Dozens of parents queued up at School 51 in Sector 2 – Mega Mall area last evening to enroll their children in an after-school program organized by the after-school institution. People said there were more applications than places. The Mayor of Sector 2, Radu Mihaiu, said that on Friday afternoon, the vacant seats were not fully occupied, and there were still two vacant seats left. However, registration can also be done on Monday. If there are more applications than places, then they cannot be supplemented, because there are no more free classrooms.

Parents sat in line from 6 p.m. and waited until morning. Parents were afraid that they would not get a seat if they came in the morning.

Speaking to HotNews.ro, the mayor of the city, Radu Mihaiu, said that the school has 180 places in after-school facilities, and it is impossible to do more because there are no places.

“51 schools have an ambiguous situation. The entire secondary school cycle is spent at school until late, grades 7-8 have classes until 3:00 p.m., because children additionally prepare for national assessments, inside the school. V and VI classes study in the afternoon. In the afternoon, only 8 classes remain free, because the rest are used by children who are at school. Of these classes, 7 are large and one is small. Two out-of-school groups of 12 students can enter the 7 large rooms, and only one group of 12 students can enter the 8th room, there is no more space. So, we have a total of 180 places. Until now, 178 students have been enrolled,” explained Mayor Radu Mihaju, who was contacted by HotNews.ro.

If the number of applications exceeds the number of places, a waiting list will be formed if someone cancels and a place becomes available.

“It’s a space limitation, but there’s also a limitation on the teachers who want to participate in this program. There are currently 14 teachers who have confirmed their participation. One group was left without a teacher, we will make every effort to find another teacher for the last group in the coming days to reach the maximum of 180 places,” explained Mihayu.

He says that this year there were much more applications than last year, perhaps because the city hall is paying for hot meals for children who study in after-school institutions this year.

“51 schools used to have the School After School program, which was not as popular. Only after the city hall started funding the program in 2022 and included hot meals for children did it really become popular. This year, the demand has increased significantly,” explained Mihayu.

Admission to this program is on a first-come, first-served basis. When asked why other contact criteria are not established, such as single-parent families or social cases, the mayor says that this program is for all children.

“We had a long discussion about the admission criteria. It was necessary to decide whether this program is social or for all children. By deciding that this is for all children, it means that we did not intend to discriminate, we believed that all children have the same rights. Single-parent families can also mean high-income families or single-parent families living together, and these things are difficult to manage and can infringe on the privacy of the child and parents. The only criterion that remained was first-come, first-served,” explained Mihaiu.

When asked why the registration is being carried out only now, almost a month after the beginning of the school year, the mayor replied that the school only now received approval from the Inspectorate.

The program “School after school” is practically a state extracurricular institution, implemented in 16 schools of the 2nd sector with the co-financing of the mayor’s office.

The mayor says that so far there have been no problems with places in the remaining schools, as they are not completely full.

“Not all free places were occupied. There are 3,000 places in the program. I would like to have more of them, but, unfortunately, where they study in two or three shifts, it is impossible to realize this materially, because they do not have classrooms. This is a phenomenon where schools are considered better, where children who do not live in the area are accepted on floating visas. Because of this, it turns out that in these schools you study in two or three shifts, so you can no longer do anything outside of class,” explained Mihayu.

The list of schools participating in the program in the 2023-2024 academic year:

1. Lucian Blaga Theoretical High School

2. Secondary school 39

3. Secondary school 24

4. Secondary school 66

5. The Mother of God School

6. Secondary school 51

7. Secondary school 46

8. Secondary school 25

9. Secondary school 77

10. Ferdinand I. Secondary School

11. St. Sylvester School

12. Petre Gelmezka Secondary School

13. Secondary school 62

14. Secondary school 28

15. Secondary school 31

16. Gitka Voivodeship Secondary School

The School After School program in Sector 2 started in January 2022 and started with 900 places.

Last summer, you also stood in line in sector 3 to enroll in summer kindergarten

Last summer, hundreds of people lined up near several kindergartens in Sector 3 when registration for the “Summer Kindergarten” program began. Parents have been queuing up and forming queues since yesterday evening, despairing that they will not be able to get a seat and have nothing to do with their children in the summer. The problem was solved in a few days, after the city hall increased the number of seats.