PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

education during the earliest phases of childhood, beginning in infancy and ending upon entry into primary school at about five, six, or seven years of age (the age varying from country to country). The institutional arrangements for preschool education vary widely around the world, as do the names applied to the institutions. The terms usually given to centres for the care of infants-those in the first phase of childhood (about three months to three years of age)-are infant school, day care, day nursery, and crche-the term crche being used not only in French-speaking countries but also in such places as Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, and Israel. For the second phase of early childhood, other institutional names and arrangements exist, the most common being the "maternal school" (cole maternelle), or nursery school, and the kindergarten. Typically, the maternal school (for ages three to four or five) precedes kindergarten (for ages four or five to six), but in some countries-Italy, for instance-a child goes from the maternal directly to the primary school. In Germany, in addition to the Kindergarten, there is the Schulkindergarten (school kindergarten), which is for children of school age who are not considered sufficiently mature and which therefore serves as a kind of preparatory school for primary school. In the United States, kindergarten is considered a part of primary education.