News

For the first four months of the academic year 2016/2017 Centre Amalipe has paid fees for kindergarten of 186 children from disadvantaged families. The total amount was 16,015 lev, for the period from September to December 2016. The payment of monthly subscription fees and food for children from disadvantaged families, is in the framework of the project "Ready for School" which is implemented by Centre "Amalipe" with the financial support of the Trust for social achievement and "America for Bulgaria" Foundation. Project activities will continue until the end of the school year - June 2017.

The project aims not only to cover fees for kindergarten, but to launch a broad public discussion about the effectiveness of investment in early childhood education as a means to overcome persistent poverty, and to pay attention to challenges in providing access to early childhood education for the poorest citizens of Bulgaria.

Early education of children from poor communities has long-term impact not only on educational outcomes but also on their quality of life. Yet the majority of children from disadvantaged communities remain outside the scope of kindergartens. The main reasons for this are financial difficulties of families, lack of physical access and low motivation of parents.

Besides covering the monthly fees for kindergarten, the project is working with parents of children towards changing their attitudes and motivation. Children are provided textbooks and pay for medical examinations. The support they receive within the project ensure the successful coverage of children in the field of early childhood education and their subsequent pass at an early stage of schooling.

Amalipe implement the project by September 2014. Evidence of the benefits of investing in early childhood education is the fact that already a total of 187 children from Veliko Tarnovo were enrolled in classrooms thanks to the support and the most important is that children are prepared for school.

Arguments in favor of increased investment in early childhood education:

-Biological argument: in an early stage of development child acquires biological patterns and behaviors that can be easily reversed at a later stage. These are the skills of social and cognitive sphere. Ability to communicate with peers, develop their vocabulary to recognize words and others.

-Social Argument: early intervention to smooth differences is among the most effective in reducing disparities in early childhood education and development. The differences in vocabulary at an early age with time aggravate and influence success in school, and later on successful realization of the labor market.

-Economic Argument: higher returns on earlier investments. Good care in infancy and early childhood education leads not only to increased cognitive skills, but also to better socio-emotional literacy. This in turn has resulted in better motivation for visiting and success in school, better social status of the child as an adult, and lower costs to society / in terms of social and health costs.