News

On June 1 - The International Children's Day, the Ombudsman of the Republic launched a campaign for no fees in kindergartens. Maya Manolova announced her decision to launch such a campaign at the end of last year at the annual meeting of students and teachers participating in the "Every student will be a winner" project initiated Amalipe Center and reaffirmed it during the National Conference "State of Roma Education Integration "held on May 14th.

The main arguments for the initiative are the financial barriers that hinder the attendance of children from the poorest families in the kindergarten: the money that parents pay for food and the various "hidden" costs - repairs, household bills, additional activities, consumables. Only in 12 municipalities across the country the kindergarten is free of charge. According to data from non-governmental organizations, the average monthly amount for a child attending kindergarten is  27,50 BGN. Around 30 million levs will cost to the state if all kindergarten fees across the country drop. Gancho Iliev from "World Without Borders" and Evgenia Volen from the Trust for Social Alchievement Foundation presented research, held by a coalition of organizations showing the overall picture of attendance in kindergartens, coverage of all children, tax collection, social status and the economic benefits to the state after dropping fees.

"We are starting a campaign against charges in kindergartens. Although there is a legal text stating that pre-school education is compulsory, especially for 5 and 6-year-olds and therefore free of charge, there are many municipal councils in Bulgaria that have introduced fees. Monthly fees are an obstacle for many Bulgarian children to attend kindergartens. The NO Fees Kindergartens Campaign has one main purpose - equal access to education for all children, because it is no secret that some of the kids do not attend kindergartens, because the parents cannot afford the fee. The goal is not to put pressure on Bulgarian government, but to find ways to solve the problem", said Manolova.

The official data show that currently 4,200 children are not covered in nurseries and kindergartens, and according to Maya Manolova, their parents have to be supported somehow.

The Ombudsman presented the legislative proposal to remove the requirement for parents to pay for food when their children are in groups under compulsory pre-school education and this should be a commitment of the state budget.

AMALIPE Center strongly supports the Ombudsman's initiative to remove the kindergarten fees for chiildren at compulsory pre - school age! An analysis of the organization "How Free is Free Early Childhood Education?" since October 2017 highlighted the problem that most municipalities did not even reduce kindergarten fees for Group 3 and 4(for children aged 5 and 6), although their state budget is with 25 or 30 levs more per month than the money provided to younger children. This is mentioned as one of the important obstacles (but not the only one!) to the full coverage in pre-school age and in the Civic Report on the Implementation of the National Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria for Roma Integration. The dropping of fees was discussed at the National Conference State of Roma Educational Integration, organized by Center Amalipe on May 14th. At the conference the Ombudsman made a commitment to initiate a campaign, and swift compliance with this commitment should be welcomed!