The concept groups the association’s tasks into three blocks: financing mechanisms, standards and workforce, and international integration.
Financing. Amending the methodology for funding preschool education through the public-private partnership mechanism. Where public funding falls short, developing off-budget market instruments — specialised trust and savings funds, cooperatives — jointly with state bodies, banks, investment companies and international development institutions. Developing standards for the use of voucher funding with the SRO involved. And beginning work on a tax-relief mechanism for enterprises that build or reconstruct preschools, or fund services on a charitable basis.
Standards and workforce. Developing professional competency standards for preschool teachers, including soft skills — communication, inclusion, work with parents — and delivering professional certification and in-service training through the SRO. Developing staffing-schedule standards for the various forms of preschool organisation. Introducing a system of accreditation standards for buildings and premises. Introducing national standards for inclusive education. And creating a national registry of preschool organisations and teaching staff, together with a rating system.
International integration. Concluding memoranda with foreign and international self-regulatory organisations, and securing international mobility for teaching staff — including inclusive-education tutors — through joint accreditation, attestation and certification procedures. Developing and introducing education standards jointly with bodies in OECD member countries, which opens the way to exporting intellectual property in standards and teaching methods through franchising. And introducing a system of continuity between preschool and primary education.
The length of the list should not mislead. Most of these tasks depend on one another: without a standard there can be no accreditation, without accreditation a rating is meaningless, and without a rating it is hard to tie a voucher to quality. The concept therefore proposes a sequence, not a set of separate measures.
