We were asked to look into the matter by a Reader. In an email to the editorial office, she wrote: “Yesterday [18 May – editor’s note], a list was posted of the children who had been accepted for the next school year. One huge absurdity. The facility is accepting fewer than twenty children for the entire city. In recent times, that many children used to be born every week.” She added: “What are we, all of us young parents, supposed to do with our children? Salaries are such that few people can afford for the mother to stay at home with the child. Few can afford a nanny either.”

– I believe there is no problem with recruitment to the nursery in our city – counters Krystyna Boratyńska, head of the Social Affairs Department of the Municipal Office. – Municipal Public Preschool No. 5 has two nursery groups. It happened that they were not even filled. Besides, there is quite a high turnover at the nursery. A child can be admitted at any time.

Sometimes parents withdraw their child from the nursery because the child has difficulty adapting to the new environment. At times, a child is removed from the facility’s list of pupils because the parents stop paying the tuition fee.

– Children who were not accepted were automatically placed on the waiting list – says Irena Łuczak, director of MPP No. 5. More than 40 children are waiting for a place at the Bolesławiec nursery. – Ten to fifteen children will certainly get into the nursery from the waiting list – Krystyna Boratyńska reassures.

Will there be a second nursery?

“Is it really such a terrible problem to open another nursery?” the Reader asks in her email. – We cannot build a nursery for 20–30 children. Such a facility would cost the municipality PLN 9–10 million – says Boratyńska. – The city is obliged to provide preschool education. In some municipalities, there is no nursery at all.

The problem may be partly addressed by a private preschool that is soon to open. Its founder is considering setting up nursery groups. Until then, parents will have to be patient.

(information ii)