Early Childhood Education and Care

Legal basis

The system for preschool education, as part of the overall education system of the Republic of Macedonia, has the goal of providing care and education to children from the age of 8 months until they enter primary education. Pursuant to Article 54 of the Law on Child Protection from 2013 (LCP), care and education of children at preschool age is a form of child protection, organised for the purpose of care, nutrition, educational, sports and recreational, cultural and entertainment activities, and measures and activities for improvement and preservation of the health and for nurturing and enhancing the intellectual, emotional, physical, mental and social development of the child until the age of 6, i.e. until the compulsory schooling age. Institutional support to early childhood development in the Republic of Macedonia is provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

The LCP regulates the system and organisation of child protection. Pursuant to this Law, care and education of children is organised and provided in public and private institutions for children, namely in kindergartens and in centres for early childhood development (CECD), which can be public (state - founded by the Government, or municipal – founded by the Council of the Municipality) and private. The care and education of children of preschool age, as a form of child protection, can be delivered by legal entities and natural persons. Legal entities can be both public and private institutions, including agencies for taking care of and providing care to children of preschool age, whereas natural persons are individuals who perform certain activities within the area of care and education of children of preschool age. Pursuant to Article 62 of the LCP, foreign legal entities or natural persons with registered offices or place of residence, respectively, in EU and OECD Member countries can establish kindergartens in private ownership under the same conditions as the domestic legal entities and natural persons.

Focus of educational activities

Pursuant to Article 64 of the LCP, children are organised in kindergartens according to their age, namely in single-age groups: up to 12 months (in groups of 6 to 8 children); from 12 to 18 months (groups of 8 to 10 children); from 18 month to 2 years (10 to 12 children); from 2 to 3 years (12 to 15 children); from 3 to 4 years (15 to 18 children); from 4 to 5 years (18 to 20 children); and from 5 to 6 years (20 to 25 children). As an exception, and depending on the age of the children, mixed-age groups can be organised as follows: up to two years of age (10 to 12 children) and from two years until entering primary education (18 to 20 children), as well as combined age groups of children aged 12 months until entering primary education (15 to 20 children), groups of children with special needs (5 to 8 children), and also groups of children from six years of age, i.e. compulsory schooling age to ten (20 to 30 children).

In 2015, there were 32,660 children up to 6 years old enrolled in 60 public and 22 private pre-school institutions, located in 44 municipalities (out of a total of 84 municipalities in the country), in 179 facilities. In addition, groups for care of children in other facilities are established and function administratively under public municipal kindergartens in 10 villages in two municipalities. The gross involvement rate was 16.3% (16.4% for girls) and the net rate was 18.5% (18.7% for girls). Out of them, there were 840 Roma children and only 174 were children with disabilities. 14,035 children (43.0%) belong to the age of 5-6 years which relate to the preparatory year.

In terms of meeting the needs of special groups, the Macedonian Roma Early Childhood Inclusion Report attempts to provide a detailed picture of the respective policies and practices, highlighting the barriers and opportunities for improving the access of Roma children to appropriate high quality services. Furthermore, pursuant to Article 65 of the LCP, kindergarten can organise care and education of children with special needs in line with the type and degree of their mental or physical disability. Inclusion into mainstream groups facilitates adaptation and socialisation of children with special needs, providing easier access to the education process (Inclusive Education as Part of a Child-Friendly Schools Framework, Results and Recommendations from a Study in Macedonia, below).

Principles of early childhood education and care

The development process of the standards for early childhood education and development, for children in the age cohort from 0 to 6 years of age, is conducted by the following principles:

All children in the country, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic and cultural background, and the health and other needs, must be given the opportunity to enter into the educational system of the country;
All children can learn. They deserve high expectations for their achievements in the learning process, and are in compliance with their age and socio-cultural characteristics/traits;
The children learn better through games. In the process of learning, game is accepted as learning instrument;
The environment in which children learn stimulates their curiosity and is in accordance to their physical and emotional needs, in order for them to feel safe;
The development of the learning is utterly conditional from the quality of their teachers who are interested for their continuous professional development and cooperation with the children and their parents;
Respect of the personality and the individual specificities, needs, interests and capacity of every child, including the children with special needs, as well as the children from al socio-economic and ethnic background;
The content of the standards encompass all domains in the development of the children personality, with no credit to any personal domains. The holistic approach in the development of the standards is basis for their preparation, considering the fact that the child perceives the world as a whole;
The mutual action of the family and the community is necessary for stimulating of the development of the early learning process of the children;
All children have potential to achieve the most of the expected standards at certain age, with appropriate support, instruction and stimulation of the development of early learning.

Education Programs

According to the LCP there are five types of programme which are conducted in the kindergartens:

Full-day programme (9 to 11 hours daily)

Half-day programme (4 to 6 hours daily)

Short programmes (260 to 600 hours annually)

Pilot programme

Ex-institutional forms for activities with children

The full-day and half-day programmes are applicable for children up to six years age, and encompass care and teaching of the children. The short programmes are applicable for children in the age cohort 3 to 6 years and encompass care and teaching of the children. The short programmes may be also applied for children who have been absent for a longer period of time due to heath reason or for the purpose of medical treatment. Ex-institutional forms of activities for which may include games, folk dances, creative workshops, cultural and art workshops and sport activities which are applicable for children from 3 to 6 years age and are implemented upon written approval of the Minister of Education and Science substantiated with opinion by the Bureau for Development of Education. The pilot programmes are programmes with special pedagogical principles which are implemented upon written approval of the Minister of Education and Science substantiated with opinion by the Bureau for Development of Education.

Activities in the kindergarten are carried out in the Macedonian language and using the Cyrillic alphabet. For the children of members of other communities, educational activities in kindergartens are carried out in the language of the respective community for the respective group of children. If there is interest, educational provision for a group of children in kindergartens may also be delivered in other languages.