PARENTS AS PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION SERVICE CO-PRODUCERS IN LITHUANIA

Pre-school education is a particularly suitable area for the clients (parents, of course) to become the co-producers of the service. The evidence from Lithuania’s pre-school education routine proves the service still to be... [ view full abstract ]

Pre-school education is a particularly suitable area for the clients (parents, of course) to become the co-producers of the service. The evidence from Lithuania’s pre-school education routine proves the service still to be under the strong influence of the ‘classic’ bureaucratic public administration conceiving, however, parents as people who ‘only receive this service delivered to them’. The soviet pre-school education was a part of a highly integrated soviet education system. The service served as an integrated tool for the creation of the homo sovieticus while the question of parents’ participation in the co-production was a kind of mission impossible. 26 years of the efforts to break the ice seem to be fruitless while the bulk of the service provision participants (as well as the consumers of the service) still doubts about the value of the co-creation.
Pre-school education in Lithuania belongs to the competency of local self-governments. Klaipeda city municipality is an exceptional case among the total of 60 municipalities where for the first time in history (in 2015) the more than 2200 parents by signing a petition expressed their protest against being neglected in the provision of the service.
This encouraged making a research aimed to evolve the challenges of coproduction for all the participating stakeholders: providers of the pre-school education (namely, local authorities, the managers of the kindergartens, and the teachers) and clients (namely, parents as well as parents’ representing NGO’s).
Purpose: This paper is aimed to find the obstacles for the co-production and value co-creation in the pre-school education and to provide (based on E.Ostrom, J.Alford theories of coproduction) the best solution for the increase of parents’ involvement in the co-production. Based on the experience of the Klaipeda city municipality a model is created that could be applied for the other pre-school education provision in the other municipalities in Lithuania as well as abroad (namely, CEE countries).
Design/methodology/approach: Based on the concept of stakeholder theory multilevel methodology is applied. The stakeholder theory is usefull because it is based on the assumption that a organization does not serve only its founders, but should also address concerns of employees, suppliers and customers and even look at the benefits of other stakeholders. Stakeholders include local communities, political parties, trade unions and trade associations, potential customers, potential employees, governmental bodies, interest groups and others. The data for the analysis were collected using the conception of triangulation and using several sources: (i) quantitative survey of pre-school organization managers; (ii) focus group by interviewing parents, NGO’s representatives and officials from the municipality.
Findings: From the discussion with the focus groups’ members we made a conclusion that citizens’ involvement still is in the embryonic stage while the politicians and local administration revealed to be understanding citizens’ involvement as political participation but not as involvement in the co-production of services.
NGO, contrary, revealed to be willing rather for the participation in the co-creation of service delivery (leaving all the political questions aside).
This contradiction is a big obstacle for the creation of appropriate service co-production.