
43
Table 1: Three Main Types of Public Preschools in Malaysia 2007
Taking cognizance from practice aroung the world, Malaysia has taken great effort to
formulate comprehensive policies, laws and legislations in ECCE. The major
constitution, policies, laws, legistrations and programs are listed and explained briefly
below. Most of these policies are broadly categorized according to the age group of
the children.
CRC formed the basis of most of the current regulations and programs for ECCE in
Malaysia. The caretaker of CRC is the Ministry of Woman, Family and Community
Development (MWFCD).
Act 611 provides that every child is entitled to protection and assistance in all
44
circumstances without regard to distinction of any kind.
Childcare Centers Act 1984 and Childcare Centers Act (Amendment) 2007 (Act
The Act stipulated that every Childcare Centre must be registered with the
minders must undergo and obtain the basic Childcare Certificate accredited by the
Act 550 legally placed preschool education within the National Education System.
This Act instructed that all kindergarten (preschool) must be registered with the
Ministry of Education. The Act also stipulated that the National Pre-school
Education Act 1996 also stated that MOE shall provide special education to pupils
PIPP spells out the action plans of MOE in the next 5 years. From 2006 to 2010,
MOE intends to extend preschool education to all National School especially those
in rural and interior areas, ensure that special needs children obtain opportunity to
The Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy 2007(0-8 years old)
Early Childcare and Development Policy with its plan of actions has recently been
development and quality care for new born to 8 years old children. This policy
Child health services in Malaysia started since 1950s as one of the programme
within the maternal and child health policy under the jurisdiction of the Public
childhood are either explicitly stated or implicit within the other general health
policy..
Legal provisions servicing the National Child Protection Policy includes the Penal
Code (Act 574) which cover offences affecting the human body and the Domestic
Violence Act 1994 (Act 521) protects a child against any form of abuse committed
45
National Policy on Disabled Child (0-18 years old)
In compliance with Article 23 of CRC the Division on Persons with Disabilities
under the Department of Social Welfare develops the database on the disabled
people as well as setting up the Community Based Rehabilitation centers providing
diagnosis and rehabilitation services to these children.
Childcare centers have undergone many changes in the last few years and many more
changes is expected in the next one or two years. Among the changes are the setting up
of government supported Community Childcare Center, the subsidised Work-place
Childcare Center, the PERMATA Early Childhood Education and Care Center as well of
the formulation of the Quality Improvement Accreditation System (QIAS) for Taska.
Projects on the improving Home based Childcare Cener is also taking shape.
MWFCD is also taking initiative to change the public perception that child minding is a
lowly paid job that is only suitable for school dropouts. A task force has been set up to
look into the career path of the childcare minders. The Task Force is currently
working with the National Vocational Training Council to incorporate the Basic
childcare Training into the National Occupational Skill Standards framework.
Early childhood education in Malaysia for the age group of 4-6 is offered by both the
public sector as well as the private sector. GER for registered preschools (4-6 years old)
for the year 2005 is 63.67%. Studies conducted by the MOE (2007) discovered % of
Primary 1 students with ECCE experience at approximately 7%. Studies by MOE(2007)
46
also discovered high percentage of unregistered private preschools. In 2005. % of
private preschools is 43%. Percentage of students enrolled in private preschools
decreases yearly especially since 2003 when MOE started to systematically set up
preschools in its primary schools.
Public sectors involved in preschool education are the Ministry of Education (MOE) as
leading agency (beginning 1992 as annex to existing primary school, 5905 classes in
2007), Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (MORRD)(beginning 1970's as
pioneer, focusing on rural areas, 8307 classes in 2007), and the Department of National
Integrity and Unity (DNID)(beginning 1975 especially for areas with a mixed
population of different races in urban and suburban areas,1496 classes in 2007). Other
than these, early childhood education is also provided by religious bodies such as the
ABIM (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia) and the State Religious Department.
Preschools and Taska set up by the private sector have always been seen by the
government as an alternative to give quality education to children.
Special Education One Stop Centre is being set up by stages beginning 2007. The main
objective of this centre is to provide free services for special needs children (1-6 years
old)and their parents, in terms of early intervention, rehabilitation and other services.
47
Currently NGOs are running informal education classes for some refugee children.
Some refugee communities have also taken the initiatives to establish community-based
schooling for their children.
Indigenous youths with a certain level of education can also be trained to teach children
aged 4-6 years old using the National Preschool Curriculum for children. They should
be taught to integrate their cultural practices into the activities or programmes
conducted for these children not only to make learning meaningful to them but also to
48
demonstrate that learning is not alien to their culture.
49
The Ministry of Women and Family Development, Malaysia has promoted the concept
of 'family first' by its national awareness campaign. `Utamakan Keluarga. Semakin Hari
Semakin Sayang' (Family First, Loves grows). Ten Family First Principles have been
identified and promoted and are practiced in the Malaysian family. Among these
principles are love and affection, family fun time.
50
Indigenous people in peninsular of Malaysia are known as the `orang asli'. Many of
them still stay in remote and interior areas of Malaysia. Feedback obtained from
Curriculum Development Center's visit to the indigenous schools in 2007 indicated that
generally the orang asli has their ways of life and are reluctant to leave their home in
remote area. Many of their children either do not go to school or dropped out from
school during their primary school years.
6.2.1 Childcare Centre Programme (0-4 years old) for the Orang Asli
In Malaysia, children are generally placed in childcare centers because both parents are
working and they have no one to care for their children at home. Rarely are children
looked after by childcare providers if there are maids or family members to care for the
children. This practice of placing children in childcare is not widespread among orang
asli communities in Peninsular Malaysia because most of the mothers do not work
outside their homes. Nonetheless, childcare facilities are provided by Department of
Community Development, KEMAS for orang asli parents who need the facilities
beginning from 2005. The Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) was of the
opinion though the mothers of orang asli children in remote areas are not working
outside their homes and do not need alternative care, these children need enrichment to
enable them to develop, especially intellectually. Furthermore, mothers need knowledge
to give proper care to their children. A program called `Penggerak Wanita' which can
be literally translated as the 'woman mover' was specifically developed for this purpose.
The objective of this programme is to give awareness to mothers in indigenous
community the importance of education; cultivate a reading habit and a love for
knowledge among children; and organize and conduct co-curricular activities which
involve the children and their parents.
Indigenous children in Sabah and Sarawak attend preschools which are operated by the
Ministry of Education, KEMAS, PERPADUAN and private kindergartens. There are no
preschools solely or exclusively for indigenous children in Sabah and Sarawak, unlike
those in Peninsular Malaysia (the orang asli preschools by KEMAS). In areas,
especially in remote areas that do not have preschools, NGOs such as PACOS or local
communities provide some form of preschool education to help children acquire
language skill as well as develop motor and social skills.
Besides PACOS, there are other NGOs who provide ECCE to the indigenous children of
Malaysia. Eleven of these NGOs (8 in Sarawak, 3 in Peninsular Malaysia) work closely
with PACOS. PACOS being the pioneer provides advice and training for the
management and running of these NGOs centers.
Ministry of Education Malaysia has also embarked on a project to attract the indigenous
children to attend school regularly. Special curriculum tailored made to fit into the
cultural background of these indigenous children have been developed, special modules
51
were developed and used by these children. Parents are being invited to attend school
with the children for a certain period to enhance their basic literacy and numeracy skills.
they are given a token to replace the time they have spent in the school. This is done
because time taken to attend schools would mean lost of income which is important for
the survival of the family.
7.0 CONCLUSION
ECCE in Malaysia has progressed significantly in the past decade. The gaps between
the aspiration of the established ECCE policies and its implementation can be closed
through interaction and coordination between the various ECCE providing agencies as
well as sensitivity towards the disadvantaged. A national coordination mechanism is
inevitable, otherwise ECCE would continually be seem as fragmented in the eye of the
general public of Malaysia and wastage of manpower and funding might occurred.
52
Mexico
Lic. Angelica Lopez Ortega
Government of Mexco City
Article 3 of the Constitution of the United Mexican States, the law for General
Education and the National Program of Education; express the commitment of Mexican
State to assure the right to education.
Legal foundation
Basic Education
Basic Education offers to the future citizens, the intercultural, affective and cultural
heritage, needed for social coexistence. In Mexico, Basic Education is integrated by
Preschool Education, Primary Education as well as Secondary Education. Primary
Education was the only mandatory level until 1993; then, mandatory Secondary
Education was decreed in 1993 and Preschool Education in 2002. Mandatory Basic
Education lasts twelve years, for students between three and fifteen years old.
Precedents
During last decades new definitions has been included in the Mexican Constitution,
values and aspirations of the Article 3 have been enriched. Some of the most important
ones are: recognition of multicultural and multiethnic character of Mexican Nation,
based on its indigenous communities (Article 2 of the Mexican Constitution); in
consequence, is mandatory for Federation, States and municipalities to promote equality
of opportunities for indigenous people and to avoid any discriminatory practice.
In the 70's decade an important educative reform was made, it required
updating legal framework. So, in 1973 the Federal Education Law was promoted.
During its validity this Law ruled over the education that was provided by States and
53
Municipalities.
The efforts to promote early education into a valuable institution for the
development of individuals, have been tested across many obstacles, especially those
that are about playful vision an non relevant for this period in a formal education
context.
