All Chisinau children of preschool age have places at kindergarten, Education Division officials

The fear that their children will remain out of kindergarten makes the parents file applications beforehand, even one year before the kids reach the age at which they can attend the preschool. Thus, the high demand is created artificially, Florica Rusu, the head of the Preschool Education Service of the Chisinau General Division of Education, Youth and Sport, has told Info-Prim Neo. “In Chisinau, all the children of preschool age have places at the kindergarten,” Florica Rusu said. A number of 147 kindergartens will open on September 1. Thirty of them are temporarily on vacation. Another two kindergartens are under extensive repair. One of them, located on Maria Dragan St, could be open before the New Year. The parents express dissatisfaction when they ask for a place at a certain kindergarten, but are offered a place at another kindergarten. “We cannot always provide places at the kindergartens where the applicants want. For instance, in Botanica district we have many large kindergartens, while in Buiucani – fewer. We offer the parents places in Botanica, but they refuse and wait for a place to become vacant at the kindergarten they want,” Florica Rusu said. According to the head of the General Division of Education, Youth and Sport Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb, half of the kindergartens are in need of extensive repair. As there is not enough money, the repair is cosmetic and only the roofs and defective pipes are changed. Despite difficulties, 33 crèche groups for children older than one year and a half will be reopened this year. “Such groups worked several years ago. Changes should be made to the normative documents so that we could offer the mothers that want to work a place in nurseries for children younger than 3,” Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb said. About 5,000 lei is allocated yearly from the budget for maintaining a child in kindergartens, including 9.50 lei a day for food. The parents pay another 4.5 lei for such purposes. The monthly payment is 80-130 lei. The parents’ committees subsidize the kindergartens, offering 2-3 lei more for the food for a child. In the kindergartens that are in demand, the groups are composed of 35-40 children, while in the other kindergartens – of 20-25 children. The average salary of an educator is 1,000-2,000 lei, depending on the length of service and the number of children in groups.