"In our opinion, the compensation model is outdated”, commented the Deputy Mayor for Education, Sports and Youth Activities at the Sofia Municipality Desislava Zhelyazkova on NOVA NEWS. She explained that the Municipality has already sent its proposals for reforms to the Ministry of Education. The idea is to transform the compensations into electronic vouchers, through which the maintenance will follow each child.
After the first ranking in Sofia, about 8,000 children remain without a place in a nursery or kindergarten. It is expected that by September, after the third ranking, this number will decrease to about 7,000, with over 5,000 of them being children of nursery age. However, the Municipality reports that there is almost no problem with places for children over 4 years old. Free places in the districts of residence are always offered, but parents often refuse them because they want a specific kindergarten.
"It is time for compensation not to compensate for the fact that the child was not accepted, but to be in the form of an electronic voucher with which the parent can pay in a municipal kindergarten or part of the fee elsewhere”, commented Zhelyazkova. She added that in this way the funds from the state will be the same or even less, since the construction and maintenance of new infrastructure is a much more expensive activity.
The most serious shortage of places for 3-year-old children (first group) is reported in three districts - “Triaditsa”, “Vitosha” and “Lozenets”. While the first two are actively building, “Lozenets” lacks municipal land. To address the problem, the Municipality has focused on public-private partnerships and is proposing changes to the regulations of the Ministry of Health.
Another major challenge facing the system is the critical shortage of medical personnel. “We are short of 230 nurses in the currently built kindergartens”, explained the deputy mayor. She specified that half of the nurses working in the nurseries are over 62 years old, and another 100 are over 70 years old. This necessitates the ongoing transformation of nursery groups into kindergartens.