The Attitudes of Parents towards the Introduction of Compulsory Pre-School Education in Slovakia

Introduction: This empirical study discusses the issue of compulsory pre-school education in the Slovak Republic from the viewpoint of the parents of children attending nursery school. The goal of the research is to establish the attitudes of presents to compulsory education a year before the child begins school. The research therefore works with two key concepts, this being the obligation of educating children before they begin primary school and “attitude” as a relatively stable assessment of the object to which it applies. Methods: A rating scale questionnaire of our own design was used to collect data. It was administered through a web interface. A five-level scale was used to apply a Likert scale and statements were classified into five dimensions. The research tool had 36 items following validation. The available sample was used to create the research sample. Data was collected in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia; the sample of parents from Slovakia consisted of 162 respondents. Each of the respondents had to have at least one child of pre-school age. When processing the research data the basic statistical characteristics were used, along with a non-parametric Friedman test. Calculations were executed in STATISTICA and SPSS software. Results: The surveyed parents attributed the appropriate importance to compulsory education a year before children begin primary school, they did not believe that implementation of this obligation would have any significant impact on the family’s life and appreciated its importance for their child’s subsequent education. They rated potential interference in the organisation and assurance of pre-school education, related to the newly originating obligation, as suitable and appropriate. They disagreed slightly with the academic focus of pre-school education. Discussion: The consensual opinion of the surveyed parents in regard to implementation of the obligation to educate children a year before they start primary school seems a good basis for realisation of this legislative amendment. In their attitudes, the parents incline towards the fact that compulsory education before starting primary school could help their children start their subsequent educational career, or could enable a smoother transition between the two levels of education. The structure of the research sample focused more on middle-class parents. Parents, due to whom this obligation was chiefly implemented, were not surveyed. It can be assumed that the situation will be similar in relation to attendance of nursery school. Limitations: The main limiting element in the presented research is the available sample of respondents for the research sample. Likewise, validation of the questionnaire, which passed through all the necessary phases, but ran up against the obstacle of the available time and personal availability of researchers and respondents during one phase. Conclusion: The results can be considered positive and no strongly disagreeing standpoints by middle class parents towards compulsory education at nursery school were registered. It would be very useful for further research to survey parents who are not mainstream and children who appear disadvantaged when starting nursery school, chiefly due to the attitude of these parents.