Baby-food arithmetic

Children are accepted to the first grade of school as a result of an interview with them. Preschoolers should know the basics of writing, arithmetic, general ideas about the world. Children have to answer simple questions, and therefore parents are forced to give them to kindergartens, or to special courses created in schools.

For January 1, 2018, 118,700 children are being raised in 1,663 state and 87 private kindergartens. This is 14.2% of the total number of children aged one to five years, the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan reports.

Over the years of independence, about 300 state kindergartens have been privatized, some have ceased to function as preschool institutions, so there are not enough vacancies in kindergartens, some children are taken for bribes. There are problems with the upbringing and nutrition of children. This year, the public was outraged by the video mistreatment of children from the staff of a private kindergarten. In kindergartens, children receive four meals a day. In January 2018, the press reported on poor nutrition in a kindergarten in the town of Khudat, in Khachmaz region, in which children were fed only pasta.

https://sputnik.az/life/20180119/413680151/xaqcmazda-ushaqlarin-saglamligi-ile-cilingagac-oynayirlar.htm

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In 2016 the Education Minister M. Jabbarov spoke about unsatisfactory preschool education, besides covering only 20% of children. The government intends to improve the material supply of preschool educational institutions, increasing the budget allocation for this article six times. In 2019, funding for the nutrition of children in kindergartens from the current 17 million manat will increase to 99.3 million manat. Each state garden will receive more than 59,711 manat per year. The annual nutrition of each child will cost more than 836.5 manat. The figure is inaccurate, as the statistics on the number of children is given together with private institutions (87 kindergartens) in which food is paid for by parents. In private institutions, 900 manat per year is allocated for each child in the state kindergarten.

Economist Rovshan Agayev is surprised at such a sharp - six-fold increase in spending on food in kindergartens. Even more surprisingly, in 2017, kindergartens received 41.6 million manat for food, and in 2018, funding was sharply reduced by 2.5 times to 17 million. And now it has increased by six times. Moreover, according to statements to the press directors of kindergartens, in 2018, children did not experience a lack of food.

On January 12, 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the 12th Resolution, according to which children should receive food 210 days a year. Food standards in kindergartens are specified in the 103rd resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of March 19, 1994.

If, with a six-fold increase in the financing of food in 2019, children will receive food in accordance with the approved standards, then in previous years the food in kindergartens did not meet the physiological needs of children? We add that in all kindergartens (private and public) parents are forbidden to bring food for children from home. Next year, in state kindergartens, children will eat at 75 manat per month. And this year, therefore, children were fed six times less than the allocated funds than in 2019 - each child in the state kindergarten ate at 12 AZN per month (2018).

Our calculations are almost confirmed by the data presented to the journalist by the director of the state kindergarten N24 in Khirdalan, Leyla Bayram, who said that in 2017 each child received food at the rate of 1.2 manat per day. If not to calculate Saturdays and Sundays, it will be AZN 26.4 per meal in 2017. In 2018, food expenses were reduced by 2.5 times, reaching 10.5 manat per child per month (our calculations show 12 manat).

Totally, this year every child at the age 2-6 years old in the state kindergarten of Azerbaijan eats for the amount of 10.5-12 manat per month. For clarity: the minimum subsistence level for children in Azerbaijan is 154 manat per month (includes not only food products).