Comenius Foundation for Child Development
[[Image:Comenius-logo-eng.gif|205px|frame|right|
Foundation's English logo
]] The Comenius Foundation for Child Development, or Comenius Foundation for short (Polish: Fundacja Rozwoju Dzieci im. Komeńskiego, or Fundacja Komeńskiego), is a children's welfare non-governmental organisation based in Warsaw, Poland, established in September 2003. The Foundation's goal is to provide equal educational opportunities to children aged 3-5 years, particularly in rural areas of high unemployment, in response to a dramatic decline in preschool education services in Poland. In the 1999-2000 school year, only 32% of children aged 3-5 attended pre-school, whereas in rural areas the figure was only 14%. By contrast, the preschool attendance figures for children aged 3-5 were 100% in Hungary, 91% in the Czech Republic and 76% in Slovakia.
The Foundation organises and conducts training for teachers, school and kindergarten headmasters, teachers and local educational authorities.
The Foundation's "Where There Are No Pre-schools" programme aims at helping rural communities to develop new models for early-childhood education, based on local financial resources. A pilot scheme was set up in eleven selected rural communities, where 23 Early Childhood Education Centres have been set up. Educational activities are provided by teachers trained by the Comenius Foundation to use the project approach in the classroom. The local authorities cover the costs of the teachers' salaries and the premises, whereas the Foundation is responsible for financing the teacher training, monitoring the quality of teaching and setting up local libraries. An external evaluation of the programme, commissioned by the Foundation, will enable modification while the programme is being implemented.
References
External links
- Comenius kindergartens
- Information about the "Where There Are No Preschools" programme from Bernard van Leer Foundation
See also
- John Amos Comenius, the Foundation's patron
- Pre-school playgroup