First day of school with a mask, homeschooling in the first grade - many parents would like the seriousness of life to start more easily for their children.
You wait another year before starting school.
This poses problems for the communities.
Because the childcare places are no longer sufficient.
Every week parents ask Martina Schmid about a place in kindergarten.
And the head of the kindergarten in Greiling (Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district *) must reject every request.
“We're overflowing this year,” she says.
That has to do with the so-called corridor children.
For boys and girls who will be six years old between July 1 and September 30, the parents can decide whether their child should start school one year later.
And this year a lot of parents are taking advantage of this opportunity - not just in Greiling.
Corona in Bavaria: Parents postpone their children's schooling
One reason for this is the corona pandemic *, explains Martina Schmid.
"Almost nothing happened here for three months, the children miss a whole quarter in preschool." In addition, many parents are worried about homeschooling again in the fall.
They want their children to have a carefree start to school - and that's why they postpone it by a year.
School start in Bavaria: The daycare places are running out everywhere
Bavaria-wide figures are not yet available. But in many communities it is already evident that the number of corridor children is continuing to rise. In the past few years, more parents had already made use of the option to start school late. The SPD parliamentary group recently made an inquiry about this. In the 2019/2020 school year, i.e. even before the pandemic, there were 30,493 corridor children in Bavaria - 42.3 percent of them stayed one year longer in kindergarten, reports Simone Strohmayr, the education policy spokeswoman for the SPD. With Corona, this number rose to 51.4 percent in the past school year. And Strohmayr assumes that this number has now risen again. “A lot of local politicians have approached me about this problem,” she says. Daycare places are becoming scarce everywhere.
Because of late Corona school enrollment: municipalities have to create daycare places
This is also the case in Emmering in the Fürstenfeldbruck district. * There, 17 parents decided not to start school for their children until a year later, reports Angela Schütz, who is responsible for the town hall.
All justified this with Corona.
The community was surprised by the high number; there were hardly any cases in Emmering last year.
Twelve children are now without a place in kindergarten.
The hands of the congregation are tied.
"We now hope that there will be a place for every child by autumn," says Schütz.
"In the long term, we will have to expand childcare."
The transition from kindergarten to school should be smoother.
Simone Strohmayr, SPD
The SPD politician Strohmayr sees a solution in the so-called flexible elementary school. This gives children the opportunity to complete the first two years of school in one, two or three years - depending on how difficult or easy they are, she explains. “The transition from kindergarten to school should be smoother.” In her opinion, that would take away worries for many families. Your application has been denied. "The state government argues that it does not want to impose a new system on the families during this time." Then it must also help the municipalities to find solutions, demands Strohmayr. That is not an easy task either. Because it's not just about money or rooms to offer more kindergarten places - but also about staff. And that has to be found first.
The municipality of Peiting (Weilheim-Schongau *) has already succeeded in doing this.
There were 23 children without a childcare place, reports Mayor Peter Ostenrieder (CSU).
The parents did not have to justify the later enrollment, but he also assumes that the fear of homeschooling is related to it.
That is why there will be an additional group in Peiting from autumn.
A multi-purpose room is temporarily being converted into a group room, and nine new supervisors have been hired, reports Ostenrieder.
For kindergarten, crèche and lunchtime care.
"It was a challenge - but it went better than we dared hope."
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