Hungary is currently expanding nursery capacities via a HUF 2.5 billion (EUR 8.25 million) program, Minister of State for Public Education Judit Czunyiné Bertalan said in the northeast Hungarian town of Miskolc on Thursday at the inauguration of a nursery modernized there at a cost of HUF 20 million.

The Minister of State said that the improvement of nurseries is particularly important because these institutions are “among the most critical parts of what we call public education”. She said that nurseries prepare children for school and the three years spent there can mean a lot during their later years if the formative period offers them the best at the proper time.

She added that nurseries are also important because they provide a safe and competent environment for children while their parents are at work. Ákos Kriza, Mayor of Miskolc said that in the city, one third of 32 nurseries had been renewed in the past four years at a cost of about HUF 1 billion – mostly from EU funds –, and expressed his hope that in the coming years, the rest of the nurseries would be renewed as well.

The nursery inaugurated in Diósgyőr was modernized from state funds worth HUF 10 million and a donation worth HUF 10 million made by a local pharmaceutical company Sanofi.

(Ministry of Human Capacities)