Early Childhood Education and Care in Czech rep. 2014 - 2020

The diploma thesis deals with the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, which is not solely a harmonizing instrument of family policy, but also represents investments in human capital with the highest returns. The aim of the thesis is to find out how the problem of unavailability of these services was managed in the Czech Republic the years in 2014-2020. Market development, fundings resources and legislative measures are analysed. The Czech Republic has approached the average level of EU and other OECD countries in many indicators. The Barcelona target for children older than 3 years was met in 2015-2019. For children under 3 years of age there are currently missing about 20,000 places. A massive increase in public expenditure on pre-primary education by 60% has led to an improvement in the qualitative conditions. The Czech Republic has thus caught up with its deficit in financing pre-primary education at least to the level of the average of developed countries in 2014. Price regulation of tuition fees in municipal kindergartens is set at a very low level. Measures implemented by the amendment to the Education Act No. 178/2016 Coll. did not lead to the fulfilment of conceptual intentions, the administrative burden of kindergartens increased significantly. The long legislative process of amending Act No. 247/2014 Coll. has limited the development of children's groups, however its final form stipulates a stable funding system with a government budget costs of CZK 1.56 billion.