Author: Klevis Paloka
" We applied as soon as the call from the Municipality of Tirana opened, to register our child in the nursery, since both I and my husband are working ," begins her story for "SINJALIZO!", Besmira H. The young mother has not found a solution like many other couples in Tirana for whom this procedure causes not only anxiety, but also delays. The whole problem is not caused more by the influx than by not finding ways that would help young families with public nurseries.
During the last two years, almost 17 new residents have been added to the capital and apart from the good news, one of the biggest problems facing the Municipality of Tirana is the crisis of providing solutions to young couples who choose the public service over the private one. that should be as an option. Official data show that every season the queues of parents who aim for the municipal nurseries for their children are long, but the queues of those who turn back and are forced to leave work or look for non-public nurseries are twice as long.
No solution
What is evident is that although the number of residents and young children increases every year by thousands, the increase in daycare facilities is not proportionate and every year the dissatisfaction of families who want to take their children to public daycares grows. This has caused anxiety for many couples, who are forced to find an alternative way for their children. Even though they have applied to the administrative unit and the daycare they have close to where they live, and even though they have both been employed, which is one of the main criteria set by the Municipality, still many families have not managed to register their children in the daycare .
Besmira, aged 28, says that together with her husband they are employed in a shoe factory in the area of the former tractor factory. Although they meet the criteria, the couple received a negative response.
" Although the main condition is that both parents must be employed, and we are even insured with social security, as the Municipality requested, we did not win. When we went to inquire, we were told that the child had not been accepted into the nursery because there was a high number of requests ," says the 28-year-old, who ultimately emphasizes that they were forced to register the child in a private nursery, since she was unable to take a break from work. "Their life in Tirana would become difficult if I quit my job," says the young woman.
In the conditions of anonymity because her husband was working in a state institution, but not in that of the Municipality of Tirana, another young mother explains that she submitted the documents on the first day that applications were opened to the nearest daycare center of her residence. . She was also rejected.
" Like everyone else, we decided to apply for the first time to enroll our child in a public kindergarten. We filled out all the necessary documents and sent them to our administrative unit, even on the first day that applications were opened. We went to inquire at the kindergarten and were only told that your child was not selected, we did not receive any letter from the Municipality of Tirana ," the disappointed mother told "SINJALIZO!", who was also of no use to her, even the other guarantee criteria offered by social security.
The 32-year-old woman says that she was forced to change her work schedule and work the second shift.
" Since my husband could not change his work schedule, I was forced to change my work schedule, working the second shift so that I could take care of my little boy in the morning, while my husband had to take care of him in the afternoon ," the 32-year-old confesses.
Asked why she did not prefer to send her child to a private daycare center, the 32-year-old woman points out that private daycare centers have expensive prices and that they had to pay a loan they had taken out to buy a house.
" We don't want to send our child to a private kindergarten, we decided to make this alternative solution this year, in the hope that next year our application may be accepted in the state ," the young woman concludes her story for "SINJALIZO".
Municipality: Everyone loves us!
The Municipality of Tirana itself confirms the high demands for a place in the nursery school. In its official response, it is stated that only for the 4 days that were open for applications for the admission of children to the nursery, there was a large number of applications.
" During the official application dates for kindergartens, respectively from 07.06.2021-11.06.2021, a total of 5472 applications were made. Of the applications for kindergartens, 1863 applications have passed the registration process. Admissions for the 2021-2022 season were made in accordance with VKB no. 158, dated 26.12.2019 "On the system of local taxes and fees in the city of Tirana" as well as by assessing the socio-economic situation of the applicants and the required criteria. The priority categories were cases that meet the criteria according to the VKB in force, residents of the Administrative Units where the kindergarten is located and applications where both parents were employed ," the official response of the Municipality of Tirana to the ACQJ states.
But how much capacity does the Municipality of Tirana have in its public nurseries, with about 900 thousand inhabitants, to cope with the large influx to accommodate all the city's children?
According to the Municipality of Tirana, there are 36 nurseries in the entire territory of this municipality and they have a capacity of 2995 children.
While only children from the age of 0-4 years registered in the Municipality of Tirana for 2020, there are 45.974 children, so the figures show that the galloping growth of the population in the Municipality of Tirana has found this municipality unprepared with the capacities for nurseries.
Excuses, but no plan…
Invited to a television show , the Director of the Directorate of Kindergartens and Nurseries in the Municipality of Tirana, Zhaneta Beqiri, stated that the registration of children is carried out within the capacities of the Municipality.
"We are registering a number of children that is within our physical capacities and human resources ," said Beqiri.
Contacted by ACQJ, director Beqiri refused to comment on whether there were complaints from families that their application was not accepted.
" For any other information, you must make a request for information to receive answers through official channels," stated Ms. Beqiri.
The only information that the director agreed to give unofficially was that her directorate does not participate in the process that is done by private businesses for setting up nurseries in their businesses. Beqiri said that only BKT has opened a daycare center for its employees and that the control of the Directorate of Kindergartens and Daycare Centers has established that all basic conditions have been met.
Taking into account the fact that thousands of new residents are added to Tirana every year, the Municipality of Tirana has the obligation to intervene in increasing the capacities of public nurseries in order not to face numerous applications and dissatisfaction from its residents. However, the public nursery crisis has not yet been taken seriously.
