“The compensation of €100 introduced eight years ago made it possible for all children to attend kindergartens. Today, 80% of children go to the city’s first-choice pre-schools, but there are still a significant number of children attending private kindergartens. With the cost of child maintenance rising due to inflation, the time has come to increase the compensation amount,” says Remigijus Šimašius, Mayor of Vilnius, about the important decision.
The compensation is granted if a child and at least one of the parents/guardians have their declared place of residence in the territory of Vilnius municipality. It is paid directly to non-state educational institutions, which undertake to reduce the fee payable by parents in the compensation amount.
Over the eight-year-period, 6 019 parents benefited from the monthly fee compensation in the city’s non-state educational institutions delivering pre-school and pre-primary education programmes in 2019, 6 447 – in 2020, 6 794 – in 2021 and 7 195 – in 2022.
On 1 September 2014, before the €100 compensation scheme took effect, around 3 000 children attended 87 private kindergartens, while now there are 149 private kindergartens in Vilnius, with 6 934 children attending them.
There are 125 kindergartens, 12 kindergarten-schools and 28 pre-school and pre-primary education groups in 28 general education schools. There are 1 488 groups in place, with 279 groups for children of up to 3 years old, 884 groups for 3-to-6-year-old children and 325 pre-school education groups. There are 28 552 children attending pre-school and pre-primary education groups. In 2022, 11 115 children received a place in pre-school education institutions in Vilnius. According to September’s data, there still were 634 vacancies available in kindergartens run by the City.
After the restoration of independence, 10 new pre-school education institutions were built. These are: “Karuselė”, “Gabijėlė”, “Gilužis“, “Vandenis“, “Žilvinėlis“, “Vėrinėlis“, “Vėjelis“, “Pilaitukas“, Vaduvos Kindergarten-School and Santariškės educational institution.
Since 2016, 5 pre-school educational institutions have been established in renovated buildings in Vilnius. These include: “Ąžuolas“, “Gluosnis“, “Žolynas“, “Giliukas“, “Malūnėlis“. Also, 6 modular extensions were built at the “Atžalėlės“, “Gabijėlė“, “Gintarėlis“, “Medynėlis“, “Strazdelis”, and “Vandenis” nurseries – kindergartens.
7 kindergartens were set up having adapted municipal or rented premises. These are: “Pasaka”, “Gilužis”, “Kodėlčiukas”, “Vėjelis”, “Pilaitukas”, “Pumpurėlis”, and “Lazdynėlis”.
Currently, 6 new kindergartens are being designed and built in Pašilaičičiai (Žemynos g. 2C), Pilaitė (Pajautos g. 7 and Tolminkiemio g. 11A), Perkūnkiemus (Bieliūnų g. 5/9), Balsiai (Aušrinės g. 10A), Šnipiškės (Kernavės g. 82) and Jeruzalė (Braškių g.). New institutions will be opened in Pašilaičičiai, Pilaitė and Perkūnkiemis by 2025, with the rest to be built by 2026.