During President Porfirio Diaz period, in the late 30's of XX century,
Kindergarten had an educational function only, and they were far from being taken as
relevant education. The nationwide demand of this service during those years was
requested only for some social status in urban cities of Mexico and in 1927 were only
129 schools in the whole country with a few students.
Difficulties began to declare in the post revolution period, when the peak of
industrialization, the institutionalization of educative services in Mexico discussed
between the educational function and the attendance level that educative services for
children below 6 years old should have. Discussion was considered in the educational
demands of teachers and caused the starting of parallel projects in the presidential
periods of Lazaro Cardenas and Manuel Avila Camacho, including consolidation of
structures, practices, uses and institutional identities.
Without deny the legitimacy of the struggle taken by teachers in 1942 to make
preschool education dependent of the Public Education Secretary (SEP), the position of
President Cardenas doesn't seem so wrong now, when finally institutions that give
service to children younger than 6 years old can distinguish between those who offer
educational services and those who offer additional or substantive caring services like
maternal nurseries. We find both in federal, state, autonomous and private models.
The demand of maternal nurseries is explained by the increasing of poverty and
the growth of participation of mothers in the labor world.
Incorporation of working mothers in rural and urban contexts has lead to
transfer responsibility of children's care to their grandparents, relatives as well as
neighbors, and in families without a father presence, most of the time to older brothers.
In some cases older brother's age match with not mandatory education: preschool for
children between four and six years old.
Furthermore, the increasing penetration of women to jobs, helps to increase the
attendance of children younger than three years old to maternal nurseries and basic
educational centers and many times as listeners to their older brother's preschool and
kindergartens.
Educative system
National Educative System is formed by government and social institutions that offer
educative services, preservation of cultural heritage, knowledge and increasing of user's
culture. In 2002, the federal budget destined to educational sector -budget of Public
Educational Secretary and other secretaries- was about 277 thousand 38 millions of
Mexican pesos (equivalent to 19 thousand 7 hundred 88 million of dollars at the present
exchange rate).
On December 12th 2001, the Mexican Senate approved a Law to make mandatory the
54
preschool education, agreed with a plan for gradual incoming: and commitments made
by Mexico in the framework of international forums, especially during the following
events: Children's Rights Convention (1990), Childhood World Summit (1990), EFA
Year 2000 Assessment and the Dakar World Forum (2000). Those forums remark the
importance of children's education as builder of basic competences that a person needs
in life. They entail a significant change in National Educative System.
Early Education
Early education stimulates children's harmonic and healthy growth, helps to increase
their intellectual capabilities and makes future learning processes easier.
Early and preschool education look for increasing student's skills and
acquisition of required values for their personal development and makes future
incorporation to primary and society easier.
Due to actions taken between 1990 and 2002 in favor of childhood, the amount
of attendance registered an increase from 3.2% in 1990 to 7.3% in 2000, that is, the
amount rise from 295 thousand to 629 thousand of children between 45 days old and
three years eleven months old for early education.
To extend and improve the attention and education for children, initial
education promotes team participation with the help of parents. In order to increase
educational quality of this level, the program has the goal to increase the attendance in
2010, especially of the more excluded and vulnerable children.
Preschool education
55
cycle. 84.4% of the total amount went to general preschool, 8.6% indigenous preschool
and 3.5 community preschool.
Assessment 1990-2002 shows a gradual growth of preschool attendance of
2.4% a year. In 2000 there were three million 400 thousand pupils; that year nine of ten
kids joining to primary school would have attended preschool.
Cycle 2001-2002 benefit to 3.4 million of children, which was an increase of
0.3% regarding previous cycle.
For the last cycle (2007-2008), attendance of 3 years old children was 35%,
and for children between 4 and 5 years old was of 92.6% and 99.6% respectively.
Problematic
Actions
56
a) Construction as a social person.
Children that belong to our community are in the range from 45 days to 6 years old.
Child Care Center's function is to make them feel at home. That means part of a family.
In a family, children integrate gradually to collective activities. That is why we must
consider them in our general plan in order to integrate them to actions focused in the
development of their intelligence, affection and language.
The operation model of Child Care Centers is a very clear opportunity to keep
continuity through 6 years in the following actions of the psycho-emotional
development of children and the strategies for their education.
Strategies
Commissions are a basic part of social conscience development; they allow integrating
children to the organization and dynamics of school, from the possibilities of every
group. They emerge as an answer of community needs and they are taken voluntarily,
for those who consider having the capacity and willpower to perform it systematically.
Commissions allow participants feel part of the community; they gain value
through other people's eyes, they learn to collaborate with others, and get satisfactions
because of it. As well, to accomplish assignations help to make them feel an important
part of a group.
For example, the Assignation of Attendance, we could define it as a task that
involves being devoted of attendance registration of every member of the group. Some
strategies to achieve this task are:
Elaboration of an attendance list.
Daily registry of attendance.
57
Share points of view
Make the work
Evaluate their achievements
Report completing goals to the group
Regulations
Cognitive
The right to the word: children's conferences
The conference is one of the Tools proposed by Freinet to invite children to get
information from many sources, in consequence, to do research. Through the years
conferences have evolved to adapt to educational needs, children needs and teachers
needs.
58
Using this tool allow students to develop their skills to access information,
register it, summarize it, and then spread it from their own linguistic parameters to other
kids; Information is given since the point of view of children's level.
In preschool children choose spontaneously the topic they want to tell to their
partners. Topics can cover things such as the subway, horses, dogs, cats, flowers or
firemen.
In this period, information comes from their living experiences. That means we
do not intend them to write a long summary or seeking advice from a lot of sources. At
this moment, the most important thing is to encourage children to go to the information
in an easy and educative way, starting from their own experiences of life and the
knowledge they already have.
Building the object for preschool children is about recognizing it through direct
perception. Thus, in order a child get able to speak other children about cats, he had to
have touched a cat, stroked a cat, played with a cat, looked into cat's eyes, touched cat's
feet. From this experience, the child will take the most valuable information from his
own perception, to talk about cats to the group.
It is very important to highlight the adult collaboration in the process of
researching. Parents will be responsible for giving children the necessary means to
perform their first researches. They will help their sons and daughters in making the
school materials for the conference, even will help them in the presentation of the
conference at the classroom. It is very valuable if parents write a short summary with
the main ideas for the conference in order to help teachers to support children during
their presentation.
A task for the teachers is to assign dates to conferences, provide spaces for
supporting material and recover important topics from conferences for future classes.
Communications
Making books of life
Children are knowledge producers; knowledge that can be valuated when it's spread and
shared with others through publishing. Editing texts, stories, memories or jokes implies
give children presence in our written culture. We give them a chance to remain in time
and the possibility to travel through the universe.
That is why we propose to start in children a written culture, which makes them
not only text consumers, but also creators of written material that can be shared, and
their capacity to explain things, grows as well.
The idea is creating books of life, collective diaries, shared memories about a
visit, or a show, stories for children, rimes, poetry for children, cartoons, newspapers
and every sort of written material and drawings that represent children's Cosmo vision.
Taking that universe of representation, write it down and give it permanent life.
Books of life can be shared with others, can be read, can be discussed, can be tasted,
and can be commented.
Generating a Readers club of books made by children for children and adults,
will increase the creation of a culture where the written material is not only a
recognizable source for knowledge, but also will encourage the intellectual creation that
visualize our children as authors of a written culture that allow us to see them, know
them and love them.
59
Preschool theater
At preschool, plays that are performed come from adaptation of short tails that are read
in the literary workshop class. At this period, children live the experience over a stage
and they tell a collective chosen story with their own words.
Teacher's role is like a motivator, which helps to choose the story, gives ideas
about the representation over a stage, helps to construct the set design, and talks to the
parents about how to dress children for the performance. Teacher looks for minimize
children's work in order they can focus to live the experience in a very creative and
artistic way.
Games and Singing Workshop: This Project has been made to show
children how music can be part of their life, through games and other
activities that help them to develop their expressive capabilities,
imagination, ear for music, to encourage them to integrate as a team in
order to reach common goals. We suggest using songs, games and rimes
from La Lirica Infantil Mexicana y Latinoamericana, which is a collection
of quality music of many genders, supporting material such as puppets,
scarves, ribbons, papers and percussion instruments. Children live the
music through their bodies, feeling the movement and the sensations that
music brings. Enjoying the activities is the main aim.
Math and Science
Two important skills that must be developed in children's mind through math are: sense
over numbering and symbol concept (its representation). The way to do it is through
active participation of children.
In preschool is necessary to have a classification space for ordering, serializing,
and comparing, one to one relationships. This can be done with construction materials,
and assembly materials.
Ordering things, must be a natural and constant activity in group, with harder
an more complex challenges. For an example, sorting by class: little red objects and
rounded green objects.
60
Activities such as distributing things in the classroom (one pencil for every
child, a spoon in every place) are excellent opportunities for building this useful logic
construction.
The working way in Science starts from the explanation of the ideas that
children have about the topic. They investigate organisms, objects and phenomenon in
order to discuss their observations and reorganize their ideas. The objective is that
children can apply in other situations what they have learned with the new concepts.
Teacher's Dairy
In order to follow children's development, it is a good idea that teachers who deal with
preschool and younger kids made a Diary that allows registering children's experiences,
their difficulties and the interventions that adults do. The Diary makes easier to track
children's development.
One of the Basic strategies of our educative mission is to track kid's cognitive
development. We can take part in the solution of problems and issues that children use
to have. It is very important to have an expedient with information of every one of them.
