ザンビア都市インフォーマル居住区における就学前教育の展開と格差

―低学費私立幼稚園の台頭に着目して―

抄録

This study investigates the emergence of Low-fee Private School (LFPS) at the level of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECCE) in an urban informal settlement of Lusaka, Zambia. Importantly, the study places an emphasis on the extent to which LFP preschools contribute to the poor children's access to ECCE, and its implications for the quality of the education and care that are available to them.

The field data was collected through the mixed-methods study of LFP institutions offering ECCE in an urban informal settlement of over 100,000 people called Mtendere in Lusaka. The study reveals the massive growth of LFP preschools and day care centers in the study area over the last 15 years, accounting for over 90% of all the ECCE centers in the area. The rise of LFP preschools is mainly driven by the parents' high demand for early English education and pre-mathematics to equip their children with “academic readiness” before entering primary. In addition, the critical absence of government provision of ECCE―there is only one public preschool in the entire areaalso contributes to the growth of LFP preschools. In such a situation, it is undeniable that LFP preschools contribute to the increased access of urban poor children to ECCE who would not have had the opportunity without such schools.

The field data suggests that the households predominantly prefer LFP preschools over the government counterpart, mainly because of their perception that the former offers better quality education than the latter. However, fees and various indirect costs charged by LFP preschools often prevent the poorest and the most vulnerable households from sending their children to their preferred choice or continuing to send their children to any LFP preschool at all. The study also reveals that there were very few disabled children enrolled in LFP preschools. Moreover, education offers at LFP preschools are highly academic oriented with predominantly English instruction, in contrast to the new curriculum which is play- and local language-based that are being practiced at the government preschool. Thus, the study argues that the premise of LFPS that the market competition can improve school quality is also questionable.