Short-term groups in rural kindergartens will be promoted in the Vitebsk region

The Vitebsk region plans to increase the number of short-term groups in kindergartens to expand preschool education coverage in rural areas. This was announced today at the final meeting of the board of the education department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee by the head of the department, Dmitry Khoma.

More than 64 thousand children of early and preschool age live in the region. For two years, the percentage of children aged 1 to 6 attending preschool educational institutions has remained consistently high at 74%. All five-year-old children are engaged in preparation for schooling in general secondary education institutions. At the same time, in rural areas, this figure has decreased from 45.1% to 43.8%. And this is not a one-year trend.

"Departments of education, sports and tourism need to find reserves to increase this indicator, including by opening groups with flexible child stay arrangements, allowing parents to bring children for 2-3 hours to already functioning groups. Such forms of preschool education organization are in demand by parents," noted Dmitry Khoma. The region has 194 short-term groups, attended by over 1.7 thousand children. This is the seventh place in the country. The education department sees the reason in insufficient information work with parents to explain the legally established conditions for obtaining preschool education. Therefore, an instruction has been given to hold the "Let's go to kindergarten together" campaign in each district to maximize information for all families with children.

Overall, the state social standard for providing children with places in preschool educational institutions has been met with a surplus, amounting to 98% - 3% higher than last year. In 2017, it is necessary to complete the construction of kindergartens in Vitebsk (Bilevo-2 microdistrict), Orsha, and Glubokoye.

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.