Expedient starts since our first contact with children.
Tracking their development includes aspects of their family context, academic
history, mental and physical health, and different moments of their life at school when
he or she needed special help, or family support to get over some physical, cognitive,
social or affective difficulty.
It is very important to have this information, due we can understand the process
and phases of children's development. It gives to us necessary parameters to get
involved or ask for external specialized collaboration to solve problems, as well as
recognize the level of participation and family commitment during kid's development at
school. We look for a better participation in their kid's education.
Cognitive, affective and social aspects can't be separated from children's development
because weakness in one of them has an impact in the others. Evaluate those aspects is a
permanent exercise and has to be done during school activities. This can be done with
appropriate strategies that allow detecting problems in all the areas.
Instruments that allow knowing cognitive, social and affective problems in our
children are: Initial evaluation, diary evaluation registers and competence curriculum.
Some strategies are: daily working observation (playful activities and specific
exercises in subjects), integration activities, meetings, and single sessions with children
and parents consultancy.
For cognitive problems detection we can watch and evaluate their skills and knowledge,
as well as the quality and level of their school work and home work.
Subsequently, information can be completed with teacher's comments about
61
children's mood, attitude, single and social behavior. So we can put in context the
situation of every kid and set out theories about the case in order to b able to make
decisions about problematic.
62
Korea
Soon Hwan Kim
Ewha Womans University
63
birth through five years of age. Before the Act was introduced, many different types of
childcare facilities were in operation based on different laws and regulations(e.g. a
nursery facility based on the Child Welfare Act, workplace nursery and pilot care center
based on the Act on the Equal Employment for Both Sexes, and saemaeul nursery based
on the Early Childhood Education Promotion Act). The Infant and Child Care Act
unified these different care facilities under one regulation, and the matter of childcare,
which has long remained under the responsibility of parents and private sector, became
part of the government initiative(Rhee 0, 2007).
However, some have continued to argue for the amendment of the Act as it provided a
weak ground for social responsibility to provide a strong public childcare service. The
Act reflected the State's reservations in its childcare responsibilities and only stated its
passive involvement. A's a result, during the implementation phase of the Act, the
private sector was at the center of the quantitative growth of childcare facilities in the
country. Therefore, the Infant and Child Care Act was amended in January 2004 to
include several provisions emphasizing the public interest of childcare and enhancing
the overall quality of childcare services.
A half-day kindergarten runs daily activities of 3-5 hours, and an extended hour
kindergarten opens for 5-8 hours. A full-day kindergarten is based on daily curriculum
lasting longer than eight hours. In recent years the number of full-day kindergartens has
been on the rise. Statistics indicate that as of April 2008, 91% of kindergartens in Korea
provide full-day program, a marked increase from 29.5% in 2002.
As shown in the table below, the kindergarten enrollment rate in 2008 tends to rise in
accordance with age increases-22.0%, 38.7% and 51.9% for children aged 3, 4, and
5respectively. Private kindergartens have a higher enrollment rate than their public
counterparts.
64
<Table 3> Number of Kindergartens and Children's Enrollment Rate (2008)
Number of
4,480(53.7%) 3,861(46.2%) 8,341(100%)
facilities
Kindergartens
Enrolled
119,128(22.1%) 418,694(77.8%) 537,822(100%)
children
Source: Education Policy Information Center of Korean Educational Development Institute (2008)
65
The operating hours of the facilities are as follows.
66
th
The Kindergarten Education Curriculum. first introduced in 1969, underwent its 7
revision in 2007. Developed to teach children age three to five, the Curriculum consists
of five subjects: health, social skills, expression. language arts. and exploration. The
Curriculum can be run on a two-tier system-Level I and Level II-in order to
accommodate the difference in the level of children's understanding.
Childcare facilities provide a curriculum grounded in the 2006 Standard Childcare
Curriculum. The Standard Curriculum is designed to teach children up to age five, and
includes six subjects of study, which are physical activities, basic life skills,
communication, nature exploration, artistic experience, and social interaction. Children
are divided into three different age groups: children younger than two, age two, and age
three to five. Each age group is further broken down into three levels so that each child
is adequately educated in accordance with their age and level of understanding.
67
steady rise in the number of nuclear family that centers on a married couple and their
unmarried children, and a drastic fall in the extended family where three generations
live together(Yu, Seo, Kim & Choi, 2006). A recent increase in the divorce rate and the
number of single-parent households has made it more difficult for families to raise
children, as bread winning and housework, which was shared jointly between two
parents before, falls on the shoulders of one parent.
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childcare center. Still, only 15,124 (1.4%) out of 1.099,933 preschool age children
participate in childcare provided by their parents" workplace.
9. Childcare Subsidy
Support for children's education and childcare is one of the government's important
policy priorities as a measure established to ensure the nation's human resources
development and to deal with its low birth rate. The government has instituted both a
basic childcare subsidy and various education and childcare subsidies to support
childrearing.
1) Basic Childcare Subsidy
In 2004, the government calculated the standard cost of childcare required to provide
a minimum level of childcare service. However, the calculated standard childcare cost
was higher than what parents had been paying. The basic subsidy, therefore, means a
difference between the standard cost and the actual cost shouldered by parents, which is
covered by the government. In 2006, the basic subsidy was first provided for children
two years old or younger in childcare facilities. From September 2006 to February 2008,
the basic subsidy for children age three to five was administered as a pilot project in
three regions.
2) Graded Childcare and Education Subsidy for Low-Income Families
Graded childcare and education subsidy is provided for children of low-income
families who are four years old or younger. With the range of beneficiaries gradually
expanded, in 2007 the subsidy is being given up to the average income bracket of urban
worker households. The subsidy is provided according to different grades based on
69
income levels (five levels) and age.
3) Childcare and Education Subsidy for Families with Two or More Children
This subsidy is provided for households who are below the average income bracket
for urban workers and who have two or more children attending a kindergarten or a
childcare center. Siblings except for the first child are eligible for the subsidy. The
government is planning to increase the subsidy rate every year in order to eventually
support childcare regardless of a family's income level.
4) Free Childcare and Education for Children Age Five
In order to ensure equal opportunity of education, a monthly subsidy of 162,000 won
is provided for preschool children of households with income below the average
monthly income bracket for urban workers. In 2007, through the childcare fee support
for children below five, about 70% of all the children below five were supported and
currently as of April 2009, the childcare fee support for children below five is given to
those with up to 100% average monthly income. Starting from 2009, this subsidy is
projected to expand to cover households earning 130% of the average monthly income
bracket.
The following table shows the number(rate) of children who receive a childcare
subsidy for childcare facilities.
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The number of kindergarten children receiving an education subsidy is 317,000, or
58.7% of the total kindergarten children.
12. Problems with Childcare and Education for Farming and Fishing Village
Infants and Preschoolers
The farming and fishing village regions, with low child population and low income,
have been alienated in terms of having access to high-quality early childhood education
and childcare. Creating farming and fishing communities with a good nurturing
environment for children is significant from the point of contributing to the balanced
development of the nation as a whole.
According to 2006 statistics, the majority of institutions in the farming and fishing
regions are public kindergartens(81.9%), but the enrollment rate(45.1%) is very low
compared to the number of institutions. Short attendance period, long school breaks,
and lack of school bus service are among the reasons for not choosing public
kindergartens. Seen nationally, compared to the population of children in the farming
and fishing villages, there are not enough childcare facilities, and thus an increase in
such facilities is urgently needed.
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and the number of infants they care for are 30,856 in 60 national/public facilities (9.0%).
551 private facilities (82.6%), and 56 in-home facilities (8.4%). There are 159 childcare
facilities for disabled children, of which 28 are national/public (17.6%) and 129 are
private childcare facilities (81.1%).
<Table 11> Number of Childcare facility: Infant/ Young Children with special need
(2008)
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tests from September 2009. It is designed to mainly deal with information such as the
child's basic personal information, the state of education fee support system, current
status of kindergartens, the child's health, and safety status. With this system, the social
perception on kindergartens can be raised and another basis to offer high-quality early
childhood education will be provided. For the parents, their rights to choose a facility
will be ensured, and credibility for the policies and support system will be enhanced
socially as people will be able to clearly observe the whole process and see how the
system is carried out.
73
kindergarten welfare services were pilot tested in 2009 and are planned to be officially
implemented in 2010 and support is provided both to children and parents. For children,
developmental delay is inspected and they are supported through periodical assessments.
For the parents with especially low interest and participation, help that can ultimately
support the child is offered through consultation services and providing information
regarding parenting education.
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8. SEROMAZI Plan 2010: The First Basic Plan for Low Birth Aging Society
SEROMAZI 2010 is a foundational plan for the low birth aging society from 2006 to
2010. As it takes a long time for the effects of measures dealing with the low birth-aging
society to emerge, immediate actions must be taken. Hence, the First Basic Plan focuses
on securing a sustainable development by building the foundation to actively deal with
the problems of low birth aging society. The First Plan includes projects in three main
areas: "creating an environment favorable to giving birth and fostering," "constructing a
framework to improve the quality of life in an aging society," and "securing future
driving forces of growth." Through this, the plan attempts to establish a family-oriented
social culture with gender equality and strengthen social responsibility in giving birth
and raising children. Moreover, the plan supports a recovery policy that counters the
low birth-aging society through the improvement in the environments regarding
pregnancy-giving birth childcare, while respecting the individual and family's decision
on giving birth. To reduce the burden of raising children for households, main points
include extending education-childcare fee support for young children even to the middle
class and expanding the ratio of children being supported to 30% by 2010 compared to
the children using national/public childcare facilities for those up to 130% of the
average income of an urban worker household.
