Private sector takes the lead in daycare

“Come here, kids – let’s make a train!” A voice echoes through a room at a villa in Krč. Ten children, all about 2 years old, have just finished their morning task, painting, and are heading out to the garden. It’s Thursday morning, and the activities in Žiraifka, Raiffeisenbank’s preschool, are in full gear. Children rush to the trampoline, climb the slide and play in the sandpit. The kindergarten is open year-round, including holidays. Raiffeisenbank refuses to disclose the costs of the school, but it’s not hard to estimate them.

An all-day spot in a private preschool in Prague costs CZK 15,000–20,000 a month. At Žiraifka, parents pay CZK 1,300; the rest is covered by the bank. The number of similar corporate preschools in the country is unknown. Žiraifka is a pioneer in the field. Bank spokesman

Tomáš Kofroň

says corporate kindergartens could be counted on one hand, two hands at most.

“We wanted to help out our employees with the interface between their work and their personal lives,” Kofroň said. “We also wanted to help mothers on maternal leave return to work.” The school opened in February. It can handle up to 60 and currently has half that number. The bank expects the free spots will fill up by September as it employs about 1,500 people in Prague and preschools lack space to admit new children.

“It definitely facilitated my return to work,” bank analyst Helena Horská said. “We didn’t have to look for anything, and, best of all, the preschool operates during holidays.” Žiraifka is run by KinderGarten, a limited-liability company that runs 14 preschools in Prague and Liberec.

Until recently, businesses such as Raiffeisenbank that set up preschools were expecting the tax break promised by former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Petr Nečas as part of a package of family benefits. Other items in the proposal included compensation for babysitters and part-time workers and a one-week paternity leave. The current government swept the proposal off the table, however, reasoning that it would burden the state budge excessively during the financial crisis.

The ODS has adopted Nečas’s proposal into its pre-election platform and has expanded the offer by proposing to give mothers on short maternity leave exceptionally high benefits to match their wages. The ODS also wants a new business licence for preschool care. The Social Democrats’ programme offers much of the same.

The problem, though, is the timing. “Everyone’s been waiting for this package,” said Klára Šedivá, a consultant who tailors at-work daycare services for companies. “We know that there’s a lack of preschools. It’s necessary for the state to endorse any alternatives.”

According to Nečas’s proposal, firms could subtract all the expenses connected with the preschool from their taxes.

“Everyone’s just waiting now,”

Šedivá said.

“No one knows when and what version of the pro-family package will be approved.”

The economic crisis is now a major obstruction. Firms are very cautious in their investments. Employee benefits and preschool projects are usually among the early cuts.

But some firms are moving forward anyway. Českomoravská stavební spořitelna plans to open its own kindergarten in October. Seznam will also house a preschool at its new headquarters within the next two years. “Once the pro-family package gets approved, the situation will definitely improve,” said Zdeněk Fiala, head of KinderGarten. In addition to Fiala, his business operates another 17 private preschools across the country; only three of these are corporate kindergartens.

Advocates for a denser network of preschools can find hope in the proposals put forward by both major political parties to move towards the kind of system common in Western Europe. In Berlin, maternal-leave benefits are accessible to everyone and school fees are proportionate to parents’ incomes. Assistance from neighbours – so-called Tagesmütter – is widespread. France endorses licensed caretakers who look after one-fifth of the children under 3. Almost all youngsters between ages 3 and 6 attend a kindergarten.

At present, it’s safe to say that Czech parents won’t be as well off as their German, French or Swedish counterparts. The generous western system of preschool care was created during the postwar economic boom, when the state drew on the unique optimism of the era. These times, it seems, are gone forever.

BOX:

CRUNCH TIME
For more than a million local parents of preschoolers, the beginning of summer felt like a cold shower. The closing of preschools for the summer was exacerbated by the news that the government was rejecting a proposal of family benefits that included, among other things, benefits for part-time workers and babysitters as well as tax relief for corporate kindergartens.
The Czech Republic is battling a chronic lack of public preschools and a dramatically low rate of part-time employment; 3.5% of Czechs work part time, compared with 34.5% in the Netherlands. But change is coming from the bottom up. More and more firms are investing in preschools for their employees’ children.