Researchers have determined what determines the choice of Lithuanians when choosing a kindergarten: what came last surprised the researchers

The education of children is a very important factor that is taken care of not only by parents, but also by educational institutions. Today, preschool institutions provide not only care, but also protection and educational services.
As parents invest more and more in their children’s education, their views on the quality of preschools are increasingly important, according to the press release. It can also be useful for public authorities to improve service delivery in the public sector.

The survey presented in the study was conducted just before the start of the new school year, at the end of the summer. During the groundbreaking study, 133 respondents were interviewed, 98 percent. they consisted of women. Parents were able to express their opinion not only by specifically evaluating the importance of the criteria presented, but also by visually comparing their responses.

The survey revealed that, when looking for the most suitable kindergarten, parents pay attention to a wide range of aspects: distance from kindergarten to home, preschool opening hours, safety and cleanliness of interior and lacquered facilities, feedback of parents, teachers, children, vacancies in preferred age groups, staff competence, communication, modernity or cost of training methods.

“During the investigation it was established that the distance from kindergarten to home, the qualification and ability of the employees to work with the children, the safety and cleanliness of the yard are the most important factors that determine the decision of the parents to choose a preschool institution, “says VILNIUS TECH researcher Dr. I. Leščauskienė.

Interestingly, factors such as the modernity of teaching methods and the quality of toys and equipment that have been widely discussed in public have come last in terms of importance. Tolerance of different cultures has proven to be an even less important factor for parents in deciding which preschools should be included in the priority selection list for kindergartens.

According to dr. I. Leščauskienė, online surveys are a very popular tool to find out public opinion on various life issues. This data collection tool is used in both scientific and sociological research. However, it is often overlooked that the structure of a survey or even the appearance of individual questions can have a significant impact on its results.

“When we asked them to evaluate which criteria are most important when looking for a kindergarten for their child, parents, without thinking, marked almost every point as equally important. This was to be expected because research has shown that when asked about the importance of criteria, people tend to view everything more positively than negatively. This reduces the variety of responses. And only small differences, barely perceptible to the naked eye, make it clear that some aspects that describe the quality of kindergartens are even more important to parents than others, ”says Dr. I. Leščauskienė.

The new VASMA weighting method presented by VILNIUS TECH researchers I. Leščauskienė, R. Baušis, EKZavadskas and B. Juodagalvienė offers an innovative way to reduce the number of errors in decision making by taking into account the psychometric properties of the data of the survey and using entropy and multicriteria methods.