There is a massive shortage of skilled workers for all-day care in schools

Created: 07/05/2022Updated: 07/05/2022, 11:40 am

A school supervisor holds up an hourglass in the canteen of an elementary school.

© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/image archive

Every primary school child has the right to all-day care.

But a study sounds the alarm: If politicians don't act soon, it will remain an empty promise - because there is a shortage of thousands of skilled workers in the south-west.

Gütersloh/Stuttgart - From the summer of 2026, parents will gradually have a legal right to all-day care in primary schools.

Actually.

Because it seems almost hopeless that this promise can also be fulfilled in Baden-Württemberg.

The shortage of skilled workers is not only acute in the daycare centers, the state also has to fill massive gaps in all-day support despite the difficult times.

It is already foreseeable that there are far too few skilled workers to be able to even begin to offer all-day care to every primary school child by the end of the decade.

This is made clear by analyzes compiled by the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh in its "Facharbeiter-Radar" for day-care centers and elementary schools.

The results

According to the "Specialist Radar for Daycare and Primary Schools", 45 percent of children of primary school age in Baden-Württemberg use an all-day offer, 16 percent a so-called afternoon offer, which is available until around 2:30 p.m.

If all children of primary school age were to use their legal entitlement every week by 2030, according to the study, there would be a gap of more than 12,000 skilled workers between demand and supply.

“This is four times as many people as the almost 3,000 specialists who, according to the forecast, could be available as new employees by 2030,” says the Bertelsmann radar.

The legal claim poses considerable challenges for the country.

"A long-term and massive specialist offensive must be started immediately with all those responsible," warns Kathrin Bock-Famulla,

scenarios

The three experts run through several scenarios.

In the eastern German federal states, for example, the average participation rate is around 86 percent.

If at least this were also aimed at in Baden-Württemberg, according to Radar, more than 9,000 pedagogical specialists would still be missing.

And even if some of the children continued to take advantage of the shorter afternoon care, the staff shortage would still be 6,000. "In all six scenarios, a significant shortage of skilled workers is to be expected in Baden-Württemberg by 2030," the experts warn.

However, there is also a lack of places: According to the study, if there is to be a place for every child of primary school age by 2030, almost 190,000 new places would have to be created.

And even with an East German quota, it would still be more than 130,000.

Nationwide location

Looking at the whole country, more than 100,000 pedagogical specialists could be missing.

In the west in particular, the implementation of the legal entitlement will therefore be difficult, in the east, on the other hand, the comparatively poorer personnel ratio at western level should be improved.

The study only gives good marks for Berlin, Hamburg and Thuringia.

According to the forecast, by the end of the decade there will be enough staff there to offer every single elementary school child a full-time place - and with a good childcare ratio.

According to the study, money is not the problem for everyone else - there are simply too few people who want to take up the profession.

chain reaction

The study also warns that there are no skilled workers without training and warns that teachers must be trained in good time to train the missing staff.

Long “manufacturing horizons have to be planned” in order to finally get the number of staff that is needed.

Baden-Württemberg is already promoting projects such as practice-integrated training (PiA).

But the need for skilled workers in the education sector remains enormous.

Because there is not only a clear lack of all-day care, the gap is also huge in the day-care centers: According to this, more than 33,000 other educators will be missing, other scenarios even assume more than 41,000, such as the "Specialist radar for day-care centers and primary schools". already calculated last summer.

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What now?

The Entrepreneurs of Baden-Württemberg (UBW) complain that there are more training places, but that is not enough.

Lateral entrants would also have to be trained and educators from abroad would have to be recruited, says Stefan Küpper, UBW managing director for politics, education and the labor market.

An image campaign for the educational professions is also required.

This is also where the Education and Training Association (VBE) comes in: "We have to bring young people closer to the profession of educator through better pay and working conditions," says VBE state chairman Gerhard Brand.

Existing staff would have to be offered health promotion programs.

However, Brand does not expect that all parents will exercise their legal rights.

The community day criticizes the "sequence of steps" in the legal claim.

“First of all, a legal requirement is defined, but it is completely unclear whether and how this can be fulfilled.

But politics has to start with looking at reality," says Steffen Jäger, President of the Municipal Assembly.

dpa