Prague, June 30 (CTK) – Girls under 18 in Tachov, west Bohemia, and Bruntal, north Moravia, have most frequently children, these are the results of a map of socially disadvantaged children drafted by Czech experts, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.
The map shows that in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, the number of socially disadvantaged children is twice higher than the national average, MfD writes.
A similar situation is in the Ostrava region, north Moravia, it adds.
In the town of Ostrava, over 6 percent of all children are born to mothers with elementary education as the fourth and further children, MfD writes.
After Ostrava, the biggest number of such children are in Usti and Labem and Brno, it adds.
In the Czech Republic, there are roughly 6,300 municipalities, while in 4,000 of them, there is no kindergarten, MfD writes.
Out of the total 118,000 children aged five years, kindergartens are attended by roughly 100,000, it adds.
When it comes to the disadvantaged families, the biggest number of their children aged three to five years attend kindergartens in Pisek, south Bohemia, Pribram, central Bohemia, and Uhersky Brod and Uherske Hradiste, south Moravia, MfD writes.
Experts have calculated that out of the 18,000 children who do not attend kindergartens, only 1,500 are from socially disadvantaged families, it adds.
They are of the view that it would be bad to impose compulsory attendance of kindergartens on all just due to them, MfD writes, commenting on the proposal by former Education Minister Marcel Chladek (Social Democrats, CSSD) that all five-year children should compulsorily attend kindergartens.
In socially disadvantaged families, it is even a problem to make the parents send their children to regular schools. The novelty would uselessly burden the rest of the families, it adds.
Besides, there are roughly 8,000 children in the Czech Republic whose parents want to provide care to their children at pre-school age at home and according to their own ideas, MfD writes.
In addition, experts say that a single year will not settle the handicap from which socially disadvantaged children suffer.
“Such children should attend a school starting with the age of three. Ideally, there should be a work with the families even earlier,” teaching expert Jana Kropackova is quoted as saying.
“The children should be taught to live in a collective and to respect the rules and authorities,” she added.
Experts say children of the parents with only elementary education are consideded disadvantaged.
“The indicator highlights numerous poor communities in large towns,” demographer Daniel Hule is quoted as saying.
