Storm over demand to close special kindergarten

Tel Aviv has been struggling for months to find places for more than 1,000 kindergarten children.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
A storm has blown up over a demand by a group of north Tel Aviv parents that the city evacuate a special kindergarten for hearing-impaired children to make room for a larger number of able-bodied children, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. With the city suffering from a severe shortage of kindergartens for the coming school year, parents in the upmarket Bavli neighborhood say the special kindergarten, which caters for just seven children, would be better used as a regular kindergarten that could cater for 40. But parents of the hearing-impaired children say the other parents should be "ashamed of themselves." According to the report, the city has been struggling for months to find places for more than 1,000 kindergarten children in the coming school year, mostly in the north and the center of the city. In a letter to the city, the parents say they pay high municipal taxes and high prices for their apartments, and they expect a high standard of service in return. They say the seven hearing-impaired children all come from outside the neighborhood, and it is illogical to cater for them when there is a severe shortage of kindergartens for their own children. But parents of the hearing-impaired children, who mostly come from south Tel Aviv, said the parents were displaying a distinct lack of sensitivity. A municipal spokesman said the city was proud of having integrated the hearing-impaired children in Bavli, and had "no intention" of dismantling the special kindergarten. The spokesman said the city was still trying to find places for all the children needing kindergartens in the coming year.