Вестник ТГПУ им Л.Н. Толстого №3 2005

№ 3, 2005 ВЕСТНИК ТГПУ им. Л. Н. Толстого 1.1. Forecast For School Education At the start of the 21s' century, the OECD outlined school education in twenty years’ time. Scenarios of the future outlook of the educational system were preceded by economic, social and cultural analyses and analyses of the ways of handing down experience as well as considerations of the internal strong points of the educational establishment of school. The final official report made from these analyses considers their range of applicability in developed countries regarding school education of children from 0 to 18 years of age. The basic notion is “Investing in competencies for all”. It consists of several applicable alternative changes to school based on efforts to create competencies to educate all people. These competencies are construed as a matter of individual endowment, the capacity of every individual to access the possibility of social and educational cultivation. The official report of the Education Secretaries of the OECD countries (2001) has outlined four basic principles of future schools: 1. Focus on human and social capital. The problem of social exclusion is observed closely. In addition to human capital (focusing on performance), social capital is discussed envisaging the development of a person’s capacity to analyze and tackle social situations. 2. Education will be reformed in a context with the basic motto: Knowledge is more than information. Transforming information to capacity having an aspect of quality. Teaching in all situations. 3. Educational policy should tend to create groups of humans, or natural community groupings based on acceptance and amaximum tendency not to exclude others. 4. Emphasis on teaching and learning envisaging innovation, new theory and research. Based on these principles three fundamental scenarios of future school were worked out: A Scenario characterized by continuation of the traditional approach: Firmly centralized and administratively managed educational systems. Broader application of the market educational model. В Scenario characterized by strengthening the functions of school education: School being the location of forging social relationships. School being the organization focusing on management of educational processes. С Scenario characterized by weakening of the functions of school education, which results in the abolishment of schools: Education through out-of-school information network. Disintegration of the educational system due to a recession of the teaching profession. I have mentioned the forecast for school education in a broad sense in order to provide a point of departure to consider where we are and what course we have taken. Which of the scenarios we have started to approach and why. What we have gone through in the last 50 years and what, quite naturally, affects our current endeavor. In my opinion, these general tendencies should be analyzed making forecasts of the future development of school education in this context. The kindergarten is not an isolated institution, as it closely reacts to social, economic and political contexts as well as the needs of the family and grounds of the future focus of school education. Determining the current Czech kindergarten and its course of development is strikingly close to the above four principles of the official report of the OECD Education Secretaries. It is the way of meeting the forecast of scenario B. After 1989, kindergartens had to create transparent work approach open to the family and the public and accept autonomous management and education proper. We had to try to find humanism-oriented approaches to both children and all processes making up the environment of the school. The vision of the future outlook of the kindergarten began to materialize in realistic shape tending to the forecast horizon of scenario B. The social character of its educational function and goal benefit is close both to the needs of children and their families and equal opportunity in