The role of nursery schools in equalizing the educational chances of

www.ees.uni.opole.pl
ISSN paper version 1642-2597
ISSN electronic version 2081-8319
Economic and Environmental Studies
Vol. 10, No. 1 (13/2010),125-133, March 2010
The role of nursery schools in equalizing the
educational chances of children from rural
areas
Laura PŁATKOWSKA-PROKOPCZYK
Opole University, Faculty of Economics, Opole, Poland
Abstract: Barriers in access to nursery schools, in particular in rural areas, is an important social issue as the
increase in education of the rural population, as well as its economic activity and entrepreneurship is crucial for
development. The article provides an outline of barriers in access to nursery school education for children from rural
areas, and it is tried to identify consequences of such barriers. The hypothesis is developed that improvement of
access to crèches and nursery schools is the basis for equal educational chances, and as a result professional
opportunities for children from rural areas, while a lack of such a system may increase structural inequalities
between urban and rural areas in the future.
Keywords: Human Capital Development, Social and Technical Infrastructure, Education, Local Governments’
Management, Inequalities between Urban and Rural Areas
1. Introduction
The development of human capital via education, research, training and the provision of
information is one of the crucial activities supporting the realization and success of a strategy for
the sustainable development of rural areas (Zegar, 2003: 207). Support for the sustainable
development of rural areas is aimed at providing alternative sources of income, as well as
developing agricultural practices which are ecological and preserve the natural landscape.
Improvement of the social and technical infrastructure plays a key role and all these activities
should serve to lower the level of unemployment, in particular structural unemployment. The
sustainable development of rural areas is thus associated with a vision of their multifunctionality, providing conditions for varied economic activities which respect the environment,
Correspondence Address: Laura Płatkowska-Prokopczyk, Ople University, Faculty of Economics, ul. Ozimska
46a, 45-058 Opole, Poland. Email: [email protected].
© 2010 Opole University
LAURA PŁATKOWSKA-PROKOPCZYK
the development of social and cultural functions, as well as ensuring a good quality of life for the
inhabitants (Jasiński, 2005: 35).
Deficiencies in infrastructure (local roads, sports facilities and sewage systems) are more
visible than deficiencies in education. This is possibly due to the fact that it is more difficult to
observe the relationship of education to the professional activities of the inhabitants of rural areas
and the resulting opportunities for the development of such districts (Śpiewak, 2007: 225-236).
The aim of this article is an initial analysis of the question of access to nursery schools in
rural areas and the effects of the limited access to such services.
2. The present situation of nursery education in rural Poland
The many deficiencies and backwardness of rural areas in Poland are caused by a lack of
access to social infrastructure, which is visibly underdeveloped in rural areas. Local government
has a huge role to play in eliminating these barriers. The goal of their activities is the
development of the local economy, which is a necessary condition for both development and
improving the quality of life of the region's inhabitants. Hence, indirectly, one of the roles of
local government is to create favourable conditions for satisfying the needs of local residents
(Urban, 2003: 61).
Social services, which may be managed and financed or just subsidised and supervised by
the public sector, belong to a category of public duties which are subject to the process of
territorial decentralisation and are, for the main part, delegated to local government. In
accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the most fundamental duties (primary and
secondary education, libraries, cultural institutions, sports facilities and child care) are carried out
at the lowest level of government (local government), whilst regional government is responsible
for health care (Sochacka-Krysiak, Małkowska, 2007: 344).
Unfortunately, however, the majority of local authority activities have the character of
„putting out fires”, i.e., they are focused on treating effects, rather than eliminating their source.
Local authorities in Poland are not fully making use of the possibilities of funding the
development of social institutions from EU funds to develop the care of children of pre-school
age. This could be explained firstly by the short length of time for which Poland has been an EU
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THE ROLE OF NURSERY SCHOOLS
member, which is associated with uncertainty regarding applying for union funds, and secondly
by a lack of appreciation for the role of nursery education in equalising the educational chances
of children from rural areas.
Nursery education is the first stage in the Polish educational system and is carried out in
two forms: schools that are specifically nursery schools and nursery schools that are attached to
primary schools. The first type are aimed at children of age three to six, while the second type
provide education for children of age six. Such schools have the goal of preparing children for
their formal education in the best possible way by eliminating any deficiencies from early
childhood. This is a very important role, as psychologists have shown that the first years of life
are crucial in a child's development. For this reason, nursery schools are widely accessible in the
majority of Western European countries and the majority of children attend one. The reason for
this can be found in the attitudes of parents regarding the role of nursery schools in preparing
children for their formal education, as well as providing parents themselves with the possibility
of developing their own careers or continue their education. However, despite the increasing level
of education of Polish society, these changes have not lead to the elimination of the distance
between urban and rural areas (Janc and Czapiewski, 2005: 69-83). According to the national
statistical office (GUS, 2009), the majority of children of pre-school age from urban areas
attended a specialist nursery school (66.6%), while the majority of nursery schools attached to
primary schools were found in rural areas (55.1% of such institutions) and these were the primary
source of nursery schooling in these areas (81.8% of children). This confirms the thesis regarding
the restricted access of rural areas to educational services, where the large number of nursery
schools attached to primary schools indicates that rural local authorities limit themselves to
fulfilling the minimum requirements for providing education (i.e., providing education from the
age of six).