Source: June 2008 Childcare Statistics (Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs). 2008 Education Statistics
75
The Ministry of Gender Equality & Family has been carrying out the IDOLBOMI
(Childcarer) Service as a timed service limited to 120 hours per month at 38 health and
family support centers since April 2007. Health and family support centers operating the
IDOLBOMI service increased from 38 in 2007 to 193 in 15 regions as of today (2009).
The number of active child caregivers is currently 1300 and about 5,000 families are
connected to these caregivers. Over 50% of the families using the child caregiver
service are dual-income families and IDOLBOMI is capable of supporting childcare for
the low-income level as more inexpensive types of the low-income levels exist than the
regular type.
Applicants for IDOLBOMI must be physically healthy, below age 65 and complete a
50-hour training course. These child caregivers are managed consistently through
monthly continuing education and monthly meetings. The users of this service are
families with children from ages 0 (more than 3 months old) to 12 that seek such service.
IDOLBOMI offers various services such as walking to and picking up from childcare
facilities and schools, serving meals and snacks, temporary childcare before the parents
arrive, take to hospitals, play, and secure protection and safety. The service can be used
after applying for it at least 24 hours beforehand.
76
dedicated to the care of handicapped infants and integrated care facilities embracing
both handicapped and non-handicapped children should be increased. More childcare
professionals and assistants should be fostered considering the special needs and
characteristics of the integrated care centers to provide quality education and care
services to handicapped infants and preschoolers. Also, to introduce family centered
support programs, existing social welfare centers in local communities should
strengthen their family support programs with a special focus on nurturing parental
skills of parents with handicapped children.
2) Provide more education and childcare opportunities for infants in farming and
fishing villages.
To provide more education and childcare opportunities for infants and preschoolers in
farming and fishing villages, kindergartens in elementary schools should take a more
active role. More school bus support should be provided to elementary school
kindergartens, and in some cases, two or more kindergartens in the nearby area should
be encouraged to use the same bus to transport their children. Also, new national and
public childcare facilities should be built in the areas with no childcare facilities, and
free education and care service for five-year old children should be expanded to include
every child in farming and fishing villages. Multi-service community centers should be
established to provide a variety of quality childcare, family, and health related services
such as infant education and care service, children's after-school programs, resident
counseling service, and other educational services.
Government sponsored babysitting service includes full-time, part-time, and other types
of childcare services. The child's home should be the first place of choice for babysitting,
but the babysitter may babysit at his/her home upon the request of the child's parent.
The babysitter should be at least 20 years old and have completed the necessary training
courses certified by the related organizations. The training course shall be consisted of
minimum 40 hours of childcare training and additional hours of actual babysitting
sessions.
2) Strengthen the childcare support policy for working mothers.
Parental leave payment should be increased. Currently, paid parental leave has a very
low income replacement ratio, paying a fixed amount of only KRW 500,000 per month,
which in fact discourages working mothers from taking a parental leave. Also, the full
amount of employee parental leave benefits should be paid from social insurance for
every company so that the financial burden of the employer may be eased when an
employee takes a parental leave before or after childbirth.
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childcare facilities and give more government subsidies to private kindergartens and
childcare facilities to secure public service, so that all children, regardless of age, class,
and region, can receive safe and high-quality childcare and education services.
1) Expand public kindergartens and childcare facilities.
Priority should be given to expanding public childcare facilities in farming and
fishing village areas and low-income areas, as well as regions with a shortage of
childcare facilities. To expand public kindergartens, newly establish or enlarge existing
annex kindergartens in primary schools, and expand annex kindergartens of 1 to 2
classrooms to 2 to 3 classrooms or more. In addition, of the areas with a kindergarten
shortage, the welfare investment priority areas and other low-income class
concentration areas should be given priority for establishing public stand-alone
kindergartens.
2) Support private kindergartens and childcare facilities with enhanced public service.
For enhancing and supporting public service of private kindergartens, introduce a
kindergarten evaluation system, and link the evaluation results with the government
support currently provided, such as a teaching materials and aids subsidy, a teacher
accommodation improvement subsidy, and an all-day program support subsidy. In
addition, encourage incorporation of private kindergartens by revising regulations to
make the school incorporation process easier.
By clearly presenting the link between evaluation and certification results
and financial support, the social responsibilities of private childcare facilities
must be emphasized. In the case of private childcare facilities, different
grades can be given for a teaching materials and aids subsidy, vehicle
operation cost subsidy, and wages subsidy, depending on whether the
evaluation and certification standard has been met. Private childcare
facilities should also be encouraged to incorporate.
78
support between income classes. To do so, rationally apply the electronic voucher
system currently under consideration.
In addition, increase citizens' awareness of the government support for childcare by
expanding and further developing support for private childcare facilities and
kindergartens.
Reference
79
Korea National Statistical Office (2008). National Statistics Data Base. Retrieved from
http://nso.go.kr.
Korean Educational Development Institute (2008). Education Statistics. Retrieved from
www.kedi.re.kr
Kwon, Y. J., Jang, Y. H., (2007). The Relationship between Mother's Parental Role
Intelligence,
Childcare Stress, and Awareness on Very Early Education. Korean Home
Management Association, 25(1), 87-99.
Lee, K. S., Jang, Y. H., Jung, M. R., & Hong, Y. H. (2002). The current states of young
children's early academic education and parents' perspectives. Studies in Early
Childhood Education, 22(3), 153-171.
Lee, K. S., Jung, M. R., Kim, H. J. (2006). The Comparative Study on the Everyday
Life of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese children. Korea Psychological
Association Journal, 12(5). 81-98.
Ministry of Education , Science and Technology (2004). Guide to the Enactment of
the Early Childhood Education Act. Ministry of Education press release.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2004). Educational Statistics.
Retrieved from http://www.moe.go.kr.
Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs (2008). Childcare Statistics. Retrieved
from http://www.mw.go.kr
Rhee, 0. (2007). Childcare Policy in Korea: Current Status and Major Issues.
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 1(1). 59-72.
Korea Institute of Child Care and Education.
Rhee, O., Suh, M. H., Yoo, H. J., Jang, M. L., Lee, M. H., Kim, E. S., Shin, N. R., Kim,
E. Y., Lee, J. W., Lee, J. L., (2007). Child Care Policy Tasks for the Next
Government to Become an Advanced Child Care Country. Korea Institute of
Child Care and Education.
Yu, H. J., Seo, M. H., Kim, J. H., Choi, H. S. (2006). The Study on the Prospect and
Issues on Childcare Policies. Future Society Research Forum Series, 6(5).
Korea Information Society Development Institute.
The Hankyoreh newpaper(2003, 8, 29). 2002 Birth and Death Rates.
The JoongAng Daily(2009, 9, 20). 2008 Birth Rates.
80
Taiwan
Yeh, Yu-ching
Item Kindergartens (
幼稚 園) Childcare Settings (
托兒 所 )
The dual system of ECEC approaches to termination with the integration of early
childhood education and care policy and Children's Education and Care Law. Children's
Education and Care Law (draft) passed by the The Executive Yuan (the highest
administrative governmental unit in Taiwan) in February 2009. The next step will go to
The Legislative Yuan after three readings of the bill before the law effects.
81
education domain and another is in welfare domain. However, both kindergartens and
childcare settings take young children of same ages and they have similar tasks of
childcare and education. In order to integrate the two divided systems. the Taiwanese
government started the integration plan in 2003.
According to the Children's Education and Care Law (draft, 2009), the structure of
ECEC system can be illustrated as follows:
The ECEC contains 0-2 baby care, 2-6 pre-schooling, and 6-12 after school care.
The institutional childcare includes after school care provided by private setters or
primary schools, educare kindergartens (
幼兒 園 )(combined kindergartens and childcare
settings), and babies centres (托 嬰 中 心 ) . The non-institutional childcare includes
home-care child minders and community mutual aid groups. Apart from babies centre
and home-care child minders, the rest settings and groups are governed by the
educational department.
The ECEC professions will include the following five categories: kindergarten
teacher, caregiver, assistant caregiver, child minder, after-school caregiver. Kindergarten
teachers are the only one among these authorized teachers' certification (national license)
by the Ministry of Education. They have to get the degree from Department of Early
Childhood Education, or to finish nursery teacher training courses, and pass the
teachers' qualification examination. Professions who own the degrees of the Department
of Early Childhood Care (normally university of techniques, in vocational training
system) can be offered the qualification of caregiver. Those who graduate from
vocational high school can be offered the qualification of assistant caregiver. However,
both caregiver and assistant caregiver can teach young children under 5. Those who
want to become home-care child minders or nannies require the vocational licenses
from government when they actually care babies (age 0-2). Every home-care child
minders can take up to two babies, or up to 4 children under age 12. If there is more
than one home-care child minder, they can take up to 5 children age under 12.
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statistics in Taiwan. the total number of new born babies was less than 200,000 in
2008 -the lowest ever since. Compared with 10 years ago. there were 271,450 babies in
1998 (reduced 27%)(Ministry of Interior. 2009a).
