GNP

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Comenius Foundation for Child Development
Projects for rural areas
Teresa Ogrodzinska togrodzinska_at_frd.org.pl
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Content of the presentation

• Poland
• Comenius Foundation
• Young Children in Poland
• Where There Are No Preschools
• Local Educational Strategies

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Country Profile

• Poland
• Population 38 125 479
• Rural population 38,7
• Children aged 0-6 2 527 900
• in rural areas 43
• Unemployment rate 11,5 (02/07)
• (02.2000 14 02.2004 20)
• Fertility rate 1,267
• Female employment rate 42,3 (12/07)

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Education for Young Children in Poland

• Preschool Education -financed from local
  municipalities budgets
• Children 3-6 age
• For 3-5 year old children not compulsory
• For 6 year old children compulsory one year
  preparation to school
• Primary Education subsidy per child from
  central government
• Grades I-II (children 7-9) - one teacher per
  class
• Grades IV-VI (children 10-13) different
  teachers per subject (math, language, etc.)

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Comenius Foundation for Child Development
Comenius Foundation

• Our mission
• Comenius Foundation has been established to
  create the best possible environment for children
  and to help them develop
• self-esteem,
• social skills,
• natural curiosity,
• creativity.
• We are particularly concerned with the
  well-being of children who have fewer chances of
  a good start in adult life because they come from
  economically and culturally disadvantaged
  backgrounds and from small communities.
• We work hand in hand with parents,
  teachers, non-governmental organizations, local
  authorities and child-serving institutions. We
  promote modern educational arrangements and high
  educational standards.

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Comenius Foundation for Child Development

• Our goals
• To ensure access to high quality early eduaction
  to all children
• ? Where Therea Are no Preschool, Playgroups,
  For Children programs.
• To increase the quality of early education in
  Poland
• ? Comenius Academy, our Training Center
• To increase social participation in educational
  policy-making
• ?Local Educational Strategy
• ?Local Partnership for the Developement and
  Education of Small Children
• To Iincrease social awareness about the
  significance of early education
• ? conferences, seminars, publications

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• Young Children in Poland

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Young Children in Poland

• In 2007 there were
• Over 1 438 800 children aged 3-6 lat, including
• In order to provide a professional support and
  education to these children, it is necessary to
  create over 62 000 jobs for teachers only.

Over 780 400 (63) children who did not attend a
pre-school

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Preschool Education in Poland
In Poland there are 2156 rural
municipalities In 869 municipalities there are
no preschool
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Preschool Education in Poland
Preschools attends 17 rural children and 62
ich town children (age 3-5)

3-5 age children attending preschools in rural
municipalities
of municipalities with no preschools
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Young children in Poland

• POLAND
• For children aged 0-5
• Pre-schools

• UNITED KINGDOM
• For children aged 0-5
• Day nurseries
• Combined nursery centers
• Childrens centers
• Family centers
• Nursery schools and classes
• Primary school reception classes
• Playgroups
• Creches
• Childminders
• Drop-in centers
• One oclock clubs
• Playbuses
• Toy libraries
• And others..

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• Where There Are No Pre-schools

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

Inspirations

• Itinerant teachers Preschool education form
  in rural areas in Portugal
• Polish rural preschool centers created and run by
  rural communities in the 20s.

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

• Main objectives
• To improve educational opportunities for
  children in areas without pre-schools by
  introducing alternative high quality educational
  schemes.
• To develop a new systemic solution a new form
  of education for young children that will be
  available to all municipalities in Poland.

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

Project initial assumptions

• Preschool centers accessible to majority of
  children
• Located in small rural localities, where
  children live
• Free of charge for parents
• Preschool centers to be within financial range of
  ruralmaximum cost-effectiveness
• Centers located in existing buildings, mostly
  already in use
• Only educational function of centers
• Quality of education
• Quality maintaining and monitoring supplied by
  Commenius Foundation at least during first pilot
  and dissemination phase
• .

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

WTANP Centres how does it work?

