2024-03-15 10:43:00
Fewer and fewer children are enrolled in kindergarten classrooms. From Unter Bariloche they assure that the registration fell 40% since the start of the pandemic. The decline continues year following year.
“There is a Rio Negro and national reality that is linked to the drop in the birth rate. Between 2014 and 2021, the number of children born decreased by 32%,” said Melisa Rodríguez, Secretary of the Initial Level of Unter Bariloche.
He attributed the drop in birth rates to several social factors, such as the implementation of the Comprehensive Sexual Education (ESI) law in schools, access to contraceptives, the decrease in unwanted pregnancies and the law on voluntary termination of pregnancy.
“All this makes people decide not to have children. But at the same time, there is a strong impact of the increase in bus fares. A child of 3, 4 or 5 years old does not pay, but needs to travel with an adult who does pay. For now, it is 30 thousand pesos per month although the Mi Bus company intends to increase the ticket to 1,300 pesos,” said Rodríguez. He warned that, then, a family with more than one child “prioritize taking those who are in primary school” and not the one in the garden, even though the 4 and 5 year old rooms are mandatory.
Río Negro only has two nursery schools that receive children from 45 days to 5 years old, with dining room service, in Roca and Viedma. In the rest of the establishments, children stay only three and a half hours in kindergartens. “This is not enough, it does not cover a work shift. So it does not respond to the real need of families to go out to work. So, it happens that many children stay with their grandmother, with their aunt. We have been seeing this reality since last year.”said Rodríguez.
Given this situation, the Unter leaders held meetings with the three initial level supervisors from Bariloche. It was agreed to carry out a territorial survey, together with the management teams, and a pre-registration for children from 3 years old.
“We know that many gardens are worked with multi-ages; That is to say, they mix 3, 4 and 5 year olds. We have an exquisite curriculum in the province that allows us to address multi-age. We must take advantage of the vacancies of these children who are not there,” she assessed.
“The garden,” he added, “is the first contact with others, with other views. It is the first step in building society. In these times where everything is so mixed up, it is important to build shared parenting networks.”
The representatives of the teaching union also held a meeting with the provincial director of Initial Level, Analía Jofré, who promised not to close teaching positions considering that “it is a moment.”
In contrast to the drop in enrollment in kindergartens, educational authorities register a strong migration from private to public schools that is reflected in an increase in vacancies at the primary level.
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