The low fertility rate, from one point of view, reduced government's costs in early
childhood education and care, from another point of view, it will cause dramatic impact
on the nation's economic development, tax receives, and welfare expenditures.
Therefore, increasing fertility rate becomes a priority task for the Taiwanese
government.
From the table below, the numbers of children under age 12 decreased from
18.75% in total population in 1998 to 10.14% in 2008 (Child Welfare Bureau, 2009a).
According to OECD experiences, the women in Northern European countries continue
their job because the governments provide support for career women. Parental leave is a
key factor. Such as Austria (OECD, 2003), the government encourages working parents
to look after their babies themselves if they prefer to do so. Parental leave policies have
been established longest in Austria, where such leave was introduced in the 1960s for
working mothers and in 1990 for working fathers. For the parents who apply parent
leave, they can also claim Childcare Benefit up to 36 months which compensates their
costs during parental leave.
1
Percentages of the babies born by immigrant mothers in all new born babies in that year.
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childcare settings were slimed down because many of them were set up for the purpose
of assisting farmers' family during the harvest seasons. The public childcare settings
were replaced by primary school affiliated kindergartens. Therefore, the severe crisis of
low fertility impacts the private kindergartens and public childcare settings.
The Nursery Vouchers (Ministry of Education, 2009b) aims to minimize the tuition
fee differences between public kindergartens and private setters, in order to release
parents' burden in raising young children. In Taiwan, there are 73% of the kindergarten
providers are private. Because of the limited places in the public kindergartens, many
parents are forced to send their children to private kindergartens. The tuition fee for
public nursery would be about NT$ 5,000 per month (equal to US $ 157) and NT$
6,000 to 12,000 for private ones. The tuition fee would amounts to 26% of a family's
average income per month2. That is the reason why many young couples complain that
it is not easy to bring up a child. Therefore, the government provides NT$ 10,000 per
year for parents if they have one 5-year-old child studying at private kindergartens.
Nursery vouchers do not apply to those who study at the public setters. In addition, the
84
nursery voucher scheme would exclude those unregistered private kindergartens and
those which take more than issued pupil numbers. The government's intention was also
to force the unregistered kindergartens legalized.
Origin:
`Head Start' in the USA and 'Sure Start' in the UK both target on the early
intervention for the social disadvantaged children. The reason for government
intervention in the provision of childcare is distributional: to strengthen families in need
of help by providing childcare services at little or no cost to people living in
economically disadvantaged areas or circumstances. The aim is to promote the inclusion
of such families in society and to combat educational disadvantage.
The Supportive Scheme for Children Under Age 5 in Taiwan (Ministry of
Education, 2009c) is also based upon the above reason. Besides, the most top 20% of
the family disposable income was NT $ 1.9 million per family (equals to US $ 60,000)
whereas the lowest 20% of the family disposable income was NT $ 245,000 (equals to
US $ 7,660). In other words, this is the phenomenon of `M-type' society. Young
children from socially disadvantaged families are normally excluded from expensive
pre-schooling market. If the poor parents cannot find their children a place in public
nursery, they have to select a cheaper private nursery and yet expensive for most poor
families. The aims of the Supportive Scheme for Children Under Age 5 are to alleviate
young couple's economic burden and to encourage young children from disadvantaged
family enter kindergartens earlier in order to ensure that they receive good quality early
childhood education.
The Supportive Scheme for Children Under Age 5 starts from an experiment
project at three small towns in remote islands and aboriginal villages. The qualification
was limited to low-income3 family at the first stage in 2007. Low-income families with
children age 5 are free to study at a public kindergarten, or the government provided
NT$ 60,000 subsidy for studying at private kindergartens. The qualifications for
applying subsidy will be expanded stage by stage. From 2008, the second stage lower
the threshold and the family matches any of the following conditions are legal for
subsidy: (1) Family annual income is less than NT$ 600,000 and the family has only
one child. (2) Family with two children and their annual income is less than NT$
700,000. (3) Family with three or more children and their annual income is less and
NT$ 800,000.
The third stage, starting at Year 2011, will extend to the subjects whose family
annual income is lower than NT$1.1 millions. They can receive up to NT$ 10,000
subsidy if their children study at the private setters, which equals to the value of nursery
voucher.
However, the Supportive Scheme for Children Under Age 5 arouses some
controversies. First of all, the recognition of family income is ambiguous. The
low-income families who are listed by the Social Welfare Office of Local Government
based upon the Law of Social Aids are definite. The others who are not registered
low-income family shall agree to presents their tax-paying statement. Some labour types
85
in Taiwan, for example night-market stall keeper, or self-managed stall keeper (a noodle
stand in front of their own house), may not pay any tax all at. Military officers, soldiers,
primary and secondary school teachers, and public servants are excluded who receive
regular salaries from the government are excluded from subsidy. The equality of
subsidy is questioned and criticized. The cash-benefit policy would alleviate the
economical tense of poor families, however, it may not to improve the caring and
teaching environment of most kindergartens.
According to the 2004 national survey of children's living and welfare, there were
4.4% young children cared by home-care child minders/ nannies (Child Welfare Bureau,
2004). There are 55,679 qualified child minder licenses issued by the Labour and
Vocational Training Bureau until Year 2008 (Child Welfare Bureau, 2009c). However,
quite a number of babies are cared by the unlicensed and untrained women, and
sometimes relatives, neighbours, or friends. The government cannot manage and
monitor the caring place and these unqualified nannies. At the initial stage, the Child
Welfare Bureau of the Ministry of Interior set up the 'Child Minders and Nannies
Supporting Network' (Child Welfare Bureau, 2009d) to assist the unqualified child
minders to get the licenses, to play the role of broker between parents and child minders,
and to inspect the child minders. However, many child minders are not qualified and
have no license. They perceive the system as playing the role of 'monitor' instead of
`assistant' . Many of them lack incentives to join the network. It becomes one of the
reasons that the Child Welfare Bureau proposes the 'Management of Child Minders and
Subsidy for Parents who Takes Care Children 0-2' policy (Child Welfare Bureau,
2009e).
The local government has to manage the child minders and evaluate and inspect
the caring quality of each child minder in a regular interval. The applicants send their
application for subsidy through the Child Minders and Nannies Supporting Network or
Babies Centres. The child minders have to be the members of the supporting network,
or affiliated to a baby centre. They also must have the vocational license of child
minders. For the applicants, the couples both need a full-time jobs, or one of the couple
is full-time worker and another one is severe disabled, serves a sentence in a jail, or
serves military. The subsidy is categorized to two types according to the annual family
income: (1) The subsidy is NT$ 3,000 per child per month for those whose annual
family income is lower than NT$1,500,000. (2) The subsidy is NT$ 5,000 per child per
month for low-income family (Child Welfare Bureau, 2009e).
In addition, there are other ECEC policies for specific population, for example the
`Aboriginal Approach to Childcare Subsidy' and the 'Childcare Subsidy for Disabled
Children age 3-5'. 'The Childcare Subsidy for Aboriginal Children Studying Public and
Private Nursery Schools' (Council for Indigenous Peoples, 2005), based upon the
Aboriginal Education Law, aims to provide sufficient early childhood education and
care for aboriginal children. The project provided nursery and childcare training for
aboriginal women and encourage the aboriginal tribes to set up nursery classes in the
86
mountain and remote areas.
Compared with the public kindergarten teachers, their salary is about NTD 40,000. But the nursery
teachers can get up to NTD 33,000 at the experimental kindergartens. So the good and qualified
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2. The outsourcing parenting
Supporting a young-couple family rearing children and expecting responsible
parents seems to be a dilemma. The Ministry of Education and the Child Welfare
Bureau proposed a numbers of ECEC policies to assist parents, for example the
`After -school Class for Disadvantaged Families' or the 'Supportive Scheme for
Children Under Age 5'. The government expects to raise the fertility with providing
childcare support. On the one hand, the ECEC policies alleviate child-rearing burden for
parents, on the other hand, they may weaken parenting ability. With the increasing
double-career families and the nuclear-family6 structure, the outsourcing parenting
becomes a characteristic of modern society. This is also the situation in Taiwan. Most
private kindergartens and nursery schools look after children until 6:00 p.m. They can
extend the caring hours if parents actually need. So would the private after-school care
settings. The after-school care settings provide coaching courses for school academic
courses and selective talent courses such as English, art, music, etc.' Children are
cramped with a lot of courses. The children go to other educational institutes instead of
home after primary school. The after school care settings go to primary school to pick
up children at 4:00 when primary school finishes and it is very convenient for parents.
On the one hand, when the government makes a great effort to create a friendly
environment for concerning double-career parents' needs; on another hand, parents may
continuously rely on the 'purchasable' childcare services. This comes to the discussion
of the boundary about a state's ECEC policy versus family's responsibility in domestic
sphere. The children who grow up constantly at educational settings when they are very
young might have a negative impact on their parent-children relationship and the
development of children's personality remains ambiguous.
88
family. It would not cover those whose family annual income is more than NTD 1.1
millions.
The second issues would be related to qualified teachers. Because of the low
fertility, the numbers of kindergarten teachers reduced from 21,883 (in school year
2005-2006) to 17,369 (in school year 2008-2009)9 (Ministry of Education, 2009d). The
total amount of primary school teachers will be more than demand with the impact of
low fertility, excludes the 100,000 teachers with licenses but unemployed after the rapid
expansion of teacher training. Because the current public kindergarten teachers are
under the protection of public servant law, the teaching job, so-called 'iron-rice bowl',
cannot be dismissed unless they are proved to be inappropriate for that job. In order to
resolve the redundant personnel, the government may expect the primary school
teachers to teach children of Age 5 after they take some nursery curriculum and
pedagogy trainings. These two issues have not yet come to a conclusion. However, both
create impact on ECEC market.
9
Mainly reduced in private kindergarten teachers.
89
between low-income families and the others, the policy makers may need to evaluate
the effectiveness to young children.
Reference
Child Welfare Bureau (2004). A Survey of Current Situation and Welfare Needs of
Children and Juvenile. Taichung: Child Welfare Bureau. (in Chinese)
Child Welfare Bureau (2009a). Population of Children and Juvenile from 2001-2009.
Retrieved from: http://www.cbi.gov.tw/CBI_2/internet/main/index.aspx (in
Chinese)
Child Welfare Bureau (2009b). Nursery Schools and Childcare Settings from 1995
2009. Retrieved from: http://www.cbi.gov.tw/CBI_2/internet/main/index.aspx (in
Chinese)
Child Welfare Bureau (2009c). Licenses of Qualified Child Minders. Retrieved from:
http://www.cbi.gov.tw/CBI_2/internet/main/index.aspx (in Chinese)
Child Welfare Bureau (2009d). Guidance for Child Minders and Nannies Supporting
Network and Information Security Management. Retrieved from:
http://www.cbi.gov.tw/CBI_2/internet/main/index.aspx (in Chinese)
Child Welfare Bureau (2009e). Constructing A Friendly Childcare Environment
Management of Child Minders and Subsidy for Parents who Takes Care Children
0-2. Retrieved from: http://www.cbi.gov.tw/CBI_2/internet/main/index.aspx (in
Chinese)
Children's Education and Care Law (draft, 2009). Retrieved from:
http://www.ey.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=51363&ctNode=2294&mp=1 (printed in
Chinese).
Council for Indigenous Peoples (2005). The Childcare Subsidy for Aboriginal Children
Studying Public and Private Nursery Schools. Retrieved from:
http://www.apc.gov.tw/main/docDetail/detail _news.jsp?linkRoot=l&docid=PA000
000000948&cateID=A000075 (in Chinese)
Ministry of Education (2008). The Experimental Project of Supporting Friendly
Childcare Services by Ministry of Education. Retrieved from:
http://www.edu.tw/files/regulation/B0054/242632C.pdf (in Chinese)
Ministry of Education (2009a). Summary of Kindergartens. Retrieved from:
http://www.edu.tw/files/site_content/b0013/k.xls (in Chinese)
Ministry of Education (2009b). Nursery Voucher Sheme. Retrieved from:
http://www.ece.moe.edu.tw/help_childpaper.html (in Chinese)
Ministry of Education (2009c). Supportive Scheme for Children Under Age 5. Retrieved
from: http://www.ece.moe.edu.tw/under5plan.html (in Chinese)
Ministry of Education (2009d). Numbers of School Teachers (including Kindergarten
Teachers) from 1999 to 2009. Retrieved from:
http://www.edu.tw/files/site _content/b0013/teacher.xls (in Chinese)
Ministry of Interior (2009). Statistics of Babies Born in 2008. Retrieved from:
http://www.moi.gov.tw/stat/ (in Chinese)
OECD (2003). Babies and Bosses-Reconciling Work and Family Life (Volume 2) :
Austria, Ireland and Japan. Paris: OECD.
Yeh, Y. C. (2006). Strategies of Increasing Fertility from the Perspectives of Childcare
Policies (Report No.: 95009). Taichung: Child Welfare Bureau. (in Chinese)
90
Turkey
Prof Dr. Caglayan DiNCER
91
TURKISH NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Despite the fact that early childhood education is a period that involves 0-8 years of
age and includes the first two years of elementary education as well as preschool years
(0-6 year olds), it was called as preschool education in Turkey at the moment.
92
helps them to express themselves, to acquire a self-control system, and to
and prepares them for primary school education and finally, educates both
For this reason, preschool education, the first step of our education system, is a period
that moulds the whole life of a child (http://ooegm.meb.gov.tr/).
During the preschool period the speed of learning is high. Every age group has
general properties of development, however it should not be forgotten that each child is
an individual.
Preschool education relies on some basic principles. These principles are given
in the following statements.
During preschool education;
A proper environment for education is prepared to support physical,
psychological, social, cultural, linguistic and behavioral development.
The age of children, characteristics of their development, their speed of learning,
their interests and needs, and the opportunities of the school and the
environment are taken into consideration.
Besides the needs of children such as nutrition, sleeping, taking care of
themselves and possessing good habits, their living with a love of nature and
a sensitivity to the environment is also ensured.
The qualities of such education develop the abilities of children to work in
cooperation and encourage them to be participants as well as develop their
feelings of love and respect.
93
The education is continued in an understanding of love and kindness. Children
are treated equally and their individual differences are considered. In order to
develop their self-confidence, no punishment or restrictions are exercised.
While evaluating the educational activities, to what extent the aims are achieved
is determined.
Whether the child speaks Turkish correctly while expressing themself is given
great importance.
An attempt is made to establish an environment of equality for the children who
come from an environment and families that have insufficient conditions.
Play is used as the most appropriate way of teaching.
As the educational program is prepared, the conditions of the environment and
the parents are taken into consideration and parents taking an active part in
the education is ensured.
The child's development and the schedule of his preschool period are
systematically evaluated
(http://ooegm.meb.gov.tr/yonetmelik.doc) (MEB-Ministry of National
Education, 2006) (Oktay, 2005).
The idea of educating children at a young age goes back to 400 B.C. Great
thinkers and educators who lived between 1782 and 1852 were meticulously interested
in children's education and produced ideas which guide us now. In 1816 kindergartens
were opened for children aged between 3 and 6 (http://www.meb.gov.tr).
Sultan Mahmut II published his edict stating that elementary education was
compulsory in 1824 (Akyuz, 1996). In 1847 a regulations book on elementary education
and teachers was published. It was mentioned in the book that there were tendencies for
children to play games, to behave naughtily and to find pleasure in doing these things
during their natural course of life, and the period of compulsory education including
secondary schools was increased to 6 years because of the fact that traditional schools
for young children did not give the necessary information about real life and life after
death (Akyuz, 1996).
Beginning from the 1860s, educators and writers started to express ideas about
the educational duties of families and schools different from the traditional ones and in
written documents the authorities started to regard the child as a living thing that must
be respected for herself, her growing up and being educated and dealt with sensitively
(Akyuz, 1996).
Establishing kindergartens in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century was
the natural result of these developments (Akyuz, 1996).
The development of preschool education in Turkey can be chiefly dealt with in two
periods:
The Empire Era
The Republic Era
94
The Empire Era
Before the establishment of preschool educational institutions like the ones today in
Turkey, there were secondary institutions responsible for children at this age. Among
them there were secondary schools, local schools providing very simple education and
teaching; reformatories, opened so that male and female children with no relatives could
be cared for, brought up and provided with a profession, and orphanages, all of which
are regarded as institutions of primary education particular to that era. It was determined
that children who were at a suitable age for kindergartens were also accepted and
provided accommodation in these institutions, and given education at the elementary
level. The instructors in primary schools didn't have a responsibility for caring and
educating the children at a young age. The only aim was not to teach the child but that
the child would spend time sitting quietly and therefore the mother would be relaxed at
home.
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The Republic Era
Because the conditions in which the country was during the establishment of the
Republic necessitated giving priority to primary education particularly, an increase in
the number of preschool educational institutions in the early years of the Republic was
not seen. As Ergin (1977) stated, schools were notified of the suggestions by the
Ministry on transferring the budget allocations from kindergartens to elementary school
with two circulars. Therefore the kindergartens which had already opened were closed
as well. But a kindergarten was opened by the Municipality of Istanbul in 1932 to dress,
to feed, to train, and to look after children from morning until evening between the ages
of 3-7, whose old and widowed mothers had to earn their living as workers. It is stated
that the institution where the working mothers left their children in the morning and
picked them up in the evening when returning from work was described as a
kindergarten including board (Akt. Oktay, 1983, Akt, Oktay, 1999).
In the IV. National Education Assembly held in 1949 during the Republic period,
family education performed in order to educate children who hadn't reached the suitable
age for being able to read was mentioned for the first time. The decisions about opening
preschool educational institutions were included in the V. National Education Assembly
held in 1953. It was mentioned in the VII. and VIII. National Education Assembly that
preschool education was optional in the elementary school education system (Akt.
Oktay, 1983, Akt, Oktay, 1999). After the Elementary Schools and Education Law,
No:222 was issued, The book of instructions of kindergartens and preschool classes was
issued on 16 June 1962. After that in the 2nd Five-year Developmental Plan, preschool
education was defined as educating children aged 3-6, and it was stated that children
who lacked the care of their mother could get that education. During the period between
1968-72, it was declared that preschool education services would be developed by
establishing independent kindergartens and preschool classes in elementary schools and
Day Care Centers would be opened in all the Girls' Institutions. It was decided to spread
preschool education more in rural areas and regions where there was a dense population
of workers' children who didn't have parental care and that it was necessary to develop
a model which was suitable for the country's needs in the 3th and 4th Five-year
Developmental Plan.
