Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?

In Bulgaria, school is now compulsory for children aged five and six-years-old (known as preschool for children in this age group) and the government offers full-day and half-day programs. Full-day programs, which are preferred by most families, ch...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Brief
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	EDUCATION FOR ALL PRESCHOOL EDUCATION EDUCATION FINANCE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/282221522221407555/Bulgaria-Does-making-early-education-free-benefit-disadvantaged-children http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29596

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spelling	okr-10986-295962021-05-25T10:54:36Z Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children? World Bank EDUCATION FOR ALL PRESCHOOL EDUCATION EDUCATION FINANCE In Bulgaria, school is now compulsory for children aged five and six-years-old (known as preschool for children in this age group) and the government offers full-day and half-day programs. Full-day programs, which are preferred by most families, charge about 176 Bulgarian lev a year. Half-day programs are free, but families are often asked to contribute monthly to cover transportation, food and school supplies. Because the number of full-day slots is limited, families that want to ensure availability enroll their children in schools’ preschool programs at age three or four, which guarantees them a kindergarten slot when they’re older. But school at this age isn’t free. Thus, poor families in Bulgaria may be less likely to take advantage of early education programs when their children are younger, making it harder for them to find full-day slots when their children are ready to start at age five. A 2011 European Union regional studylooking at the situation of Roma populations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic found that while more than 75 percent of children aged three to six years old were in a preschool program, about 55 percent of Roma children weren’t. The Bulgarian-based Trust for Social Achievement, a local non-governmental organization created by the America for Bulgaria Foundation to fund programs for economically disadvantaged people, including Roma, worked with SIEF-supported researchers to design and evaluate strategies for increasing early childhood education participation among the poorest families in Bulgaria. 2018-04-02T20:44:34Z 2018-04-02T20:44:34Z 2018-03 Brief http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/282221522221407555/Bulgaria-Does-making-early-education-free-benefit-disadvantaged-children http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29596 English From Evidence to Policy; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Brief Europe and Central Asia Bulgaria
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	EDUCATION FOR ALL PRESCHOOL EDUCATION EDUCATION FINANCE
spellingShingle	EDUCATION FOR ALL PRESCHOOL EDUCATION EDUCATION FINANCE World Bank Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Bulgaria
relation	From Evidence to Policy;
description	In Bulgaria, school is now compulsory for children aged five and six-years-old (known as preschool for children in this age group) and the government offers full-day and half-day programs. Full-day programs, which are preferred by most families, charge about 176 Bulgarian lev a year. Half-day programs are free, but families are often asked to contribute monthly to cover transportation, food and school supplies. Because the number of full-day slots is limited, families that want to ensure availability enroll their children in schools’ preschool programs at age three or four, which guarantees them a kindergarten slot when they’re older. But school at this age isn’t free. Thus, poor families in Bulgaria may be less likely to take advantage of early education programs when their children are younger, making it harder for them to find full-day slots when their children are ready to start at age five. A 2011 European Union regional studylooking at the situation of Roma populations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic found that while more than 75 percent of children aged three to six years old were in a preschool program, about 55 percent of Roma children weren’t. The Bulgarian-based Trust for Social Achievement, a local non-governmental organization created by the America for Bulgaria Foundation to fund programs for economically disadvantaged people, including Roma, worked with SIEF-supported researchers to design and evaluate strategies for increasing early childhood education participation among the poorest families in Bulgaria.
format	Brief
author	World Bank
author_facet	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
title_short	Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
title_full	Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
title_fullStr	Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
title_full_unstemmed	Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?
title_sort	bulgaria : does making early education free benefit disadvantaged children?
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/282221522221407555/Bulgaria-Does-making-early-education-free-benefit-disadvantaged-children http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29596
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Bulgaria : Does Making Early Education Free Benefit Disadvantaged Children?

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