From a parent's point of view, the opportunity of placing a child under the care of trained
educationalists gives them an ideal opportunity to overcome the challenges of modern rural life:
an unfavourable employment structure, huge qualitative and quantitative changes in agriculture,
or even the need for multifunctional development (Janc and Czapiewski, 2005: 70). These
challenges force the inhabitants of rural areas to be innovative and open to change. At the same
time, attending nursery school is important in a child's development. This is particularly true for
children with disadvantaged backgrounds, who do not have sufficient stimulation for their
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development or live in an area which lacks the necessary infrastructure aiding such development.
The majority of rural areas can be categorised as such.
Traditionally, rural children were the cheapest form of labour and their value was
measured in economic terms. However, a fundamental change in attitudes towards children is
noticeable in rural areas. This is visible in the decreasing role played by children in the process of
production (although children are still used in this role) and the increasing stress placed on
development and the acquisition of knowledge. This requires ensuring that children have good
conditions for learning and recreation. In rural areas, this is mainly the concern of mothers, since
fathers are more occupied in agriculture (Janc and Czapiewski, 2005: 331-332).
Signs of potentially positive changes in attitude to nursery education can be seen in rural
areas situated close to cities. The number of inhabitants who commute from such villages to the
city is increasing. This has a twofold influence on the socio-demographic character of such areas.
Firstly, the number of pre-school and school children, who can make use of educational facilities
in rural areas, is increasing. This increases demand for such services. Secondly, due to the lack
of services in rural areas, parents often register their children in the city and send them to nursery
schools and schools there. This limits the potential ties of such children with their place of
residence. If they were registered in their place of residence, it would be possible to assess the
real demand for education in rural areas. This would counteract the economic argument for the
liquidation of educational institutions in rural areas, based on the apparent lack of children.
The fundamental data required to infer the current situation of the system of nursery
school education in rural areas are:
•
the number of children of pre-school age, which reflects the potential demand for nursery
education,
•
the numbers of nursery schools and available places, which in turn determine the relative
level of supply of nursery education,
•
the number of children attending a given school, this is an indirect indicator of the quality of
the educational and care services provided by an institution.
Analysis of data (GUS, 2009) indicated a fall in the rate of population growth. This is
more visible among the group of three to six year olds in urban areas compared to rural areas.
The falls in population growth recorded in the years 1997-2007 led to a tendency of decreasing
the number of nursery school places in accordance with the needs of a particular local authority.
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THE ROLE OF NURSERY SCHOOLS
However, the liquidation of nursery schools in rural areas, dictated by the need for a local
authority to balance the need for nursery education and expenditure, meant the need for parents –
mothers in particular – to transport their children over a greater distance. As a result, the number
of children attending nursery school fell, due to parents being unwilling to bear the increased
costs (both financial and time) required. This logic of reducing the number of nursery schools in
line with the apparently – for the reasons given above – falling demand for nursery school places
may lead to an educational gap between rural areas and urban areas. This will have negative
consequences on the quality of human capital in forthcoming years. This process is particularly
disturbing due to the fact that the national statistical office has noted an increase in the number of
births from 2004 onwards (in 2007 the natural growth of the population was almost 11 thousand).
Figure 1. Dynamics of factors characterizing the state of nursery education in rural areas of Poland in the
period 1990-2006.
100,00%
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
relative number of children of age 3-6 in rural areas
relative number of nursery schools in rural areas
relative number of children in rural nursery schools
Source: Based on data from the Polish national statistical office (GUS, several issues) and www.vulcan.edu.pl/.
At the same time, the proportion of children from rural areas attending nursery schools
was always relatively low. As is shown in Fig. 1, this situation grew worse in the 1990s, when the
number of nursery schools fell for financial reasons. In 1999, 50.6% of children of pre-school age
attended nursery school. This figure was 63% for children from urban areas, but only 35.7% for
children from rural areas. One could only talk about the comprehensive supply of nursery
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LAURA PŁATKOWSKA-PROKOPCZYK
education in the case of six-year old children. 97.5% of such children attended nursery school.
However, while in urban areas this figure was virtually 100%, in rural areas this figure was only
89.8% (Walkowska, 2002: 358). At the same time, in rural areas there was a tendency to adapt
specialist nursery schools into institutions linked to a primary school aimed at six-year old
children, the so called class 0. However, this limited the availability of nursery education to
younger children (Walkowska, 2002: 358).
The increasing number of children from rural areas attending nursery schools in 20052006 may be attributable to a change in the attitude of mothers, or their increased determination
to create the conditions necessary for them to undertake paid employment, which requires
making use of nursery schools. The “emancipation” of older members of the family
(grandparents), who care for children to a lesser extent or in a non-systematic way, may be an
additional factor. This phenomenon might be caused by objective factors, e.g., members of the
family taking up employment in other countries. One may conclude that women living in rural
areas are gradually becoming aware of the advantages of access to care and educational services
for children of pre-school age. This rapidly growing demand for such services may destabilise the
system of nursery school education in rural areas and, as a result, aggrevate the problems faced
by professionally active mothers. This is particularly significant, due to the demographic
predications of an increase in the number of children of pre-school age.
