Parents complain of safety breaches in kindergartens

The kindergartens are operating out of private apartment buildings in contravention of Education Ministry regulations.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The Haifa parents' organization has issued a complaint that several kindergartens in the city are operating out of private apartment buildings in contravention of Education Ministry regulations, and that children's safety is being compromised as a result, reports Yediot Haifa. The organization says it has asked the municipality several times to act against the offending kindergartens, but it has done nothing to rectify the problem. According to the report, Education Ministry regulations state that while kindergartens can share land with apartment buildings, for safety reasons they must be housed in separate structures, their yards must not be under balconies, and their entrances must be separate from apartment building and car park entrances. The parents' organization argued that a number of kindergartens were currently in breach of these regulations. A municipal spokesman said some kindergartens had been housed in apartment buildings as a temporary measure because of a lack of appropriate structures in certain neighborhoods. But the parents' organization said this situation could not be allowed to become permanent, and the city had to act immediately and find or build new kindergartens "to protect the safety of the children."