Abstract
The present study brings a discussion on institutional care and education for children under three into the professional discourse. In the introduction, the authors introduce the historical context of care for children under the age of three in the Czech Republic and compare it with the situation elsewhere in the European Union. The core of the article was mothers’ viewpoint on facilities for children under three in the Czech Republic. A qualitative probe answers the question, “How do mothers perceive facilities for children under three years of age?” In-depth interviews revealed that the mothers who were addressed have a wide range of motives for deciding to place a child under three years of age in institutional care. Ultimately, however, they seek to satisfy the needs of their child. The situation of the sample that was monitored is in many respects comparable to foreign studies, even though the Czech situation regarding these services has specific features because of its historical development. Keywords: early childhood education, day care institutions in the Czech Republic, state family policy, mothers
Highlights
Discussions on the quality of preschool education and the involvement of children under the age of three in this system are currently increasing
In the second half of the 20th century, the services offered to these children flourished, as the Czech Republic had an extensive network of kindergartens subsidized by the state budget and a curriculum elaborated in detail for children from birth until entry into primary education
We structure the results of the analysis on the basis of the partial research questions: (1) What are the beliefs of the mothers about services for children under three years of age? (2) What are the mothers’ expectations of these facilities? (3) What are the mothers’ reasons for searching for these facilities? (4) What are the mothers’ experiences with the facilities?
Summary
Discussions on the quality of preschool education and the involvement of children under the age of three in this system are currently increasing. There are about one hundred and forty thousand children under the age of three in Czech kindergartens and another eighteen thousand children are in private facilities in informal care (MLSA, 2019). There are approximately 900 children’s groups in the Czech Republic caring for 11,800 children aged between one and six (MLSA, 2019). Most of these children’s groups have appeared in the last three years and are funded by maternal allowances and European Union grants, which will end in 2023. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is preparing a bill on setting a maximum maternal allowance and state subsidies for these facilities, which would, for the first time since 1989, introduce direct state involvement in the care of children under the age of three
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