Debrecen4U May 29, 2025

Kindergarten care is provided for all children in Debrecen

No child will be left without kindergarten care, and no employee will lose their job as a result of the Municipality of Debrecen’s decision to close two kindergartens.

As of August 1, 2025, the Jerikó Street kindergarten (a member of the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten) will be closed due to a significant decrease in the number of children.

The city assembly will decide on this at its meeting on May 29, 2025. Both the care of the affected children and the further employment of the employees have been resolved in the municipal institutional system.

The municipality operates 33 kindergartens in the city, which are located in a total of 48 locations, providing care for approximately 5,600 children in the 2024/2025 academic year.

The municipality continuously monitors the professional activities and staff numbers of the kindergartens. The increase in the number of kindergarten places at the city level and the change in the internal structure of the city resulted in a significant decrease in the number of children in some municipally maintained kindergartens.

During the general meeting of the municipality on February 27, 2025, it was already established that the number of children attending the Sziget-kék institution (a member of the Ifjúság Street Kindergarten at 64 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street) and the Jerikó Street institution (a member of the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten at 17 Jerikó Street) had dropped significantly. Therefore, the intention was already expressed at the meeting that, due to low occupancy rates, the municipality will close these two institutions by August 31, 2025, and will make a decision on the reorganisation of Ifjúság Street Kindergarten and Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten by the last working day of May 2025 at the latest.

After this, it was no longer possible to admit new children to any of the aforementioned member institutions. The children who applied were redirected to other municipal kindergartens indicated by the parents on the application form, thus ensuring kindergarten education for all newly applying children.

Mayor László Papp personally met with the employees and representatives of the parent communities of the two affected member institutions on March 6 and March 12, 2025. Parents who are already in a legal relationship with the member institutions stated in writing which other municipal or other maintained kindergartens they wish to take their child to for compulsory kindergarten care from the 2025/2026 school year.

The termination of the Sziget-kék kindergarten will not take place from the 2025/2026 school year. Kindergarten care will continue in the building, following a phased-out system, with one group less starting in the 2025/2026 school year.

Parents of children attending the Jerikó Street kindergarten have individually chosen different kindergartens for their children. Therefore, the local government will close the Jerikó Street kindergarten on August 1, 2025. After that, the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten will only operate at 2 Sinay Miklós Street.

The 17 kindergarten workers involved in the Sziget-kék and Jerikó Street kindergartens were informed in March 2025 that their further employment would be within the local government institutional system, if possible. The continued employment of all affected employees has been resolved within the local government institutional system, meaning that no one will lose their job due to the reorganisation.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu