 Social support measures and the role of public funding in the development of pre-school education: international comparisonIrina Abankina (),
Ivan Kravchenko () and
Ludmila Filatova ()
Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations (MEMO), 2020, issue 31, 1-16 Abstract: Achieving strategic prospects for economic and social development is directly linked to the effective implementation of specific educational and training goals. EU and OECD countries are working to respond in concert to common educational challenges, starting with early and pre-school education, setting benchmarks and tracking key indicators. At the same time, each country retains sovereignty in educational policy, state funding, social assistance and targeted support for families. The study is based on information from foreign sources (Education at a Glance 2015-2019. OECD Indicators), and on the data of Rosstat, the Unified Interagency Information and Statistical System (EMISS) and the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation. Public spending relative to GDP is not a criterion for high annual averages per pupil in different countries. In Israel, for example, spending in 2016 was 1.1%, and the average annual expenditure per child was $4,568, while in Italy, the corresponding ratio was 0.5% and $7,395. This illustrates the various options for raising public funds, which in turn can also be determined by the conditions and regime of children in pre-school organizations. An important tool for increasing the enrolment of children in pre-school education in international practice is the involvement of private business and public-private partnership. With the expansion of the private sector within the boundaries of more than 40 %, under government support programmes, average annual expenditures per young child (up to 3 years) could be increased in more than a third of countries within the range of $8,200 to $25,300 and nearly a third of countries - between $6,500 and $14,300 for preschool-age children (3 years of age and older). Increasing pre-school enrolment requires an increase in the number of teachers. The number of pupils per teacher varies from 6 to 15 countries, while in a third of the states under consideration the figure is much higher, from 16 to 33. At the same time, it is obvious that the lack of teaching staff can negatively affect the quality of preschool education. Socially oriented programs used in different countries to subsidize low-income and large families, as well as to create working conditions for women with children under 3 years of age, allowed 1.5% of young mothers in Russia to continue their education in 2017. Unfortunately, 3.8%, expressing such an intention, did not have such opportunities. Accelerated training of new mothers in order to obtain skills should be developed and implemented. High expenditures on pre-school education in GDP and average annual expenditures per child in different countries depend not only on public investment. Productive public-private partnerships are also of great importance in the pre-school education and education of children. The successful implementation of social programmes and targeted assistance to families, and the creation of working conditions for women with young children, demonstrate the important role of the State in increasing their pre-school education. Specific mechanisms such as free school hours, flexibility of the regime and conditions of stay of children in pre-school organizations, setting the optimal age of enrolment and transition to primary education also contribute to this. There is also a need for a professional approach in the selection of qualified teaching staff capable of providing quality services to pupils. Keywords: education institutions; preschool education; education market (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:moneco:v::y:2020:i:31:p:1-16 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations (MEMO) from National Research University Higher School of Economics |
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