Abstract:
Pre-school children mean children from new born babies to 5-year olds. An
appropriate pre-school childhood is essential for physical growth and every aspect of
development. The care of such children therefore must be appropriate to result in quality
adults. In 2004, over 776,064 pre-school children were cared for in healthy child care
centers supervised by many agencies. This qualitative research was conducted to analyze
the successful factors of healthy child care centers and their evolution in Angthong
Province. The studied populations included 36 healthy child care centers certified for their
standards in the excellent level for the fiscal year of 2006. All populations were the
sample group. The data was collected by interviewing a total of 216 executives and
directors of those healthy child care centers, municipal clerks, Tambon Administrative
Organization clerks, the heads of Education Bureaus, educational scholars, children
carers, related officers, community leaders, teachers, and parents. The actual operation of
those healthy child care centers was also observed, and their information and documents
were reviewed. The results showed that the successful factors of healthy child care
centers included the recognition of executives, level of education of children carers,
written clear working systems, no problems of materials, strong, serious and regular
actions, roles, duties and working procedure of district-level public health entities,
cooperation and support of communities, cooperation and support of teachers in primary
schools, and the cooperation and support of parents. The factors not involving in the
success of healthy child care centers included the supervising entities information
arrangement and press releases. Regarding the evolution, it was found that starting fully
prepared, and with leaders with vision and recognition, and planning would result in the
quick success of healthy child care centers. It is suggested that there should be integration
and cooperation between related groups and entities involved with the operation of
healthy child care centers, especially the Local Administration, Ministry of Interior,
Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Public Health. It is also suggested that research
regarding efficient operation of healthy child care centers should be conducted to develop
a child care center model in accordance with the Tenth National Health Development
Plan.