(CZ) Za další rozvoj předškolní výchovy
(EN) For Further Development of Pre-school Education

Pre-school education is the first stage of the educational system in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Together with the realization of the new conception of the educational system as a whole a new conception of pre-school education is also being realized. It continues to develop everything positive and progressive that has been achieved in this sector of education up to now. It emphasises three principal tendencies — strengthening the ideological orientation of all pre-school education, deepening its comprehensive character by horizontal and vertical link-up, deepening the pedagogical work and the preparation for schooling. The new conception of pre-school education calls for a number of new approaches to the education of the pre-school child, especially in its institutional form. The main changes are enforced by the prospective view of pre-school education results. Stress is laid on the formation of those traits of the child’s personality which are essential for his or her future successful career in the developed socialist society (activity, initiative, creativeness, inquisitiveness, moral attitudes and approaches and a number of others). The Nursery School as the main representative of institutional pre-school education must find new methods of work to achieve this aim. There are also substantial changes in the effects of pre-school institutions on the family education. It is considerably extended, deepened, and much more use and more conscious use is made of the unrepeatable specific features of the pre-school establishments and the pre-school child. There appears a deliberate education for parenthood both in work with children and with their parents. Parenthood is understood as a significant lifelong function. It is also necessary to understand correctly and to make use of the possibilities of the child’s acceleration (based on scientific researches — especially those of psychologists, physiologists and educationists from the USSR). The decisive factor remains the teacher: successful realization of the new conception depends on the teacher’s approach and her abilities to understand it and put it into practice. A part of further development of pre-school education must also be provisions for elaborating the theory of pre-school education, which requires a sufficient institutional base. It must be built up with the support of foreign experience as well as with regard to our possibilities and specific conditions.