TEXT 1. PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

Preschool establishments constitute the first link in the system of education and upbringing.

Creches, kindergartens and kindergarten-creches (general and specialized), as well as other preschool establishments provide the most favourable conditions for preschool children's upbringing and are of help to the family.

In the USSR preschool establishments are intended for children under seven. Children are divided into age groups: early (1-, 2- and 3-year-olds), junior (3- and 4-year-olds), middle (4- and 5-year-olds), senior (5- and 6-year-olds) and preparatory (6- and 7-year-olds).

Preschool establishments bring up children in close co-operation with the family, protect and build up their health, inculcate in them elementary practical skills and love for work, promote their aesthetic education, prepare them for school, bring them up in a spirit of respect of their elders, love of the socialist Motherland and their native locale¹.

Preschool establishments are directed and staffed, irrespective of their departmental subordination, by the Ministry of Education of the USSR, by the Ministries of Education of Union Republics, and by their local organs.

Medical care and prophylactic measures for children are carried out by health organizations which staff preschool establishments with doctors.

Public preschool education in the USSR meets the interests of both society and the family. It helps women do socially useful work and improve their standard of education.

At the same time, public preschool education has an important role to play as a constituent part of the entire Soviet public education system, being its first stage which ensures the all-round harmonious development of the rising generation.

Special attention has been paid in the last few years to the improvement of the educational process in preschool establishments. The teaching staff of kindergartens is successfully tackling the tasks of the communist upbringing of children.

The development of the child's mental facilities remains the most important task. Soviet experience convincingly proves that preschool children have a tremendous learning capacity. Its timely and planned development is invaluable indeed for the entire subsequent process of upbringing and education.

Moral education of preschool children is of special importance today. Thus, the Programme of Kindergarten Education worked out by the Preschool Education Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences is intended to cultivate in children such qualities as patriotism, the love of and respect for elders, and industriousness. Preschool establishments have been successfully fulfilling this task of late.

Preparing children for school has become systematic and purposeful in the past few years. The number of children going on from kindergartens to school increases from year to year. More and more attention is paid to training teachers for preschool establishments.

Questions

1) What establishments constitute the first link in the system of education and upbringing?

2) Into what age groups are children divided in the USSR preschool establishments?

3) Public preschool education in the USSR meets the interests of both society and the family, doesn't it?

4) Does the development of the child's mental facilities remain the most important task?

5) What education of preschool children is of special importance today?

Note

1. native locale - родной край