Sofia's deputy mayor for education, Iordanka Fandukova, said on February 11 2008 she would hand in her resignation after the on-line registration for kindergartens resulted in a complete fiasco.

Somebody had to take the political blame for it and she was prepared to be the one to resign, Fandukova told reporters in a news conference at the city hall.

On February 4 2008, the city hall launched an on-line registration for the municipality-run kindergartens in the city. The website did not come on-line when scheduled at 9am because of the big number of users attempting to register. The website came on-line later in the day and the city hall decided not to annul the on-line registrations, despite concerns that users were not on a level playing field.

By February 8 2008, 13 471 children were registered through the website, kg.sofia.bg, but kindergartens in Sofia could only accept about 7000, Fandukova said.

With the website off-line, many parents left registration papers with the kindergartens, which were uploaded in the afternoon. On-line registration did not give an advantage over the children registered the old-fashioned way, because the bulk of the registrations were in the afternoon anyway, she added.

Despite all the problems, Fandukova said she was happy that the on-line registration system was implemented. A number of municipal consultants, among them parent organisations, education experts, private schools associations, scientists and members of the municipal council, supported the new system. They all said that the on-line registration would keep the process objective and remove the potential for corruption.

Fandukova said that the way registration was made had nothing to do with the fact that nearly 5000 children would not find place in the municipal-run kindergartens. The problem was the lack of kindergartens, as 44 facilities were closed in Sofia over the past 18 years. They were returned to their owners, privatised or exchanged for other property.

Lyulin, Mladost, Krasno Selo, Poduyane and Triaditsa are among the residential districts where kindergarten registration was most problematic, she said.

Sofia city hall will try to cope with the lack of places in the kindergartens by re-construction of old ones and building new ones. A new kindergarten will be opened by the end of February in the Podouyane districts, with two more to be opened in March or April. A kindergarten is also due to open at that time in Strelbishte.

A total of eight kindergartens were being designed, the construction of three of them will start in May and will finish in 2009. By the autumn of 2008, Sofia will have six new kindergartens and 10 kindergartens will accept more children. By 2009, Sofia’s kindergartens’ capacity will raise by 2500 places, according to Fandukova.

The application procedure will end in May, with the first ranking to follow in June. Children of parents with disabilities, families of many children, twins or whose sibling is already enrolled in a kindergarten will gain advantage in the final ranking. The full lists of children accepted in the kindergartens, as well as the first 10 children in the alternate list, will be available on-line after the first ranking.