The Municipality of Tetovo will pay 100 euros, or 6,150 denars, to every child enrolling in first grade this year. The decision was made at a session of the municipal council, and the vouchers will be handed out in early July. The registration deadline is June 20.

The idea is clear and, at first glance, hard to argue against: the start of the school year costs money - notebooks, supplies, a bag, clothes - and for many families that's a hit precisely when the budget is thinnest. The support, the municipality stressed, is meant to ease the start for the youngest and their parents.

Still, it's worth asking what the announcements usually leave out. A hundred euros per child is welcome help, but is it a solution or a gesture? The real cost of kitting out one first-grader easily exceeds that money, and a one-off payment changes nothing in the system that creates those costs. When politicians hand out money before the school year begins, it's always worth asking - is this care for the children, or care for the impression?

This doesn't mean the measure is bad - it means it should be seen with open eyes. Six thousand denars will help, that's a fact. But real support for education isn't measured in one-off vouchers handed out with cameras rolling, but in what happens in the classroom every day from September to June. One is easy to celebrate. The other is hard, quiet work that rarely makes it into a press release.