(ZENIT News / Rome, 17.12.2024).- The Governorate of Vatican City State will open a Nursery School, within the Vatican’s walls, to look after the children of the Vatican’s lay employees, particularly working mothers, according to a press release of the Vatican Press Office, issued on December 12.
The new service, inside the Pope’s City, will care for 30 children from 3 to 36 months old. It will open next Spring, Monday to Friday, from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm. The project is in response to a request of Vatican City’s lay employees.
The Center has been planned for the educational and coexistence growth of the children, with a team of professionals that will foster the knowledge, abilities and autonomy of the littlest ones. The Patrons of the building –located on Via San Luca in the Vatican’s shopping district and near the cafeteria –, are Saint Francis and Sainte Clare.
The hours are longer than those of Italian public and private daycare centers. The present normative, regarding parental leave in the Vatican, establishes that mothers must return to work, at the very most, a year after the birth of a child. There is no specific parental leave for fathers. The lack of places in public daycare centers and the high cost of the private ones in Italy is being addressed by the Governorate with a useful solution.
The initiative is added to the summer camp organized for the children of the 5,000 workers of the Holy See and Vatican City. The daycare center represents an advance in the policies of labour and family conciliation inside the Papal State.
