The Minister of Education, Culture, Science, and Sports and the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a conference named under the title “Cooperation between the government and the private sector for developing kindergarten for employees' children” on August 12. 

Officials of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry specified that the private sector has to establish kindergartens for their employees’ children. They added that it will improve working conditions and address the social problems of workers, and discussed ways to make the venture possible.

 Head of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry O.Amartuvshin said, “Preschool education is very important, but it is not only a government matter. The government and the private sector have to work together on this. Actually, employees’ biggest problem is their kindergarten-age children, they always worry about how they can secure a kindergarten slot for their children, who will take care of their children while they’re at work and how they will pick up their children from kindergarten. This anxiety affects employees’ performance. That's why we are organizing this event today. The government will support by hiring teachers and other necessities if organizations are ready to dedicate a certain area of their premise for a kindergarten for their employees’ children. And we are challenging organizations to join us.”

There are 11 private sector organizations with kindergartens for their employees’ children in Ulaanbaatar. If 40 such kindergartens are established, there will be enough kindergartens for all children in the capital. There are over 212,000 children learning in 1,435 kindergartens in Mongolia. But according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia, there are over 312,000 children who are of kindergarten age but have not enrolled.

 During the meeting, representatives of the private sector expressed their support. Executive Director of Tus Solution LLC D.Jargalsaikhan said, “Developing kindergartens for employees’ children means not only taking care of their children in a warm place. I hope that this cooperation between the government and the private sector will reach good results and solutions. We have to prepare well to educate our children because they will build our future.”

Head of the Administration and Human Resource Division of Milk LLC B.Tserendorj said, “Our company plans to build a kindergarten for our employee’s children, but the budget has not been decided yet.” 

State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport, B.Bayarsaikhan said, “We planned to open 130 new kindergartens from 2019 to 2020. If 93 kindergartens are built, 13,000 children will be able to receive preschool education. Over 3,000 children attend state and private kindergartens. We proposed this idea to the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has over 3,500 organization members. If the top 150 private organizations join, the problem of kindergartens will be resolved. The government can provide funding, but there is no available space. There are 22 cases where the government already gave funding for kindergartens, but the land problems still persist. There is a big advantage for the private sector because the government will pay the expenses.” 

Representatives of 22 companies and offices of nine districts attended the meeting.