Issues of Improving the Management of Family Non-Governmental Preschool Education Organizations

The present paper is about issues of improving the management of family non-governmental preschool education organizations in Uzbekistan. Moreover, this paper discusses recent amendments in public and private preschool education in the country.

The family choice of a non-state kindergarten to build educational and cultural capital

The article analyzes the reasons behind the choice of non-state preschool education for children by the families of St. Petersburg. The subject area relevance is associated with the need to study family investments in the educational and cultural capital of the younger generation. The main research questions are the advantages of non-state kindergartens education, the influence of the received educational and cultural resources on the further educational path of a person, the relevance of digital methods for collecting sociological information. In the empirical part of the study, we studied the parents' statements on an Internet forum, where the motives behind choosing non-state kindergartens in St. Petersburg were discussed. In addition, an available sociological results analysis and statistical data were used, and expert judgments on the development of the private preschool education sphere in Russia were collected on the Internet. The author presents a parental arguments classification in favor of non-state kindergartens education, developed based on the materials analysis from an Internet forum. The content classification of the unstructured text array was conducted using domestic specialized computer programs. It was found that the main motive for the family choice of non-state preschool education in St. Petersburg is the parents' desire to provide their children with high-quality educational capital. Previously, the most significant reason for preschoolers to turn to private education was the need to place a child at the age of two months in a day nursery. Other advantages of studying in a non-state kindergarten are considered by parents to be an individual approach to children with special needs, care for the student's health, and high-level equipment in private preschool educational institutions. An important condition for choosing a commercial kindergarten is a sufficient family income. Parents see cultural capital as a supplement to the educational resource they receive at an early age, and they also associate education in a private kindergarten with the choice of specialized schools and the high academic performance of the child in primary grades. Research perspective — search and methodological understanding of sociology digital methods to study the long-term effects of the early education stage.

Public Management and Reforming of Singapore's Preschool Education

The study investigates the preschool sector of education in Singapore and the system of its management. New socio-economic conditions require a new theoretical and methodological basis of the educational process. Studying the experience of the functioning of other educational systems provides an opportunity to implement effective ways of reforming in the domestic educational system. This fact proves the relevance of the study. The purpose of the study is to investigate the experience of public administration and modernisation of the modern system of preschool education in Singapore. The research was conducted on the basis of systematic, personality-oriented, axiological and synergetic methodological approaches to the study of pedagogical phenomena and with the use of such theoretical research methods as the method of analysis, synthesis, comparison and systematisation. The author identifies areas of public impact on the mostly private preschool sector in Singapore and areas of its reforming. It has been established that the main areas of updating Singapore's preschool education includes the development of a conceptual framework for the preschool education sector, improvement of the quality of staff professional training, reorganisation of the management system of preschool education and implementation of the principle of meritocracy, which provides equal access to quality preschool education for all Singaporeans. The study analyses the main aspects and specific features of introducing the conceptual framework “Nurturing the early learners”. The conceptual framework is a recommendation and guide for developing educational programmes in preschool institutions of the country and gives teachers some freedom to apply an individual and creative approach in the process of developing educational programmes for their preschool institutions. The author also identifies the main measures undertaken to improve the professional level of preschool teachers and the level of preschool education in general. It is concluded that due to the successful cooperation of the government and private preschool education providers and a clear delineation of their responsibilities, the government of Singapore succeeded in implementing an effective system of management of the preschool education sector

Preschooling in India: Readying Children for a Race?

Drawing on field-based research in selected government-run and private preschool centres in three selected districts of the Indian state of West Bengal, this article makes four basic arguments. First, there is a need to both defend public provisioning of early childhood education for equity goals and demand its major improvement on quality grounds. Second, an early start to education often turns out to be an unfitting start, as it already mimics a full school with its excessive focus on formal instruction and readiness for competition. Third, to assess early-years learning, therefore, we need to focus on children’s cognitive diversity rather than taking a restrictive and test-centric view of cognition. Fourth, we need a democratic framework of thought to collectively address some of these vexed issues and re-examine our current imagination of education, even preschool education, as a race.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE PRESCHOOL

Early childhood services and education industry have grown steadily with a wide range of local and international franchise brands. This raises questions about the ability of private kindergartens and nurseries to compete in the market. The objective of this study is to analyze the basic aspects of the financial management of this institution and its ability to be viable and competitive. Data is obtained through questionnaires that are distributed to selected entrepreneurs and managers in the state of Selangor. Feedback from 52 institutions found that a large number of institutions have a sufficient number of children. Teachers are qualified but paid salaries on a low scale. Student management assistant is not provided due to small and varied size of classes. More kindergartens are in high-income categories compared to nurseries, but both institutional spendings are in lower categories. The registration fee varies between institutions but the kindergarten charges an additional fee at a higher rate compared to nurseries. There are preferential differences in operating expenses incurred between kindergartens and nurseries. Some recommendations to reduce the financial burden of private pre-school operators are discussed at the end of this article.

Private Preschool Teachers’ Competencies in Early Identification of Children at Risk of Learning Disabilities

Not only education is important in developing one’s intellectual and personal quality, but also an influential factor in seeking employment. Therefore, education is even more important for disabled individuals, as it enables them to read and write, communicate, make decisions and most importantly be employed. However, Dr. Mullai Ramaiah stated that the current Malaysian education system does not only lack in early screening, but also teachers who are equipped to teach and handle children with special needs (Arukesamy, 2017). Therefore, this current study intends to investigate the competency of preschool teachers in identifying children who are at risk of any learning disabilities (LD). This was done by administering a questionnaire survey to examine teachers’ knowledge of some common learning disabilities that usually affects preschool children. In this research, the relationship between teachers’ competency and teacher’s education level has been investigated. Findings from the data analysis indicated that the level of teacher’s competency in identifying children at risk is relatively low. It was revealed, a majority of general preschool teachers do not have any knowledge or acquired minimal knowledge in identifying children who are at risk of an LD. Findings also show that there was a significant difference in competencies between teachers of different levels of education. Finally, it was found teachers’ experience does not contribute to their knowledge in identifying children at risk of LD.

The Integration of ICT in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Malaysian Private Preschool

Over the last two decades, the rapid growth of of ICT has become one of the important agenda discussed by many scholars in education. No doubt, this is due to the capability of ICT in providing a dynamic and proactive teaching and learning. Along with today’s digital era, teachers were required to integrate of ICT in their daily teaching and replace them with the tools of traditional methods and modern amenities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of ICT in teaching and learning among the preschool teachers in private preschools in Malaysia. A total of 60 preschool teachers from 10 private preschools in Hulu Bernam in the state of Selangor, Malaysia has been chosen at random in the research study. The findings indicated that the level of computer skills and knowledge of the teachers is at low level (M = 1.92). The findings also indicates the level of ICT integration in teaching and learning is at a low level (M = 1.90). The results also showed that the attitude of the teachers on important ICT in teaching and learning is encouraging (M = 2.66) which can be considered as moderate level. The problem of using ICT in schools also needs to be addressed as the analysis mean score (M = 2.19), which indicates the level of the problem is not encouraging.