Socioeconomic determinants of the availability of kindergartens in the Czech Republic

• Název práce v češtině: Socioekonomické faktory dostupnosti mateřských škol v České republice
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Socioeconomic determinants of the availability of kindergartens in the Czech Republic
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Barbara Pertold-Gebicka, M.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 09.09.2021
• Datum zadání: 09.09.2021
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 08.09.2022 09:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Opletalova - Opletalova 26, O206, Opletalova - místn. č. 206
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 01.08.2022
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 08.09.2022
• Oponenti: Mgr. Tomáš Kučera

Seznam odborné literatury

Hůle, D. et al. (2015). Zavedení povinného posledního roku předškolního vzdělávání před zahájením školní docházky (Studie proveditelnosti). Demografické informační centrum, o.s.

Kuchařová, V. et al. (2009). Péče o děti předškolního a raného školního věku. VÚPSV, v.v.i. ISBN 978–80–7416–041-7

Pertold-Gebicka, B. (2018). Dopady reformy rodičovských příspěvků v roce 2008 na pracovní zařazení matek. Národohospodářský ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. ISBN 978-80-7344-465-5

Ruml, J. (2018). The Importance of Preschool Education System as a Tool for Harmonization of Family and Working Life of Mothers. [Diplomová práce, Univerzita Karlova]. Digitální depozitář Univerzity Karlovy. https://dspace.cuni.cz/handle/20.500.11956/102391gt

Syslová, Z., Borkovcová, I. & Průcha, J. (2014). Péče a vzdělávání dětí v raném věku: komparace české a zahraniční situace. Wolters Kluwer ČR. ISBN 978-80-7478-354-8

Zatloukal, T. et al. (2020). Kvalita a efektivita vzdělávání a vzdělávací soustavy ve školním roce 2019/2020. Výroční zpráva České školní inspekce. Česká školní inspekce. ISBN 978-80-88087-43-4

Zykanová, T. & Janhubová, K. (2020). Analýza dostupnosti zařízení péče o děti v předškolním věku. Oddělení evaluací MPSV.

Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

Research question and motivation

This thesis aims to examine whether and how socioeconomic characteristics influence the availability of kindergartens in the Czech Republic in a regional comparison.

Preschool education, internationally classified as ISCED 0, is education provided for children preceding compulsory education in primary schools. In the Czech Republic, it is primarily provided in kindergartens listed in the register conducted by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS, MŠMT in Czech). Apart from the positive effect on personality, emotional, intellectual, and physical development of children at the age 2 to 6 years, the importance of a preschool education has been declared in numerous international studies including the analysis of PISA15 which confirms that a child’s time spent in preschool education and their success during testing are positively correlated. (Zatloukal et al., 2020)

Even though the number of kindergartens has been on the rise in the Czech Republic, the quantity of rejected applications increased again in the academic year 2019/2020, (Zatloukal et al., 2020) affecting not only children under three years old who do not have the legal right to attend a kindergarten, but also confirming that there are still regions with insufficient kindergarten capacity.

The purpose of this research is to investigate which characteristics of a region affect the excess demand for kindergartens. According to a supply-demand framework, emergence of excess demand for kindergartens might be caused by few kindergartens in general (supply factor) and/or too many young children (demand factor). The supply of places in kindergartens can be affected by the financial situation of a region, low investment into kindergartens, political preferences (establishing new kindergartens is relevant only for a limited group of citizens and might not be a priority for some political parties) or the predominance of the elderly in the region´s population. The demand, represented by the number of applications, is likely to be influenced by high migration into the region possibly caused by an increased number of job opportunities and new housing construction. Furthermore, the wealth of the citizens together with the amount of social security benefits might affect the natality and consequently the number of applications.

The impact of factors such as the regional level of unemployment, average wage, number of infants, number of children of a certain age between 2 to 6 years, fertility rate, natality, population density, political preferences, number of new houses, age structure, the amount of social benefits and the number of alternative facilities on the availability of kindergarten applications will be inspected accordingly.

The availability of kindergartens in Prague, where the deficit is the most conspicuous (Zatloukal et al., 2020), is to be further examined using field research.


Contribution

Even though an extensive analysis of the availability of kindergartens in the Czech Republic has been done (Zykanová & Janhubová, 2020), the existing literature focuses primarily on the description of the situation and not on the factors that might influence it. Therefore, the main contribution of this thesis is an econometric approach to inspecting kindergarten availability in comparing the prominent explanatory variables between districts resulting in a comparative analysis and proposing an effective solution to the problem of kindergarten scarcity.


Methodology

Data from the Czech Statistical Office on the number of kindergartens, their type (administrated by MEYS, regions, cities or municipal districts, private sector, church, or specialized facilities for disabled children) and the number of alternative facilities will be used for the general overview of the current trend in the kindergarten structure of the Czech Republic. For the multiple regression model on the insufficiency of kindergartens, the main data source will be “Rejstřík MŠMT – statistický výkaz S 1-01 o MŠ”, i.e. a register of kindergartens, containing data on the total number of children of the age of interest, the number of children attending kindergartens according to their age and data on the dependent variable (the number of rejected applications divided by the number of all applications). Additional data on the socioeconomic characteristics such as the unemployment rate, average wage, fertility rate and population density will be obtained from the Czech Statistical Office.

Regarding the model, the analysis will be done on district level. When analysing a single cross-section of districts, OLS will be run and when a panel of districts is analysed, panel data methods will be used.


Outline

1. Introduction
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Description of preschool education in the Czech legislation
2.2. Kindergarten
3. Analysis of aggregate data on kindergartens and the current trend
4. Model – availability of kindergartens
4.1. Methodology description
4.2. Empirical analysis
4.2.1. Data description
4.2.2. Variable selection and description
4.2.3. Descriptive analysis
5. Summary and interpretation of results
5.1. Cross-regional comparison
5.2. Graphical representation on the map of the Czech Republic
6. (Depending on time availability: Case study in Prague
6.1. Availability of kindergartens in Prague based on the model
6.2. Description of the questionnaire and the research procedure
6.3. Interpretation)
7. Conclusion
8. List of references