Anna Afanasjeva started researching the principles of queuing after her child, born in the summer of 2017, was left without a place in the municipal garden “Strautiņš” this year. However, in the later months of the same year, they were born and also registered later at the place. Comparing the data, the woman has concluded that she is not the only one in the garden who has gone secen and the line can be bypassed.
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“It’s very simple. An education specialist in our region – it’s a garden manager, not an education specialist, because she arranges its ranks.
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It simply means the criteria for that line, not as it is written in the binding regulations, but, for example, it is written in the council minutes: to admit 17 children who are not three years old by 1 September.
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Well, it can’t, “the woman explained in the show.
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Thus, notwithstanding the electronic queue and setting subjective criteria, the list of children to be admitted can be adjusted as needed. This increased the number of youngest children admitted, but the parents were able to admit less, even though they are in the queue. For example, 56 children younger than Anna have been admitted this year.
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The woman also stated that the municipality had not assessed and answered her questions on the merits. The correspondence with the municipality, which started in July, shows that some of the questions were indeed ignored, but in the autumn, when asked by the council chairman what his action plan was for investigating the admission of children to kindergarten, the deputy chairman
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“ascertaining the factual circumstances of the case regarding the admission of children to an FICI institution in 2020 is an internal procedure of the work of the municipality, for which individuals do not have the subjective right to request an explanation from the municipality”.
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However, this is the first letter in which, at the same time, the municipality itself clearly acknowledged that 17 children were admitted to the institution without following the procedure set by the council. Subsequent explanations allow concluding that the City Council was also aware of this already in July, when due to complaints from parents of unaccompanied children, it was decided to compensate it with additional admission of 20 children in the bypassed age group.
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However, this did not succeed, as 14 children were admitted to the respective age group, and on November 24, the City Council Executive Director initiated disciplinary proceedings against two officials – the head of the institution Sandra Breidak and the City Council education specialist Inārs Briedis.
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The insufficient number of children admitted is explained by the fact that it was mandatory to offer places to five- and six-year-olds who had appeared in the register at that time. In order to accommodate more children, the entire available area was used to the maximum, but more to accommodate the entire promised number from the initially circumvented age group, although there is no space.
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The Ombudsman’s Office has also concluded that the admission of children to the Ādaži pre-school educational institution “Strautiņš” is not clear and transparent, where they have observed that the answers provided by local governments and institutions to different addressees regarding the number and distribution of enrolled children are different.
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In addition, the Ombudsman concludes from the information provided by the kindergarten that 23 children have been circumvented, instead of 17. Laila Grāvere, Head of the Children’s Rights Division of the Ombudsman’s Office, points out that the examination of the application has not been completed yet, but taking into account the violation of good governance, recommendations will be provided to the pre-school educational institution, about which Ādaži District Council will be informed.
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