Preschool education accessibility: managerial aspect

Introduction: the research is focused on general factors of preschool education accessibility. These factors are used to assess the preschool education services in Perm and the mechanisms used by the authorities to improve the situation with preschools. Objectives: to estimate the preschool education accessibility in Perm and managerial impact generated by the authorities to improve accessibility. Methods: concepts of social and subsidiary state; document analysis, statistical method, method of comparative “case-study”, expert survey. Results: the factors of preschool education accessibility have been identified, the dominant factor - as viewed by the authorities - being preschool seats provision; other factors, namely, technical, territorial, financial and informational ones being supplementary to quantitative factor. The essential instrument of preschool education accessibility improvement for Perm authorities is the project “Perm Nursery”. It is oriented towards achieving the quantitative indicators - full seats provision in preschools to 2021. Conclusions: the analysis of preschool education in Perm in the context of the formulated factors confirms the limited preschool education accessibility. The quantitative indicator has been achieved in full only for children over three years old; this indicator is less than 6 % for younger children. Achievement of full technical accessibility is complicated by shadow economy and overcrowding in municipal preschools. The problem of territorial accessibility is typical for all parts of the city. From the perspective of financial factor, municipal preschools are accessible enough for an average Perm citizen. However, its alternative - private preschools - are inaccessible for the majority of population. Informational accessibility of preschool education is almost fully realized, but proactive format can be accessible not for all categories of citizens. The managerial authorities impact is primarily intended to improve the quantitative indicators, in other words - spread of municipal preschools network; while other factors are taken into account to a lesser degree.