The residential complex “Baltic Pearl”, where the family lives, is one of the first integrated development projects near the Gulf of Finland, Peterhof and Strelna. Very quickly the territory began to acquire the necessary infrastructure, including schools. But there were many more children than these schools could accommodate.
Shortly before the start of the school year, worried parents contacted the RG editorial office: “About 100 children in the Krasnoselsky district of the city could not enter school number 547. There are no places. Most of the children “They were distributed to other schools in the district, but there are still 14 first grade students without a place at the school.”
These fourteen, including our own Alena, were offered places by the district education department at the remote school number 385: there are no direct bus routes and the journey on foot takes… 40-50 minutes!
“The road passes through the park, along the way there are six pedestrian crossings,” explains Anna Lekkina, Alena’s mother. – Either quit your job and take your child to school, or hire a babysitter. It is simply impossible to let her daughter go on such a journey alone.
In parallel with their appeal to the editor, the parents sent messages to the prosecutor’s office, the city administration and the president’s reception. RG correspondents also made an official request to the district administration.
“On the eve of the school year we found a place in another nearby school,” says another mother, Ksenia Gukova. – Although the remaining parents still accepted the furthest option, and now their children study in 385.
Only Alena Lekkina was left without a seat at her desk. And this is because on September 1 she was not yet seven years old. And according to the law, the management and school officials fulfilled their task: all seven-year-old students were assigned to schools.
But Anna Lekkina is sure: next year everything can happen again. There is a catastrophic lack of schools in the area and the area continues to be built with high-rise buildings. This year, almost 6 thousand children are enrolled in the first grades of the Krasnoselsky district, classes have between 35 and 38 children each. There is literally a fight for a place, and these are not even elite gymnasiums or lyceums, but ordinary secondary schools.
The district administration reported: the planned capacity of school number 547 is 825 people. And on September 1, more than 2 thousand came here. The school’s occupancy rate is 256 percent!
The district authorities, of course, know that in the near future there will be even more children. RG showed a list of five facilities that will begin construction or design before 2026. The planned number of places is about 3,000.
Perhaps this will solve the problem of specific children at the age of 3-4 years. And next year, Alena Lekkina’s parents will most likely face another round for a seat at the desk.
