In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, parents queued outside kindergartens for days in hopes of securing a place. A mother profiled by UNICEF said her family took shifts and waited for three days before obtaining a place for their daughter.
In the rapidly expanding city, public-kindergarten capacity did not keep pace with the number of young children. The queue protected both a child's chance to attend and a family's ability to keep working. Later lotteries and online registration emerged against the background of a system that had required families to spend nights guarding their place.