How should education be financed: Views of principals, teachers and parents

The aim of this study is to examine the school principals', teachers' and parents' views about how pre-primary education institutions are financed, which financial problems existing in pre-school education institutions, solutions and solution offers to financial problems, the extent to which students can access quality education in relation to the socio-economic status of the family and the effect of the pandemic on the education process. The research was conducted in qualitative research design, phenomenological research design and document analysis were used. The sample of this research consists of 5 pre-primary school principals, 5 teachers and 5 parents who are on duty in Aydın Efeler District in the 2019-2020 academic year. In this research maximum variation sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used as the purposive sampling techniques. Due to the pandemic, online interviews were conducted with the participant group through a semi-structured interview form. Content analysis techniques were used to analyze the data of the study. In the research, it was concluded that pre-school education institutions could not receive enough support from the public, there were problems in cleaning, auxiliary personnel and stationery items, the dues were collected to solve these problems, but the dues were insufficient to meet the expenses due to irregular payments, and the socio-economic status of the families affected the education process. In addition, non-payment of dues due to students not attending school during the pandemic period, and the inability to organize events such as kermis and tea parties negatively affected the school finances, while the collapse of the economy of the families had a negative impact on the expenditures made on the students. The development of bad habits such as technology and screen addiction in students during the pandemic period is among the findings of the research. In schools, the equalization of quality standards and regular payment of fees are among the recommendations. KEY WORDS: Pre Primary Education, The Effects of Covid 19 Pandemic on Education, (In)Equality in Education, Education Funding Issues