Table 2. Number of pre-school departments 1970, by principals school system, such activities are part of the general preventive care provided for children and young people. The pre-school is thus an integrated part of the community's social service system. At the local level, the Child Welfare Committees or Social Services Committees are ultimately responsible for both pre-schools and free-time centres. As a rule, the same municipal committees also manage activities in practice. In principle, anyone can set up pre-schools and obtain state grants and loans, provided that the Child Welfare Committee approves the loan application if the applicant is other than a local authority. By the terms of the Order on Institutions for Child Care — which include preschools and free-time centres the County Administration (länsstyrelsen) is the regional inspecting authority, and the National Board of Health and Welfare (socialstyrelsen) the central inspecting authority for all child care institutions in Sweden. Exceptions are the pre-schools at boarding-schools for the blind and deaf and the orthopedically handicapped children, and those for mentally retarded children; the latter are incorporated in the compulsory basic comprehensive for these children. The supreme authority for all pre-school activities is the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (socialdepartementet), under the Minister of Health and Social Affairs and Minister for Family Welfare Matters. However, close collaboration takes place at all levels with representatives of the educational authorities, from the Ministry and Board of Education, which are responsible for the training of pre-school teachers at the 16 institutions existing for this purpose, to the local Education Committees, which are locally responsible for secondary schooling (gymnasieskolan); the latter incorporates the training of children's nurses on a two-year nursing line. The pre-school caters to children between the ages of 6 months and 7 years. Internationally speaking, compulsory schooling in Sweden thus commences rather late. This has been due, among other things, to our previous social structure as an agrarian community, whose climate — with long, often severe winters — sometimes made it difficult for children to travel long distances to school. However, a possibility of starting school at the age of 6 has been offered to children found in a special school readiness test» to be sufficiently mature, both physically and mentally, to attend the compulsory nine-year comprehensive. Very few children have actually utilized this opportunity. The central inspecting authority, the National Board of Health and Welfare, publishes advice and instructions» on how local government and other authorities responsible for pre-school activities can best arrange pre-schools and free-time cen tres. As regards staff, the Board recommends for the full-day pre-school a head teacher plus two pre-school teachers for each department. In calculations, one staff member is allowed for every five children (excluding catering staff). If a department for infants is included, the figure is one staff member for every four children. Fewer children per staff member are admitted to departments for those with special requirements. When there is a shortage of pre-school teachers, their places can be filled — with due consideration to the children's age — by children's nurses. -- In a part-day pre-school, there should be one pre-school teacher to every 40 5—6year-olds (divided into a morning and afternoon group), and one to every 30 younger children (4-5-year-olds). In the full-day pre-schools, about half those employed in 1970 for pedagogic and nursing duties (including the head teachers) were trained pre-school teachers. By now, the shortage of such teachers can be assumed to have increased. According to the latest estimates, some 600 posts for pre-school teachers were held in 1972 by children's nurses. Costs and financing of pre-school activities Teaching is provided free in Sweden to children from the time they start the compulsory nine-year comprehensive at the age of 7, the costs being met jointly by central and local government. Pre-school facilities, on the other hand, are voluntary and subject to a charge. In some districts the nursery school for 6-year-olds is free, but a charge is usually exacted from the parents also for this. The usual term fee for a nursery school is SKr 100-125. The charge for use of a day nursery varies according to the parents' income, the number of children in the family, and the number of days per week the child spends there. In 1972, the fee varied between SKr 1 and 34 per day. On average, parents pay SKr 7 per day for a child to attend pre-school. This average is obtained by reason of the priority accorded by local authorities to the children of unsupported parents, and parents with small incomes. The costs of building a day nursery vary at present between SKr 12,000 and SKr 20,000 per place. In new areas, the costs of the outside environment in traditionally designed institutions are between SKr 17 and 30 per sq.m. (about 11 sq.ft.). Mean operating costs per child and year in a full-day pre-school are about SKr 14,000. The figure for part-day facilities is SKr 2,000 per child and year, and for freetime centres SKr 7,800 per child and year. The state is responsible for the following costs; otherwise the financial responsibility rests with the local authorities. An initial state grant of SKr 6,000 per place, plus a loan of SKr 4,000 per place, is made unless the facility in question is built with a state housing loan, in which case only the initial grant is provided. The grant and loan are not made in respect of premises provided exclusively for a part-day pre-school. However, grants for part-day facilities can be sought from the State Inheritance Fund, which can also provide grants for the equipment of both full-day and part-day facilities, and free-time centres, to a maximum of 50 % of costs. Initial grants are approved and paid by the National Board of Health and Welfare. Loans are approved by the Board and paid by the National Office for Administrative Rationalization and Economy. The state operating grant for a child centre is SKr 5,000 per place and year for the supervision of children below school age, and SKr 2,500 per place and year for those of school age, i.e. at free-time centres (as from 1 July 1973). The institution must be open for at least five hours per day. It is assumed that the centre is under the management of properly qualified personnel, that it is housed in suitable premises equipped with a view e.g. to the children's need for rest and sleep, and that the children should receive the requisite number of meals, including cooked meals. The Board of Health and Welfare establishes the number of places per department for which an operating grant shall be made, in the light of the centre's available space, and the children's age. Operating grants are approved and paid by the Board. No follow-up is made to check compliance with the Board's requirements and recommendations. 