QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE

Abstract

The best interest of the child requires a high quality of care and upbringing and socialization, and education from the earliest childhood. It`s provision depends both on the effective activity of specialists and their professional qualities, interaction with families and active cooperation between various interested parties. It is determined by the changed focus of education, which is aimed at the individual interests, characteristics and specific needs of children. This emphasis necessitates the development of flexible strategies, differentiation and individualization, which will create an opportunity for learning and development and lead to the achievement of the
full development of children's potential. Early childhood education and care has been a European and national policy for the last few years, which includes access to quality services for all families and their children, social inclusion of the diversity of children with different ethnic origins, gender, beliefs, values, qualified staff, to ensure the quality of services and environment and resources necessary for early childhood education and care. The article touches on the issues related to the need for a unified policy for the development of children from 0 to 6 years, the degree of importance of monitoring the quality of educational services in preschool groups and care in early childhood, which should be carried out by educators and medical and social workers. Analyzes the attitude of
pedagogical specialists and assistant educators in kindergartens, as part of the non-pedagogical staff, to the assessment of quality in early childhood care. It tracks which public sectors are most important to the quality of early childhood education and care. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among principals, teachers and assistant educators in kindergartens from the regions of Pernik, Plovdiv, Sofia-city and Sofia-region. An anonymous survey was used as the research method, distributed to the respondents using the capabilities of Google Docs. The conclusions that follow from the study show the interdependence of the interaction between the three sectors - education and quality of educational services, social activities and medical services. Despite the importance of the quality of care, education, upbringing, socialization and inclusion of children from the earliest childhood defined by the respondents, the assessment of the quality of services is still not a fully realized necessity. The research is an opportunity to develop policies and models for researching the upbringing and learning of children from birth and the first years of their life, and to discuss the importance of evaluating the services provided to perceive and better understand the mechanisms of placing quality and quantitative assessments as a way to develop further measures to improve the quality of early childhood education and care.