• Centres placed in libraries, rural cultural
  centers, social help centers, schools etc.
• Centres adapted to childrens needs minimal
  standarts of space, security and equipment to
  adapt existing rooms
• 10-15 children per group
• One parent always present
• Minimum 9 hours per week

• Municipality council votes participation in the
  program (funding garantee)
• One person from municipality is responsible for
  program coordination and contact with Commenius
  Foundation
• Teacher from close area responsible for the
  Center daily functionning

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Where There Are No Pre-schools


Maintaining the Programme quality

• Selection of teachers
• - teachers with preschool qualifications
• Training
• - initial training for teachers (100 hours)
• - local training for teachers
• - workshops for parentsl
• Quality monitoring system
• - selecting Local Consultants
• - developing Local Supervisors knowledge on ECD
• - regular visits of Local Consultants in the
  Centres
• - regular planning meetings of teachers from the
  municipality with Local Consultants
• Educational support
• - programme (curriculum) for Centres Operation
• - handbook for teachers
• - educational materials for teachers and
  parents
• - internet forum for teachers

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

• Phases of dissemination
• 2003-2005
• WTANP municipalities open more centers
• New municipalities have been joining the program
• 2004
• WTANP scheme included in ESF funded projects for
  2004-2006
• 2005
• 2nd generation Preschool Centers 94 centers in
  6 regions, financed by ESF, operated by CF (until
  december 2007)
• 2006
• 3rd generation Preschool Centers
• 280 centers, operated by local ngos, CF as a
  quality partner, financed by ESF (until March
  2008)

• Pilot Phase (2001)
• 8 municipalities
• 14 ECE centers
• 180 children

• End of dissemination (2007)
• 100 municipalities
• 13 regions
• 350 ECE Centres
• 364 childrens groups
• 340 teachers
• more than 4000 children

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

Comenius Foundation Preschool Centers

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

• Effects
• Increase in the number of children attending
  pre-schools

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Where There Are No Pre-schools

Effects

• Children from Centers perform very well at
  school
• Disabled children adapt very well to the Centers
• Developing teachers pedagogic skills
• Involving parents in the activities of Centres
• Mobilizing local communities
• Lowering the unemployment rate - 30 of teachers
  working in the Centres were previously unemployed
  
• In August 2007 alternative forms of preschool
  education included in the Law on Educaton.
• alternative forms of preschool education inluded
  in European Social Fund prioroities for 2007-2013

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• Local Educational Strategy
• for Young Children

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Local educational strategy for young children
Aim To help rural municipalities work
out long term local educational strategies for
young children. The participants
municipality education officers, councillors,
representatives of the Alcohol Abuse Commission,
directors of social work centres and other local
institutions, principals of preschools and
primary schools, representatives of local NGOs
working for children, parents.
Developing the strategy includes collecting
childrens opinions, their expectations and fears
they are listed on the bases of survey
questionnaires collected by gymnasium students.
Thus, the strategy is based not only on a
diagnosis prepared by the adults but also on the
needs as expressed by the children themselves.

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Local educational strategy for young children
Phases Phase I (2 ½ -days workshop) -
formulating the vision of early education in the
municipality - create a model of the pupil who
has completed elementary education - SWOT
analysis of elementary education in their
municipality - identifying the strategic areas
and formulating key objectives (together with
indicators of success) - appointing
municipality teams for co-ordinating further work
on the strategy

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Local educational strategy for young children
Phase II - homework prepared by
co-ordinating teams collecting additonal
information, preparing suggestions for specific
regulations of the strategy, identifying
indicators, they identifying potential financing
sources. Phase III (1½ days workshop) -
discussion on the materials and proposals
prepared by the co-ordinating teams and
developing preliminary strategy - selecting
organizations responsible for monitoring
implementation of the strategy

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Local educational strategy for young children
Phase IV - wide social
consultations - working out the final version
of the strategy - present the strategy to the
Municipality Council - accepting the strategy
by the Municipality Council - monitoring the
implementation of the strategy

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Local educational strategy for young children
Main Effects

• 100 of municipalities participating in the
  workshops worked out a project of local
  educational strategy, all of them have been
  approved by the Municipality Councils as an
  official municipality document.
• Thanks to strategies, it is easier for
  municipalities to apply for European Union
  structural funds.
• Thanks to strategies there are more educational
  services for young children.
• External evaluation of the project points to its
  innovative and effective character as for
  preparing long-term strategies for elementary
  education in cooperation with the whole local
  community.
• The experiences of project have been described
  in a special brochure, which allows for
  disseminating the project on a wide scale.

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Thanks

• Our activities are supported
• by