Vilnius is celebrating one more victory: this year all children of Vilnius aged 3-7 will be accepted to kindergartens!

The kindergartens of Vilnius now will accommodate even more children! This autumn all little residents of Vilnius aged 3-7 will be accepted to public kindergartens of the capital, as many as 5,611 of them. 4,842 children have already been invited to the kindergartens, and 769 will be invited additionally by 1 September.

The growing numbers of children admitted to kindergartens and the other accomplishments are encouraging: while at the beginning of the term of office Vilnius lacked as many as 7,000 places in kindergartens, more than 3,500 new places were created in the course of the past two years, another 1,000 places are in the process of opening while most effectively using the kindergarten premises. Furthermore, plans have been approved to build 12 modular extensions to the existing kindergartens, and start the construction of five new municipality kindergartens. The 12 extensions will create another 1,440 places for the little residents of Vilnius.

The following new municipality kindergartens were opened during the first two years of the current administration term: Ąžuolas, Gluosnis, a new division at Kodėlčiukas, a new group in a nursery-kindergarten Lazdynėlis, and Žolynas, a kindergarten established in the former children care home. Today, about 700 children attend the new kindergartens of the capital.
Starting with this September, a compensation of 100 euros per month will be allocated to all parents to help those hiring babysitters, or taking care of the children at home. Early in autumn about 1,000 families are expected to apply for a 100 euros monthly compensation for child care expenses.

While in 2014, 1,950 children of 3-7 years of age were admitted to the capital kindergartens, respectively, 2,372 children in 2015, 4,498 children in 2016, and as many as 4,842 in 2017. This consistently and rapidly growing number of children admitted to the kindergartens shows that the four-steps programme proved to work well, and the pre-school education development strategy chosen for the term of office is successful. The key objective of the City of Vilnius is to ensure that by the end of the term of office there are no children in the capital still on the waiting lists to the kindergartens, and for that purpose the administration has engaged a broad set of new solutions.

The City of Vilnius is promoting creation of new places in Vilnius kindergartens simultaneously in several directions: by refurbishing the existing kindergartens, leasing the public land for private kindergartens by way of public competition, planning to build readily assembled modular kindergartens as extensions of the operational municipality kindergartens, and promoting the development of private kindergartens by its 100 euros programme. While of 1 September 2014, before the effective date of the new order, 87 private institutions were attended by about 3,000 children, last autumn in excess of 5,600 children were attending 120 private kindergartens. The four-step programme is already bearing fruit, and supports an expectation that in some three the city will provide sufficient number of place for all willing to attend kindergartens.

Most vacancies currently are in the kindergarten groups for children aged 3-5, and 4-7, operating in kindergarten and school premises. Vacancies for children aged 3-5 and 4-7 are currently available in kindergarten groups in Lithuanian, also Polish and Russian languages. Vacancies in educational institutions are currently available in all districts of the city: Antakalnis, Fabijoniškės, Grigiškės, Justiniškės, Karoliniškės, Lazdynai, Naujamiestis, Naujininkai, Naujojoji Vilnia, Paneriai, Pašilaičiai, Rasos, Senamiestis, Šeškinė, Šnipiškės, Vilkpėdė, Viršuliškės, Žirmūnai and Žvėrynas. The list of vacancies to kindergartens is public.

When registering children to kindergarten it is important to foresee all the possible risks, compute and responsibly select the institution; the application should also indicate the institution currently having vacancies. We recommend to check whether the published additional admission places are still available, at tel. 8 5 211 2757 and 8 5 211 2407, or by email: darzeliai@vilnius.lt, and check the availability in the system.