Nursery School Looters

Even in better times, nursery schools were considered poor and now they really are poor. Most of the thieves who have been caught are boys from Belgrade suburbs. Psychologists say that the disorder and destruction which they left behind testify of their rage and poverty - from parents' love to material things.

Milan Bundalo, the director of "1 April" institution which includes 33 nursery schools in New Belgrade, said that they had 13 thefts in 1994 and 14 in 1995 and that thefts have not ceased. "We have discussed with the City Assembly a tighter cooperation with the police department, so that their officers would visit the nursery schools more frequently. There have been no robberies in the 16 nursery schools in which employees live." They got the apartments a long time ago, before nursery schools were a target of robbers and it has turned out to be a good thing. "The teachers make up for the toys and didactic material by their enthusiasm and creativity. They make rag dolls and other toys from the materials they provide and even bring their own tape-recorders."

Nursery school robberies have become a lucrative business, and probably an easy one, too. Thieves visited some of the nursery schools as many as eight times in a year. There had been no real reactions before the city government received high bills which it could not cover. The figure for last year exceeds 160 thousand dinars and the damage inflicted in the first two months this year is estimated to 32 thousand.

The impoverished nursery schools did not know what to fight first in the past few years - poverty or thieves. Since many parents lost jobs and had less money, they took their children out of nursery schools and teachers became surplus. The children who did come did not have proper food. The teachers do not like to think of 1993 when children ate boiled beans and lentils for days. Teachers also noticed that after spending a week-end at home, children asked for more food. All they could offer them was bread, so the consumption of bread almost doubled on Mondays.

The generations that are attending nursery schools spent the first years of their lives under sanctions and in war time. They were growing up closed in their nursery schools which they could not leave even to go to the park or a cinema because it was not safe. These were official orders.

"It's much better now. The city provides for all the nursery schools, there are more didactic materials, and the children are getting the food they need - milk, fruit, meat," said Blanka Pilipovic of the "Bosko Buha" institution.

Fifteen nursery schools in Belgrade are guarded by professionals, at the parents' expense. They say this kind of organization functions and that there are no robberies.

There is actually nothing to be stolen in nursery schools any more. Except maybe the food which is sufficient. Diapers have started arriving after a long time. Some nursery schools even got new bed-linen and teachers got new uniforms. The city government sticks to the priority list, so everyone has to wait for one's turn. Things such as painting, roof repairs, new furniture are almost forgotten. The state nursery schools resemble shelters for children craving everything, for whom a cartoon video-tape is the best fun they can get, provided their video-players were not stolen. If they were, there are rag dolls and toys.

Nursery school psychologists say that children have changed. They have become more aggressive, less tolerant and more independent. The youngest ones are more mature than one would expect and the older ones are not ready for school. Poverty obviously has its price and there must be something wrong with the country in which poor nursery schools are being robbed: either everything that is more valuable has already been stolen or the poor are being robbed by the poor.