1 SKr (Swedish Krona) US $0.22 or £0.09 (approx.). In total, the state answers for approximately 35% of the costs of pre-school activities, the local authorities for approximately 50 %, and the parents for the rest. Previous and current discussion on the pre-school Problems posed in the Thirties From the time the first major state commission was appointed in 1935 until the Seventies, the pre-school has been the constant subject of both inquiries and intensive discussion. Even the 1935 Population Commission made such a complete inventory of the problems relating to pre-school activities in Sweden as to provide a firm foundation for the subsequent work of all other state commissions in this sector. However, no immediate action was taken on its proposals owing to the outbreak of World War II. The most interesting difference between the earlier and current approaches is in the attitude to the children's need for pedagogic activities. The Population Commission stressed that its only starting-point is the children's needs, stating that the only pedagogically warranted facility is short-time care for children from the age of 3. Such care should therefore comprise the nucleus of the pre-school system. Around this nucleus, the Commission subsequently expanded activities to cater also to other needs on the part of children and their parents. On the basis of these distinctions, the Commission quite logically suggested that it was primarily the pedagogically motivated half-day system that deserved financial support from the state. Such pedagogically motivated care was characterized as »a period of three or four hours a day spent there by children over the age of 2—3». Children of these ages needed some complement to their home environment, regardless of the nature of that environment. Full-day care, on the other hand, could not be regarded in this positive manner. The Commission was therefore unwilling to propose any special state grant for such care as was provided over and above the pedagogically motivated half-day system. It also questioned whether it was right financially to support the institutional care of the youngest infants, which was not considered to offer any educational gains. One can thus observe very clearly the dualism that existed in the evaluation of different pedagogic activities: they were contrasted with each other, and day nurseries were reluctantly accepted as a necessary solution, to meet needs other than those of the children. The 1968 Commission on Child Centres has not drawn any such distinctions or contrasts. It has stressed, instead, the total responsibility of the pre-school to meet the needs of both children and parents, by a system in which care and education are indissolubly combined. In Sweden today, we believe the best economic support for a family with children to be an opportunity for both parents to take gainful employment, and that the community's childminding services in the form of pre-schools must be rapidly expanded. The economic motive for the pre-school is so intertwined in the parents' and children's other needs (social, emotional, intellectual etc.), that it cannot be abstracted in the manner attempted by the Population Commission, when it gave priority in its report to the nursery school. On the contrary, says the Commission on Child Centres, one must consider the children's and parents' total life situation, and the role played in it by the pre-school. Commissions during the Forties The question of pre-schools was considered once more by the 1941 Population Commission. The task of this Commission was to consider certain proposals made by the 1935 Population Commission, to see what could be practically realized. It was decided to retain the earlier Commission's terminology, i.e. day nursery and nursery school for the pre-school facilities, and free-time centre for centres catering to schoolchildren. After considering the pedagogic and social aspects, general family policy, and the labour market factors etc. involved, the 1941 Commission proposed that these institutions be supported by state grants. A contributory factor was that women were needed in production owing to the labour market situation that had arisen from the war and conscription. With this, the public sector had begun to take pre-schools seriously. To stimulate local authorities to expand their pre-school facilities, the Government introduced state grants for such activities as from 1 January 1944. In principle, the grants made for half-day and full-day activities were identical. They were linked with the training of staff, and comprised a contribution to the salaries of pre-school teachers with two years' training behind them. Those institutions that lacked trained staff thus failed to qualify. This system paved the way for parity between all local authority pre-school facilities in respect of pedagogic quality. Further conditions for receiving these state grants were that premises must be of a certain minimum standard, and that activities should be subject to an approved set of regulations. The National Board of Health and Welfare, as the inspecting authori ty, was to have approved a schedule for activities stating among other things the maximum and minimum number of children attending, number of staff attracting the state grant, and any charges made for care of the children. An aspect of the Population Commission's report in 1944 particularly worth noting is that it presented for the first time a plan providing fairly far-reaching dwelling services, with precisely the pre-school as an integrated function in the resi dential area. It was proposed that pre-school premises should be designed as far as |