Romania’s President promulgates law that supports kids from poor families to go to kindergarten

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has promulgated the law that promotes poor kids’ right to participate in preschool and kindergarten. At a methodological level, the law is based on a pilot project called Every kid in kindergarten, carried out by OvidiuRo Association in the last five years, according to a statement of the institution. Via this law, 111,000 Romanian kids aged 3 to 5 who come from poor families will receive social vouchers of RON 50 (some EUR 11). However, in order to get these vouchers, the kids have to attend kindergarten every day. The program would have a budgetary impact of RON 39 million (some EUR 8.8 million) per year, according to an estimation of the Labor Ministry. The educational incentive aims to encourage education and to motivate poor families to register and bring their kids to kindergarten. This way, the kids have bigger chances to continue their education and go to school at the right time, have better results, and not drop out of school early. The Chamber of Deputies voted the bill in October with 289 votes in favor, one vote against, and five abstentions. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com