Expanding the access to and improving of the quality of preschool services

This component aims to improve access to quality services for early childhood development, with special emphasis on children at social risk of material insecurity, children with special needs and children from Roma families. Activities to improve preschool education services (for children aged 3 to 6) focus on increasing access to quality and energy-efficient preschools and providing the best opportunities for age-appropriate learning, while supporting the transition process to primary education. The activities will focus on encouraging parents and families to support the holistic development of children. This will be done through education about the exceptional importance of early childhood development (in the period up to 6 years of age).
Municipalities will be awarded grants for the construction of new kindergartens/centers for early childhood development, expansion of existing facilities of kindergartens and centers for early childhood development or conversion of existing facilities into institutions for children or groups in other spatial conditions. A new approach to the spatial conditions has been adopted, i.e. new standards and norms have been established for the kindergartens, so that the space in which the children stay should be arranged according to their needs for movement and encouragement of learning through play.

Activities to increase the quality of services in care and education institutions, through the improvement of curricula, staff training and more will also be implemented within this component.

Here you can access the documents related to Component 2.