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Child in daycare (archive 2018)
Photo:
Andreas Arnold/ DPA
When the mothers wanted to be undisturbed, Aunt Jaspers looked after the neighbor children and me who didn't go to school yet.
Twice a week she looked after us in the mornings in the community hall at the play group.
On the other days we played around the houses and on the street, which felt largely unsupervised.
That was how it was in a village in Lower Saxony in the 1970s.
In comparison, at least in West Germany, there has been a veritable day care center revolution.
For almost every child between the ages of three and six it is a matter of course to visit a facility every day.
For under-threes, the childcare rate nationwide is 34 percent.
All of this could be celebrated as social progress that is second to none if the associated opportunities in Germany were not wasted so miserably.
The massive expansion of childcare not only enables mothers and fathers to (double) work.
Education experts agree that the value of early childhood education in day-care centers cannot be overestimated, especially for children from socio-economically disadvantaged families.
It can be a central key to at least mitigating the inequality of opportunity that has been lamented in Germany for years.
The pandemic, in which day-care center care suddenly collapsed completely or partially, "more than made clear" the social importance of public funding, upbringing and education, according to the current report "Education in Germany 2022".
Unfortunately, the inventory presented every two years by a group of experts also relentlessly reveals where there are problems with early childhood education in this country.
Although Germany has significantly increased its day-care center staff over the past ten years, the need has increased significantly at the same time.
Overall, it has not been possible to ensure that there are sufficiently qualified pedagogical specialists, and this may also have something to do with the fact that early childhood education is still not particularly important;
despite all the Sunday speeches.
The pay of preschool teachers is light years away from that of high school teachers.
Unlike in many other countries, you are not required to study.
In most federal states, day-care centers are not the responsibility of the education departments.
In West German day-care centers alone, there will probably be a shortage of 73,000 educators in 2025.
The pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of staff, "so that this bottleneck is becoming a key issue for the future viability of early education," says the report.
It is precisely the children who would particularly benefit from attending a day care center because their parents find it difficult to support them for a variety of reasons that, statistically speaking, attend a facility less frequently than children from privileged families.
Every fifth child between the ages of three and six speaks little or no German at home.
Around 40 percent of children under the age of six live in immigrant families.
They are more often than average affected by "risk situations" with regard to education, for example because their parents have little formal qualifications or live in poverty.
Are German day care centers set up nationwide in such a way that they can support these children appropriately and prepare them for school, so that they don't lag behind children from more privileged families when they start school?
Are there national quality standards?
Unfortunately, no.
The focus on quality and the well-being of children fell by the wayside when expanding the day care center.
more on the subject
Education report with corona balance: These are the "permanent construction sites" in day care centers and schools by Silke Fokken
Education newsletter: Urgently wanted: Personnel (m/f/d) - since yesterdayBy Silke Fokken
Invention of Kindergartens: Blossoming in the "Conservatory" By Danny Kringiel
Summary of family policy: the daycare mothers by Susmita Arp, Jan Friedmann and Miriam Olbrisch
In a survey of around 1,200 daycare workers by the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, around half of those questioned found that the staffing ratio in their facility could not meet the needs of the children.
Particularly sobering: In daycare centers with many socially disadvantaged children, this was stated by an above-average number of respondents.
When SPIEGEL took up the topic, dozens of e-mails arrived within a few hours from desperate educators who are suffering from the shortage of staff and feel sorry for the children they could hardly do justice to.
One wrote that she had looked after almost 30 day-care center children on her own every day for almost two years because the position of a colleague could not be filled: “None of this has anything to do with early claims, it’s just custody and damage limitation.
One is happy when, at the end of the day, one can hand over all the children to their parents safe and sound.«
The situation is devastating.
Politicians must honestly admit this and make much greater efforts than before to fundamentally improve early childhood education.
In any case, the »Tante Jaspers« model is no longer an option.
