The municipality of Ilinden has started a project converting the existing kitchen at the "Goce Delcev" nursery into two new playrooms. Once finished, the nursery will be able to take in 50 more children, with total capacity reaching around 650.

The conversion becomes possible because a new central kitchen is being built in parallel, and its construction is in the final phase. The old kitchen space is then freed up entirely.

The municipality says the construction works include new partition walls and floors, waterproofing, tiling, painting and facade work, new interior and exterior joinery, plus new electrical installations and lighting.

Fifty places, without a new building

This is a rare piece of news from Macedonian preschool care because it requires no new building, no new land and no multi-year procedure. It is a refit of space that already exists.

At the same time it shows the limits of the solution. Fifty places are fifty real places - for fifty families that is the difference between going back to work and staying at home. But nursery waiting lists across the country are measured in the hundreds, not in fifties.

Which is why the figure 650 is worth pausing on. That is how many children will be housed in one nursery. It is the capacity of a small school, in a building that was not originally designed for that many.

Expanding by converting a kitchen is sound household management and works faster than any new investment. But when that becomes the only answer to demand, then every free square metre becomes a playroom - until one day there are no square metres left to convert.