Therefore, small nursery schools may become one of the instruments for improving the
quality of life for both present and future inhabitants of rural areas. The results of research carried
out in the Lubuski region (Nowak, 2007: 244-245) confirm that the number of nursery schools is
falling, which may indicate a lack of investment in this sphere of education. At the same time,
this research indicated an increasing gap in access to nursery education in rural areas compared to
urban areas.
Small nursery schools are described by the Federation of Educational Initiatives (FIO,
2010) as a first step in:
•
equalizing the educational chances of children from rural areas with those from urban areas;
•
developing a model of nursery education adapted to the needs of rural areas;
•
creating cooperation between parents and teachers;
•
building a local coalition aimed at promoting children's education.
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THE ROLE OF NURSERY SCHOOLS
The idea of small nursery schools receiving EU finance via a grant from the Ministry of
Education is based on creating places in rural areas in which children learn the principles of
social life and cooperation in a manner appropriate to the traditional multi-generational model of
raising children in families from rural areas. Children are not split according to age, thanks to
which older and stronger children can learn how to be responsible and help those weaker than
them, and younger children can learn from older children.
The project ran from December 2005 for a period of two years and set up 65 nursery
schools creating an alternative to traditional nursery schools. These schools have 1000 places for
children of age three to five.
This FIO initiative gave positive results not only for the direct recipients of these services,
i.e., the nursery school children and their parents, but also activates and unifies the rural
communities in which the nursery schools are found. It seems that one additional value of the
project may lie in changing attitudes within communities. A child attending a nursery school has
stopped being a sign of a family's, and in particular a mother's, inability to care for a child, but is
seen as a desirable sign of care for giving a child a better start in their education and, from a
longer term perspective, enabling more balanced personal and professional development.
3. Concluding remarks
The lack of access to nursery education in rural areas is of grave concern, since raising the
level of education of rural communities, as well as its level of innovation and activeness, is a key
stimulant of development. The access of rural children to nursery education is a step in the
direction of equalizing their educational chances, and hence their career opportunities. At the
community level, they fulfil two functions: education and care. The educational function enables
children to develop their social skills and promotes faster, better and more balanced development.
The care function allows parents to develop undertake gainful employment.
It seems that in the light of changes in the number and types of institutions offering preschool care in rural areas, small nursery schools are a solution to the socio-economic dilemma
faced by local authorities in this field. They are simultaneously an opportunity and challenge for
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LAURA PŁATKOWSKA-PROKOPCZYK
local authorities. The opportunity lies in the possibility of using EU funds to create mini-nursery
schools in rural areas and their creation may give rise to various positive effects:
•
releasing the energy and enabling the gainful employment of parents, above all mothers,
which is of particular importance in the context of the increasing demand for labour in
Poland, resulting from the large number of Poles emigrating;
•
building positive images within the families and social spheres of working mothers, who are
becoming a symbol of fulfilment in both roles: family and professional,
•
giving children the opportunity of more balanced and progressive development, while
teaching them social skills, which in many cases would be impossible either within the
confines of their family or in the company of more „experienced” contemporaries on starting
their formal education (a lack of nursery school education may be a huge barrier within the
realities of school life and result in a slower rate of development).
A lack of stability in the system of pre-school child care in rural areas may lead to a
deepening of the differences between rural and urban areas and lowering the potential of rural
communities.
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Rola przedszkoli w wyrównywaniu szans edukacyjnych dzieci wiejskich
Streszczenie
Wszelkie ograniczenia w dostępie do opieki przedszkolnej, w tym w szczególności na obszarach
wiejskich budzą coraz większe emocje społeczne. Zważywszy, że podnoszenie poziomu
wykształcenia społeczności wiejskiej, a także jej aktywności i przedsiębiorczości jest kluczowym
stymulatorem rozwoju, taki oddźwięk nie może być zaskoczeniem. Dlatego celem niniejszego
opracowania jest wstępne rozpoznanie kwestii dostępu do edukacji przedszkolnej dzieci
wiejskich oraz próba określenia skutków ograniczeń w tym zakresie. W artykule przyjęto tezę, iż
dostęp do żłobków i przedszkoli jest początkiem wyrównywania szans edukacyjnych, a w
konsekwencji zawodowych dzieci wiejskich, zaś brak stabilizacji systemu opieki przedszkolnej
na obszarach wiejskich może w przyszłości pogłębić różnice strukturalne pomiędzy miastem, a
wsią.
Słowa kluczowe: rozwój kapitału ludzkiego, infrastruktura techniczna I społeczna, edukacja,
zarządzanie na szczeblu samorządu lokalnego, nierówności pomiędzy obszarami miejskimi I
wiejskimi.
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