Only 53% of children in rural areas of the Vitebsk region attend preschool institutions.

August 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. In the Vitebsk region, the coverage of preschool education for children from rural areas needs to be increased to 80% of the total number of young rural residents. This task was set today at the regional pedagogical conference by the head of the education department of the regional executive committee, Ivan Shchurok, BELTA correspondent reports.

In general, the coverage of preschool education for children in the region remains stably high, noted Ivan Shchurok. More than 82% of preschool-aged children attend kindergartens, and preschool education remains accessible to all categories of the population, while five-year-old children are all without exception engaged in school preparation. At the same time, out of 14.5 thousand children living in rural areas, only 53% attend preschool groups.

A pressing problem for the Vitebsk region remains the shortage of places in kindergartens, especially in new housing developments in cities, as well as in areas of point development in large settlements. To solve this issue, it is planned to build new kindergartens for 200 places in Polotsk and Vitebsk, as well as in Novopolotsk, Orsha, and Lepel district.

In the near future, the region's preschool education system faces serious work on organizing retraining and professional development of teachers, of whom only about 14% have higher specialized education. This work will be carried out in close cooperation with Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov. The problem of staff turnover remains relevant; at the beginning of 2011, there were 193 vacancies in the preschool education system, which was 3% of the total number of employees. To solve it, it is necessary to improve the system of material incentives for employees of preschool institutions, organize professional development for medical workers and kitchen staff, and work out the issue of targeted training of young specialists, believes Ivan Shchurok.

In total, there are 660 institutions in the region that provide preschool education. More than 6.8 thousand teachers work in the system.-0-