Handbook of new standards coming for kindergartens and nurseries
To ensure up-to-par good quality in early childhood care and education at 53,335 kindergartens and nurseries nationwide, the Education Council is now in process of printing a handbook for distribution.
The booklet will detail the “National Standard for Early Childhood Care, Development and Education in Thailand” that was approved on January 2 by the Cabinet.
The council deputy secretary-general Wattanaporn Ra-ngubtook said the agency would also soon organise a meeting of related agencies, including the Office of Basic Education Commission and the Department of Local Administration to ensure they are on the same page about implementing the standards.
The agencies are responsible for supervising kindergartens and nurseries.
Wattanaporn said the government saw it as important to promote consistent and high-quality development of new learners before they are passed on to the national education system.
The new standard was thus proposed by the Ministry of Education for the Cabinet’s approval.
The new standard would help assess the quality of development at kindergartens and daycare nurseries, and ensure appropriate care and education management for individual children aged 0-6 before they enter Prathom 1 classes, she said.
The new standard comprises three aspects – the standard for pre-school administrations, the standard for teachers/caretakers to provide learning experiences and development-boosting play for toddlers, and the quality standard for preschoolers.
The latter is also further divided into two age groups – one for those aged 0-2 years and the other for those aged 3-6 years. These age groups were in the key turning point of life and so must be closely and consistently taken care of in line with the early childhood development stated in the 20-year National Strategy (2018-2037), she said.
