In the presence of the leadership of the City of Smederevo and many local residents and parents, the “Veverica” kindergarten in Drugovac was officially opened today.
From Monday 2 September, around a hundred children will attend full-day care there, divided into four groups.
The building has 400 square metres of space and has been built and equipped to all standards. It contains playrooms for the children, a dining room, a serving kitchen, a staff office, an isolation room, utility rooms and sanitary facilities. In front of the kindergarten building there is also a spacious play yard with a gazebo.
“Since I became Mayor of Smederevo, this is by far the most wonderful day for me. This is the first kindergarten building we are opening this year. Although the building was completed earlier, we had to solve a water problem at this kindergarten, and now, to the satisfaction of us all, especially the parents and the children, it is finally ready to open its doors.
There is nothing more beautiful than when children start kindergarten or school, when they start to make friends with children of their own age. The youngest must be included in preschool education, so that they can socialise and prepare for further schooling.
Among the most important priorities of the local government in Smederevo are projects to expand capacity and improve conditions for children in the preschool institution, as well as to reduce the waiting list for enrolment, through which we want to help parents. There are currently 390 children waiting for a place at the preschool institution in the territory of the City of Smederevo, 140 of them of nursery age and 250 of kindergarten age.
Last year, at the beginning of December, we opened a new kindergarten in Radinac with capacity for 350 children. Very soon, in the next ten days or so, we will open the kindergarten in Skobalj, which has been completed and will be attended by around 40 children.
To our satisfaction, we have received funding from the Ministry of Education for the kindergarten in Kolari, and we are glad to be extending kindergarten capacity to rural local communities as well, because in this way we can keep young people living in the villages, with all the conditions enjoyed by those who live in the city.
My task as Mayor in the coming period is to provide new places for all children, so that there are no waiting lists for kindergarten enrolment in Smederevo.
Work on this is already well under way, and I hope that we will very soon be able to inform all our citizens about these new facilities,” the Mayor of Smederevo, Jasmina Vojinović, said, among other things, at the ceremony marking the opening of the “Veverica” kindergarten in Drugovac. On that occasion she wished the teachers and other staff of the new kindergarten in Drugovac every success in their work, and the children a pleasant time there and a happy childhood.
