Fifty million people! In ten years that will be the population of Ukraine. At least that is what Viktor Yanukovych promised during his election campaign. Last year, 530,000 Ukrainians were born — 35 percent more than in 2001. The country is doing its “duty.” However, growing families also result in problems. Every year it is more difficult to find a place in a kindergarten. The Verkhovna Rada recently passed a law which made preschool attendance from the age of 5 years obligatory, and an 11-year school education was introduced. But it is unknown where the additional kindergarten places will come from. If today only around half of the children are attending kindergartens, and there is no place for some 100,000, what will the situation be like when all the children will have to attend?
The little citizens of cities like Kyiv are hit the hardest. Here the quantity of kids is twice as high as in other places. Moreover, the parents receive such “comforts” only by signing up one or even two years earlier. The Ministry of Education and Science assured that the quantity of new kindergartens is increasing, but also that it is very difficult to re-acquire previously used buildings, where other organizations, very often the commercial ones, took root. Building new kindergartens requires time and money… While the officials are looking for a solution in comfortable cabinets, the future of Ukraine is cramped and alone.
DOUBLING GROUPS
Today there are over 15,500 kindergartens in Ukraine. Whether this is too much or too little depends on a whole number of children. At present there are 1,214,000 children. According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, there are 108 kids for 100 places in preschools. This may seem as an exaggeration, but one should remember that it is aggregated data for the entire country.
The citizens of larger cities are feeling the shortage sharper — there are situations when two kids share one bed, wardrobe or table. The most overcrowded kindergartens are in the Lviv, Volyn, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Sumy and Transcarpathian regions. Despite the fact that the quantity of kids is larger in the cities (971,000) than in the villages (only 242,000), there are almost 9,000 buildings for kindergartens in the villages, while the cities trail at 6,700.
The kids that live in Kyiv’s new micro-districts suffer the most. For example, one of the kindergartens, Zerniatko, in Alma-Atynska street in Dniprovsky raion, is surrounded by high-rises. Zerniatko is the only kindergarten built in 2005. It is strange that while designing a large new district the architects did not plan any buildings for preschools. Unsurprisingly, Zerniatko is overcrowded — there are currently 260 kids for 140 planned places. Groups of 15 have been doubled to 30.
“Since the very opening we always had overcrowded groups. This situation will continue in the following years as parents constantly queue up with two- and three-month old babies in order to have a chance to attend the kindergarten several years later,” Natalia, the director of the kindergarten, comments.
Though the birth rate is breaking records in the capital, the mayor’s office is not in a hurry to find buildings for educating little citizens. Today the birth rate is almost twice as high as it was in 1999. According to the Education and Science Head Administration of Kyiv, in 1999 over 18,000 babies were born in the capital, while in 2008 the quantity of the babies reached 32,000.
Instead, the quantity of preschools is falling. During the decade the quantity of the kindergartens decreased by over 200. The result is that 70 percent of the kindergartens in Kyiv suffer from overcrowding. A quarter of Kyiv’s 566 kindergartens has 130 kids for 100 places. In four districts of the capital admission norms are exceeded. For 100 places in Pechersk district there are 137 kids, in Darnytsky there are 111, in Podilsky – 108, and in Shevchenkivsky – 104.
EASIER TO CLOSE THAN TO OPEN
The reason behind the building shortage can be found in the 1990s. A sharp drop in the birth rate caused preschool buildings to close or pass on to other organizations. Since then in Kyiv, for example, 112 potential kindergartens have not being working. A total of 73 communal kindergartens of the capital are preschools, lyceums and shelters. In most of them people are no being treated, tax and private companies are counting money, the private lawyers are providing counsel and different public organizations are solving their issues. And the justice system “stayed silent,” as using the premises otherwise than by appointment is illegal. Returning the buildings to the children is impossible, as there is real money coming to the city budget from all these organizations. Surely that is more important to officials than someone’s kids.
Another problem is leasing. The premises of a third of Kyiv’s kindergartens are rented by entrepreneurs. The same is happening throughout Ukraine (nine percent), and there are 594 premises of preschools that are partially rented. Almost every tenth kindergarten in Ukraine is not used for its original purpose.
The rented areas can be used only for education or training. Usually choreography, English language and logic classes are held there. It is now common for parents to pay 500-700 hryvnias a month for language courses or choreography classes. But foreign language studies are provided by the base program of the preschool-age child development program “Me in the world,” claimed the head specialist of the Ministry of Education and Science Nina Kurochka.
“English teachers are not provided by the kindergarten staff list that was approved back in 1971. That is why this burden falls on the parents’ pockets. It is unknown when the next staff list will be approved,” the ministry comments.
HOW TO ADJUST THE PREMISES FOR KINDERGARTENS
The renewal of the premises for the education of Ukrainian kids started in 2004. Last year 119 preschool establishments were restored. Aside from that, the educators turn to different “inventions,” and in recent years they restored not only old kindergarten buildings but started adjusting the buildings fit for educating children. A total of 105 reconstructed kindergartens were opened last year. The children from Zhytomyr region are best taken care of. During the last two years 72 kindergartens were opened there; in Lviv region there were 67, in Rivne region there were 42, and in Kyiv region – 39. It is more difficult with the new buildings. During last year 11 new kindergarten premises were built: three in Odesa region, two in Chernivtsi region, and one each in Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhia and Zhytomyr regions. In what concerns Kyiv, building new kindergartens started only in 2005. Only seven new premises were built in the entire megapolis: one each in the Dniprovsky and Desniansky districts, two in Obolon, and three in Darnytsky district. This is practically unnoticeable for a large city. Actually in 2000 ten private kindergartens were opened in Kyiv. A child’s stay there costs 2,000 hryvnias per month for the parents.
Nowadays there are 422,000 five-year-old kids in Ukraine. They need not only care to receive the elementary knowledge and prepare for school but also good conditions, or at least a space in preschool establishments. It is a matter of honor and conscience for a family to bring up worthy children. How about for the country?
