Nine Years After the Fire, the "8 April" Kindergarten in Šuto Orizari Gets 250 Places - the Staff Still Have to Be Hired

On March 1, 2017, the "8 April" kindergarten in Šuto Orizari was set on fire. Nine years later, it has six new classrooms with room for 250 children. With that, officials say, the municipality will no longer have a waiting list for kindergarten places.

The building meets energy-efficiency and full-accessibility standards, and the playgrounds include inclusive equipment. The embassies of Norway and Switzerland and UNDP took part in the reconstruction and fit-out. The ribbon was cut by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, Minister for Social Policy, Demography and Youth Gjoko Velkovski, Mayor Kurto Duduš and ambassadors Kristin Melsom and Christoph Sommer.

Classrooms yes, staff not yet

There is just one small detail: for the kindergarten to run at full capacity, it needs people. Mickoski announced that the government will "as soon as possible" approve hiring qualified staff, so that, as he put it, "everything that has been invested and built will be put into operation". In other words, the 250 places exist on paper and in concrete - the teachers are still to be found.

"I am truly overjoyed that this building is getting its essence, its true purpose. And that is to be a home for the little ones," the prime minister said.

From 4,500 to zero - "it depends on the pace"

Mickoski also repeated the bigger goal: "If the number was 4,500 at the start of this government's term, the goal is that by the end of this government's term we have zero children on the waiting list." He added that it might be achieved even sooner, "but everything depends on the pace of construction". Minister Velkovski announced 16 new preschool facilities for Skopje, with a total capacity of more than 2,100 children.

The good news is that 250 children in Šuto Orizari are getting a place. The less good news is that it took almost a decade, support from two European countries and UNDP to get there. If one burned-down kindergarten takes nine years to come back, how realistic is it that waiting lists across the whole country hit zero by the end of this term?