No child will be left without kindergarten care, and no staff member will lose their job as a result of the City of Debrecen’s decision to close the Jerikó Street Branch of the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten due to a significant drop in the number of enrolled children. The city council made this decision at its meeting held on May 29, 2025. According to the city leadership, both the continued care of the affected children and the future employment of the staff are ensured within the municipal institutional system.
The municipality maintains 33 kindergartens in the city, operating across 48 locations, and is responsible for the education and care of approximately 5,600 children in the 2024/2025 school year. The municipality continuously monitors the professional activities and enrollment numbers of these institutions. An increase in available kindergarten places citywide, coupled with changes in the city’s internal structure, has led to a significant decline in child enrollment in some municipally maintained kindergartens.
During the city council’s budget discussion on February 27, 2025, it was already noted that the number of children attending the Sziget-kék Branch of the Ifjúság Street Kindergarten (64 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street) and the Jerikó Street Branch of the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten (17 Jerikó Street) had dropped considerably. Consequently, at that session, the council expressed its intention to cease operations of these branches by August 31, 2025, due to low occupancy rates, and to make a final decision on the reorganization of the Ifjúság Street and Sinay Miklós Street Kindergartens by the last working day of May 2025.
As a result, no new children could be admitted to either branch. Children who applied were redirected to other municipal kindergartens indicated by their parents on the application form, ensuring that all new applicants received kindergarten placement.
Mayor László Papp held personal consultations with representatives of the staff and parent communities of the two affected branches on March 6 and 12, 2025. Parents of children already enrolled at the branches submitted written declarations stating which other municipal or non-municipal kindergarten would fulfill their child’s compulsory kindergarten education from the 2025/2026 school year.
The Sziget-kék Branch of the Ifjúság Street Kindergarten will not be closed in the 2025/2026 school year. Kindergarten education will continue there in a phase-out manner, but with one fewer class group.
At the Jerikó Street Branch of the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten, parents designated various kindergartens for their children on an individual basis. As a result, the municipality will close the branch as of August 1, 2025. From then on, the Sinay Miklós Street Kindergarten will only operate at 2 Sinay Miklós Street.
The 17 staff members affected at the Sziget-kék and Jerikó Street branches were informed as early as March 2025 that efforts would be made to continue their employment within the municipal system. The continued employment of all affected staff has been resolved within the municipal institutional network—meaning that no one will lose their job as a result of the reorganization.
(Debreceni Nap)
Picture: illustration.