The purpose and duties of preschool education were determined again according to
the general purpose and basic principles of National Education in the IX National
Education Assembly held in 1974. It was also stated that preschool educational
institutions might be opened as independent kindergartens or classes for preschool
children in the first level of basic education institutions where necessary or application
classes in other related educational institutions (Akt, Oktay, 1999).
In addition to deciding to benefit from facilities of the state and for private
institutions to increase by 10 % the preschool education schooling rate of the 5-6
year-old population in the 5th Five-year Developmental Plan, in the 7th Five-year
Developmental Plan, Preschool Education came under the heading of Elementary
School and the title was agreed on as was a 72 month age limit of starting school. A
16 % schooling rate was envisaged for preschool education and it was targeted to
increase the quality in all the education-training levels. And in the 7th Five-year
96
Developmental Plan (1996-2000) to gradually generalize the preschool education was
decided.
The Elementary School and Education Law no 222' that came into effect in 1961
identified preschool institutions as the optional places of educating children who did not
yet reach the age of compulsory education gave momentum to offering preschool
education. 'Basic Law of National Education no 1739' that came into effect in 1973
placed preschool education under the formal education division within the Turkish
National Education System.
A detailed work was done for the first time under the headings of preschool class
programs, aims, categories of content and activities in class and suggestions for practice
and the necessity for preschool education in the country was clearly stated in the X.
National Education Assembly held in June 1981. Therefore, as a result of the decision
taken in the Assembly, necessary measures were decided to be taken to generalize the
preschool educational institutions starting with the particularly underdeveloped regions
by giving more importance to the education in the Turkish language (Akt. Oktay, 1983).
The Department of Preschool Education Teaching was decided to be a two year
undergraduate university program in XII. National Education Assembly in July 1988.
One of the two items of the agenda in XIV. National Education Assembly, held on 29
September 1993, was allocated to preschool education. XV. National Education
Assembly was held in May 1996, and in addition to the suggestion to increase
compulsory education to 8 years, a very important decision was made to include at least
two years of preschool education in compulsory education in the near future (Oktay,
1999).
General Directorate for Preschool Education was established in 1992 under the
body of Ministry of National Education grounded on the Law no 3797 for a better
coordinated preschool education in Turkey and to meet the increasing social need. Since
then preschool education activities have been performed by the aforementioned
directorate.
In the 8th Five-year Development Plan (2001-2005), it is stated that within not
only primary schools but also secondary schools preschool education need to be
integrated. In addition, Mobile Kindergarten Project to be piloted in 2004-2005
academic year was developed to inform the parents. It was also stated that though many
recent developments in preschool education, schooling rate was far below that of the
average in EU countries. Moreover, in order to eliminate different practices between
preschool education institutions, it was decided to develop standards. It has been also
decided that the classrooms in preschool education, logistic, environmental and personal
wise meet the needs of handicapped children as well as all children
(http://ekutup.dpt.gov.tr/program/2005/destek05.pdf) (DPT, 2008).
XVII. National Education Assembly held a meeting between 13th and 17th
November 2006 and decided that actions to make preschool period for 60-72 month
olds compulsory need to be taken. In accordance with this decision, appointing
guidance counselors to independent preschools should be obligatory, private sector
should be encouraged to establish preschool education institutions, funds need to be
97
transferred, legal responsibility should be granted to local authorities to supply estate
and buildings, incentives and governmental support need to be increased to improve
kindergartens, daycare centers, nurseries, rehabilitation centers for the disabled and such
social facilities. Moreover, tax exemption for these institutions; promoting and
supporting municipalities, special provincial administrations, charities and such
entrepreneurs to establish preschool institutions; making necessary amendments on
Basic Law of National Education no 1739, and forming the "Preschool Education Law'';
establishing cooperation and information flow among Turkish Statistical Institute-TSI,
health and registration offices, offices of chief and provincial directors of national
education to form database on the number of preschoolers and their demographic
information; providing guidance and counseling at preschool period; reaching 80%
schooling rate for 36-60 month olds in 2023 that coincide with the 100th anniversary of
Turkish Republic and increasing the share for preschool education from general
budget were also discussed.
98
Teacher Training in Preschool Education
Preschool teacher training in Turkey has started quite early. This issue was
discussed as early as 1925 (after the Turkish Republic was formed in 1923) during the
Convention of Education Inspectors and for this purpose opening a branch in the
training girl teacher schools was proposed. Later in 1926, the establishment of a training
school for preschool teachers in Izmir was decided, but somehow it did not come
through. The first training school for preschool teachers was officially in service in
Ankara in 1927. This school was moved to Istanbul from Ankara in the academic year
of 1930-31, the school was active for two years and then it was closed. Regarding the
demand for preschool teachers , teacher training was quite frequent in the 1960's (Akt,
Oktay, 1999).
In 1961 training preschool teachers was determined by law (Article 17 of the
222 numbered 'The Elementary School and Education Law'. In regard to this article, it
was indicated that, graduates of teacher training schools or special branches of these
schools or Turkish people educated similarly abroad or graduates of any high-schools,
special girls vocational high schools, or ownership of a certificate from a related course
could be appointed as a preschool teacher. In the academic year of 1963 -1964
Department of Child Development and Education was legally started in the girls'
vocational high schools. According to Educational Board's 120th decision dated as 1967,
the schools mentioned above were accepted as training schools for preschool teachers
(Oktay, 1999). Later, according to article 43 of the law numbered 1739, has made it
necessary that training teachers for preschools was transfered to higher institutes. The
two year education for training preschool teachers which was developed in 1979 began
to be implemented as an associate degree level starting from the 1980-1981 academic
year. And after that, since 1982, it began to be implemented in higher institutes and high
level teacher training schools. And, starting from 1987, not only Faculty of Arts
Education and Faculties of Vocational Education but also Faculties of Education were
entitled to graduate preschool teachers. But the real change for preschool teachers came
in the 1991-1992 academic year where 4 years of education in the Faculties of
Education was needed to be a preschool teacher (Oktay, 1999). Currently, after the
reconstruction of Faculties of Education in 1997, Division of Preschool Education is an
independent branch in the Department of Primary Education.
According to data of 2009 in Turkey, there are 139 universities- 94 are public
university and 45 are private university. By the year 2009, bachelor degree in preschool
education exist in 68 university (7 of them is private) in Turkey. One of them is Faculty
of Open Education, and 17 of the universities educated not only during the day but also
during the evening (Higher Education Council Student Selection and Placement
Center-OSYM Guidance, 2009). In Turkey Preschool Education Undergraduate
Program takes place under the Department of Primary Education in Faculty of
Education. Preschool teachers are trained only through these programs. The program
that is determined by Higher Education Council is carried out simultaneously in all
faculties. The program consists of the theoretical and practical courses that are intended
for improving the knowledge and skills which are necessary for being a teacher in
preschool institutions and kindergarten classrooms. The program includes the courses,
Mathematic, Science, Art, Music in Preschool Education, Physical Education and
Teaching Games, Drama in Preschool Education, Development of Play in Children,
99
Designing Materials, Children Literature, Special Teaching Methods, and Development
in Early Childhood, which prepare teachers to teaching practices, as well as
fundemental courses. In addition to all these courses, the program includes the teaching
training courses, such as Introduction to Educational Sciences, Educational Psychology,
Principles and Methods in Teaching, Planning and Assesment in Teaching, Classroom
Management, and Guidance. Moreover, Special Education and Parent Education in the
program serve as a guide for teacher candidates to learn how to educate parents about
child development and education and guide both children typically developing and
children with special needs in group. Teacher candidates are expected to do observation
and then implement the preschool education program in the preschool institutions
during the School Experience course taken in the first semester and Teaching Practice
course taken in two semesters. Each teacher candidate graduate by completing 127
theoretical and 48 practical courses, total 175 course hour and 151 credits and start their
professional life.
Preschool Teacher Education Undergraduate Program is preferred by female
students but it is known that the number of male students preferring the program have
increased. As an example of this increase, when the Table 1 and Figiire 1 that show the
enrollment ratio of Ankara University, Department of Primary Education, Preschool
Teacher Education Undergraduate Program according to gender, is analyzed, it is seen
that the number of male enrollment is 1 in the 4th year while the number of male
enrollment is 12 in 1st year. It is determined that 10% percent of total students are male
students.
100
When the gender distibution of teachers working in the field is analyzed, it was
determined that 1.644 male teachers served in preschool education as well as 27.698
female teachers in 2008-2009 academic year. It is also determined that 5.6 % percent of
total teachers are male teachers and it is expected that this rate will be increased.
Teaching is highly preferable profession nowadays. Teacher candidates who
completed their 4-year undergraduate program successfully enter an exam that is carried
out to determine the all personnel for public institutions and are placed to start their jobs
in two months according to their scores in the exam and their order of the district
preferences. This situation is not common for most of the other professions. Finding a
job in a public institution is not a common situation that happen these days.
Ministry of National Education (MONE) in 2005, appointed 500 preschool
teachers on payroll and 1.000 master instructors not on payroll. Instead of covering the
gap of preschool teachers with graduates of faculties who have a bachelor degree in
teaching, master instructors who were paid less were prefered. First in the academic
year of 2009, 15.356 preschool teachers are appointed that is the highest number in
recent years. Thus, Ministry of National Education clearly states the importance they
attach to the issue (Figure 2).
