Polish kindergartens under the microscope [experts panel]

The Supreme Audit Office wants to check the following aspects in the communes:

• if they comply with the principles of allocating and granting budget funds to kindergartens
• how they settle funds (if in a timely and reliable way)
• how they manage allocation and settlement of funds (what commune authorities do to achieve optimum results - management audit)

In kindergartens the auditors will verify as follows:

• how they use public money
• how they settle funds (if in a timely and reliable way)
• how they perform tasks related to education, upbringing and care
• how teachers discharge their duty to conduct analysis of readiness of 5- and 6-year-olds to start education in primary school
• what fees parents pay
• what educational offer each kindergarten provides.

The audit will be conducted in 21 commune offices and 42 kindergartens (21 public- and 21 private ones) in 7 provinces. NIK will order relevant school superintendents to conduct ad hoc audits in public and private kindergartens in line with Article 12 item 3 of the Act on the Polish Supreme Audit Office. It is essential to verify if the kindergarten directors properly organise preschool departments and correctly implement the core curriculum.

The NIK audit overlaps with the implementation of the government programme Kindergarten for one zloty. The programme had clear objectives: to level off the children’s educational opportunities and not stigmatise them due to their parents’ material status. ”We hear voices, though, that practical consequences of that programme are not always positive” - says Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, the President of NIK. That is why, he wants NIK auditors to have a closer look at the issue. Before the audit, an experts panel was organised during which specialists discussed the methodology proposed by the Supreme Audit Office.

NIK will address the hot topic of preschool educatio

Polish kindergartens

NIK invites superintendents and tax offices to cooperate. The audit will cover seven provinces. In each of them the inspection will start with selected communes. It was the communes that received more than half a billion PLN as part of the programme Kindergarten for one zloty. ”We want to analyse financial issues but also to verify the quality of preschool education” - explains Alicja Szczepaniak, Director of the NIK Branch in Gdańsk. And she adds that the children’s parents who pay taxes for kindergartens deserve this information.

The auditors from Gdańsk were the first ones to start the audit. They are also going to coordinate their colleagues’ activity Poland-wide. The final report will be presented to the public at the beginning of next year.