Abstract:

Today in the European Union countries we can observe an increase in the importance of pre-school education, which is considered to be the first stage of child’s education. This approach is fully justified because the pre-school child acquires the knowledge, skills and competencies that will be needed in subsequent periods of development, including adulthood. Poland after joining the countries belonging to the EU states systematically promotes pre-school education, as shown by high percentages of increasing number of kindergartens as well as creating various forms of pre-school education. In the school year 2015/2016 the number of different forms of pre-school education formally registered reached 21.1 thousand institutions. The growth of kindergartens as compared to the previous year was noted by 0.4 thousand. The effects of increasing number of kindergartens were noted not only in the city but also in the rural areas. The European funds that Poland has benefited from and is still taking advantage of have greatly influenced this phenomenon. These funds were directly directed at municipalities to create new kindergartens, modernize existing ones, and to purchase teaching materials as well as to train teachers. These short-listed actions have contributed both quantitatively and qualitatively to the increase of the importance of pre-school education.

The inspiration to present the issue of supporting child development through pre-school education in a comparative sense is the cooperation between two partner universities: Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska and Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University in Lutsk. The territorial location of the mentioned universities lies in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland. Apart from the mentioned borderland, which is a common feature of these two colleges, there are several similarities in pre-school education. According to the commonly available data, children in Poland and Ukraine start their primary education at the age of 6-7. Pre-primary education in these countries is based on curricula approved by the Ministry of Education. However, in Ukraine, there is no obligation for children aged 3 to 5 years to start pre-school education. In turn, six-year-old children in Poland undergo obligatory annual preparation. That is why it is worth conducting the research in order to see the differences in pre-school education that both sides can benefit from. As a result, the research has been undertaken to understand the functioning of the kindergartens in Lutsk, especially in the area of its facilities, equipment, organization of classes, working hours of kindergartens, the number of pre-school children in one group, and teachers’ qualifications. This purpose has been expanded on the basis of data from kindergartens located on the territory of Biała Podlaska. The listed research was conducted thanks to the cooperation between these universities and researchers’ stay in Ukraine in 2017. Detailed data was collected by conducting individual interviews with teachers working in kindergartens. Conclusions were drawn from the conducted research that could be used in pre-school practice. It should be noted that the presented research problem does not exhaust the fully described issue and will continue in the planned joined project.

Keywords:

Kindergarten, pre-school age, child’s development, partner universities.