“Nursery school development projects are to begin in another twenty settlement out of some two billion forints (EUR 6.2 million) in budgetary funding within the framework of the Nursery School Development Programme”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga announced.

The Minister highlighted the fact that the programme launched last year has to date provided a total of 3.2 billion forints (EUR 9.9 million) for the establishment and refurbishment of nursery schools, thanks to which 600 new kindergarten places have been created.

“A more significant rate of nursery school development than ever before is being realised in connection with the Family Protection Action Plan, which is an important step towards the creation of a family-friendly Hungary”, Mr. Varga emphasised.

As he explained, in addition to available EU funding, the domestic budget is also playing a major role in realising this.

“As a result of the tender applications submitted last year, the establishment of 263 new nursery school places is being realised at 14 local governments with the help of 1.3 billion forints (EUR 4 million) in state funding. Thanks to the Government’s latest decision, nursery school development projects can now begin in a further 20 settlements, enabling the establishment of places for a further 346 children”, the Minister of Finance explained.

“The goal of the programme is to enable daycare services for children under the age of three to be available in as many settlements as possible, to provide families with assistance with relation to balancing family and work. In harmony with this, local governments can also continue to apply for funding in view of the fact that decisions on funding may be made several times-a-year in line with the schedule for the submission of tender applications”, Mr. Varga stressed.

The final deadline for the submission of tender applications is 19 March 2020; the list of settlements that have received funding is available here.

(MTI)