FULFILLMENT RATE OF THE BARCELONA TARGET IN THE FIELD OF PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN FROM 3 YEARS TO THE MANDATORY SCHOOL AGE IN THE SCHOOL YEAR 2020/2021 IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Abstract

The paper aims to quantify the fulfillment rate of the Barcelona target of 2002 in the area of participation of children from 3 years to the mandatory school age in compulsory school attendance in pre-school education in the school year 2020/2021. A key part of the analysis is working with real data on children's participation in preschool education in all types of collective facilities offered. Through the analysis of the obtained and estimated data, it is found that the participation of children older than 3 years in preschool education is high in the Czech Republic and reaches 89.8 % of all children in the given age category. The higher inclusion of children is justified by the positive trend of increasing the number of classes in kindergartens and the extensive challenges of the Operational Program Employment in 2016–2017 supporting the creation of child groups. Reinforced capacities in pre-school facilities are sufficient and are ready for future years, when the population of children in the examined age group will exceed the current size.