When the working hours and salaries of preschool teacher who graduated from
four year programs are analyzed, the situation is not pleasant. On the other hand, their
salaries are higher than the research assistants who graduated similar faculty and highly
lower than other professions. When the salaries of preschool education teachers are
analyzed, while part-time preschool teachers approximately earn 1.700 Turkish Liras
($ 1200), full time preschool teachers in private and public institutions earn almost
2.000 TL ($ 1400). Preschool teachers in kindergarten classrooms work from
8.00-13.00 or 13.00-18.00 as part time. In addition, pubic preschool teachers working
from 8.30-16.30 earn almost the same salary as private preschool teachers who work
from 8.00-18.00. Therefore, while teachers who are young and have less experience
chose to work in private institutions with the same salary but busy schedule,
experienced teachers mostly prefer to work in public institutions. On the other hand,
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private institutions prefer to hire the preschool teachers with high school diploma with
economical reasons.
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It is known that in 1923, when Turkey was proclaimed a republic, there were
5,880 children and 136 teachers in 80 kindergartens. Today, this number has increased
to 804.765 children and 29,342 teachers in 23,653 kindergartens (39.481 classroom) as
of the 2008-2009 academic year (Table 2) (Figure 4) (MEB-Ministry of National
Education, 2009) (OECD, 2005).
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Figure 5 Increase In The Number of Children in Preschool Education
Between 1991 and 2009 (Per Year)
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Table 4 Schooling Rate in Preschool Education Between 1992 and 2009 (between 4
and 6 years old)
The schooling rate ranges from 36 % and 100 % in developed countries, whereas
this rate is rather low in our country. The schooling rate in preschool education when
our General Directorate was established (in 1991-1992 academic year) was 5.1% and it
increased to 33.0 % in the 2008-2009 academic year (Table 4) (Figure 6).
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Table 5 The Distributions of the Children Attending Preschools According to The
Regions of Turkey (In the 9th five year-Developmental Plan)
Children attending preschool has increased in all regions. But, most of the
increase was seen in Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia Regions (Table 5).
These regions are most underdeveloped parts of Turkey. For this reason, they attract
national and international resources and financing.
In Turkey, the cost of a student in preschool per year is $ 213, in primary school
$ 527, in secondary school $ 1.305 and in university $ 3.344 (Turkish Statistical
Institute, 2002; DPT, 2009).
Turkey, in contrast to other European countries, has a young population. The rate
of the population which is involved in education (5-29 age) is 48%. The average in
OECD countries is 32 %. The growth rate population in Turkey has decreased
unexpectedly. The population growth rate which was 1.97 % in 1990 and 1.66 % in
2000 was reduced to 1.53% in 2003 (Figure 7). It is envisaged that in the year 2025 it
would be reduced to 0,81 %. The ration of (0-14) age group in general population was
41.8 % in 1970, was reduced to 26.4% in 2003. The average in EU countries is 16.7 %.
This data shows that the political pressure has been reduced on education policies (DPT,
2009, TUSIAD, 2005).
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Where is Preschool Education Provided?
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Preschool education classes, namely training classes in other educational
organizations under supervision of the Ministry of National Education,
responsible for children's education (for 36-72 months old)
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was prepared in line with the principles, approaches and features adopted in the new
program for primary school education and changing educational needs as well as the
contemporary program development, growth and learning theories.
Parent involvement is expected to be pursued in the official preschool education
curriculum as parent meetings (at least once a term), individual meetings with parents
(as required by the teacher and/or parent) and home visits (once a term to each child's
house).
This program aims to support the psychomotor, social-emotional, language and
cognitive development, gain self-care skills, provide readiness to elementary education
of 36-72 month-old children who are attending preschool. Gains in this program contain
all the common skills in the elementary programs. Problem solving, communication,
implication, deciding, responsibility taking and administering, research, enterprising,
conscious consumerism, nature consciousness, creativity and some other skills will be
gained easily and in a natural way through the learning situations and learning
environments towards the gains in the program, with play based activities, active
participation of the child and the configuration of the information through themselves
by the child. While meeting the developmental needs, this developed program also aims
to support the dynamic interaction interrelated with each other, to increase behaviors of
the child in all the developmental areas to an upper level, to diversify and to enrich.
With this characteristic of the program, it is also correlated with the defense and
emphatics of "Multiple Intelligence Theory".
Free Time
Free time activities are the first activities of the program. These activities have the
characteristics to prepare children for other activities and for the day. However, it is not
necessary to start the day with free time activities. Instead of free time activities, the
teacher may start the day with another activity. The teacher should introduce a variety of
activities at the same time towards the individual needs and interests of the children in
free time activities. Free time activities are composed of game and art activities in the
centers. Centers in the preschools include centers of playing house, science and math,
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arts, picture books, blocks, music, puppets, educational toys and temporary centers
arranged in the direction of aims and gains. In the free time, children choose the centers
and playmates that they will play towards their interests.
Turkish
Turkish activities include rhymes, finger games, poems, riddles, chats, reading picture
books, telling stories, playing pretend play, pantomimes, dramatizations, story
completions and etc. During Turkish activities, the children must be provided to speak
Turkish correctly and well, and it is also necessary to develop their vocabulary.
Music
Musical activities are those which can also be used during other activities which take
part in the daily plan. It contains listening to the sound and differentiation, singing songs,
rhythm activities, creative movement and dance, movement together with music,
developing musical stories and various auditory perception activities.
Listening
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Speaking
Sound separation
Matching sounds with objects or object pictures
Activities of attention and memory
Activities of basic concepts
Activities of problem solving
Activities of hand skills
Drawing, painting, cutting, folding, molding, sticking and etc.
Activities to develop self-care skills
Activities to develop confidence and independent behavior
Drama
They are composed of such activities as warming movements, pantomime, role playing,
improvisation, story developing and dramatizations.
Field trips
Every location which will take the attention of the children and which has got regional,
professional and daily importance is a natural learning area for the child. These areas
may be a historical building, a museum, a painter's art studio, a printing house, a factory
and etc.
Art
Art activities may also be used as an active learning possibility for the children
in various forms during the day. Art activities may also be used to reach the aims and
gains in the educational program (MEB-Ministry of National Education, 2006).
A large number of institution based programs are under supervision of the Ministry of
National Education, Social Services and Society for the Protection of Children.
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These are preschool classes included in other educational institutions under supervision
of the Ministry of National Education, with an aim of teaching children between 3 and 6
years old. Students do practical work under supervision of teachers, since these
institutions have been planned to provide experienced students of Girls' Vocational
Training High Schools.
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e. Summer School
Preschools cease their education in the summer. Preschools can be opened in this period
for children who have not previously had preschool education. In the summer of 2007
(in July and August), 9572 children received preschool education in 349 classes in
summer school (MEB-Ministry of National Education, 2007).
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children aged 0-6 through preschool teachers who have been trained by international
experts on effective parenting. Until now approximately 5000 families participated in
programmes provided by 200 preschool teachers in pilot provinces.
Programs Under Supervision of Social Services and The Society For The
Protection Of Children
It is a program for children aged 6 who do not go to preschools and their mothers who
suffer from negative economic and social conditions. This work has been carried out by
the Mother and Child Education Foundation (MOCEF). The program has three parts:
Mother Support Program, Mental Support Program, Reproductive Health and Family
Planning
Through the Family Education Program and the Developmental Education Program, the
following goals are: Developing skills and knowledge of family members about child
development, health and discipline, thus supporting the child's development and
enriching the atmosphere at home. The target population of the program is children
between 0 and 6 and their families who suffer from negative social and economic
conditions. The program consists of two parts: Family Education Program (FEP) and
been provided with education over the past ten years through these programs.
Therefore, it is addressed to young girls, future mothers, and other women and men. The
project has reached 1,399,741 individuals over the past five years (Temel, 2003).
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Programs Implemented by Other Organizations
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Through the Mother and Child Education Program. 180,000 mothers and children were
reached. Through the Mother Support Program, 4,000 people were reached. The
Preschool Period Parent-Children Education Program has reached 14,000 people up to
today. The Summer Kindergartens and Mother Support Program have reached 1,650
people up to today. Winter Practice at Family-Children Education Centers has reached
nearly 250 people. 9,200 people have been reached up to today through the Father
Support Program. "Will you play with me?" is an amusing and educative children's
program that has been prepared in cooperation with TRT (the national broadcaster of
Turkey). The Family Letters Project has reached 2,500 mothers up to today. Through
Seminars On Communication With Children, nearly 2,000 parents were reached.
"Seven: Too Late Campaign ":Mother and Child Education Foundation (MOCEF) h
as
started a campaign called "Seven: Too Late" in order to make the public aware of the
importance of education between 0 and 6 years in life and to provide many more
children with preschool education.
In the centers, there are district day care units for children between 3 and 6 years old,
part time play groups accompanied by mothers and a professional group leader, a toy
library as well as district motherhood services.
The aim of all the projects and programs being implemented is to make Turkish
preschool education more widespread and to increase the quality of this education.
CONCLUSION
Although, Turkey recently has shown some development in this field, there are still
some steps need to be taken.
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public and private preschool institutions.
The right to open private preschool institution to anybody (using the diploma of
the Professional person)
The crowdedness of classrooms in excuse for educating lots of children
Nearly the non-existence of institutions regarding children (aged 0-3) and its
significanse not to be understood.
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