According to Lina, nursery children have not been getting places in kindergartens for years. Although the Kaunas district municipality provides compensations, there are also no free places in surrounding private kindergartens.
“There are no nurseries in Ringaudai, there is one in Akademija – ‘Ąžuolėlis’, and in Noreikiškės – ‘Smalsutis’. As far as I have heard, both nurseries accept only a few children each year, at most – 10.
In February 2025, I registered my daughter in both mentioned nurseries, in one we were almost 300th in line, in the other about 200th. Imagine how many years we will have to wait until we get a place. Logically thinking, we won’t get it before school,” Lina explained the problem.
Kindergarten – 20 km away
Finally, Lina’s 1.5-year-old daughter got a place in a nursery near the Kaunas shopping center “Molas”.
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From home in Poderiškiai village to the nursery is 20 km, the trip one way takes 40 minutes, so the family’s fuel and time costs are high.
“Does that seem normal to you? And it’s not that simple. If a child of a Kaunas district resident wants to go to a kindergarten in Kaunas but does not want to lose their place in the Kaunas district kindergarten queue, both parents and the child must have declared their residence in the Kaunas district for at least 6 months, otherwise nothing will happen.
So, if you meet the Kaunas district municipality’s criteria, you apply to them, fill out an application with a specific Kaunas kindergarten and wait for the Kaunas district to hold a meeting and consider whether to allow your child to attend kindergarten in Kaunas without losing the waiting place in the district. Other people register (with anyone, sometimes even for money) for a day or two in Kaunas so that they can take their child to kindergarten in the city,” Lina said.
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