All vacancies for preschool educators are closed in Vitebsk, Orsha, and Polotsk

In the new academic year, 145 young specialists will start working in the region's preschool education system, as reported by the education department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. In the regional center, Orsha, and Polotsk, vacancies for preschool educators have been fully filled; however, a certain shortage of such teachers persists in rural areas.

Regarding the provision of places for children, social standards in the sphere of preschool education have been fully met across the region: 100% of five-year-old children are covered by school preparation programs; the provision of places in preschool institutions reached 95% (the norm is 85%).

The increase in the number of places in kindergartens was achieved through the construction of new facilities (6 preschool educational institutions were built between 2009 and 2014; in 2015, the first phase of a nursery-kindergarten-primary school in Novopolotsk for 257 children was commissioned), as well as the repurposing of orphanages in Orsha and Novopolotsk. Additional places for preschoolers in the new academic year will also become available due to the modernization of part of the classroom facilities of state educational institutions "Basic School No. 11 of Polotsk" and "Secondary School No. 2 of Shumilino" to accommodate kindergarten groups.

The department emphasized that three preschool educational institutions, each designed for 200 places, are currently under construction in the region. New facilities are being built in Vitebsk (Bilevo microdistrict), Glubokoye, and Orsha. Design and survey work is underway for the construction of a kindergarten for 200 children in Polotsk (Aeroport No. 3 microdistrict).

In the 2015/2016 academic year, 615 institutions in the region will implement the preschool education curriculum, including 9 child development centers, 5 sanatorium preschool institutions, 4 special preschool educational institutions, and 177 educational-pedagogical complexes "kindergarten-school." In total, more than 48,000 children will attend preschool educational institutions in the region in the new academic year. More than 7,000 educators work in the system.

Alena Tikhonova, BELTA.