As of: March 8, 2024, 3:52 p.m
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A child jumps rope in the schoolyard of the Sandstrasse community primary school in Duisburg.
© David Young/dpa/archive image
From the 2026/27 school year, the legal entitlement to all-day support for children of primary school age will apply.
The state government provides a framework - that is too non-binding for critics.
Düsseldorf - The legal right to all-day support for children of primary school age is slowly taking on more concrete forms: The North Rhine-Westphalian cabinet has now approved technical guidelines for the so-called open all-day school (OGS).
After a discussion with the municipal umbrella associations and independent youth welfare providers, clarity has now been created as to what will happen next, the Ministries for Schools and Family announced on Friday at the request of the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf.
The SPD and GEW demand legal quality standards
The SPD opposition called for a special meeting of the school committee because the state government was only presenting guidelines even though it had promised a state implementation law.
The school policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Dilek Engin, viewed this as a declaration of political bankruptcy.
She sees the legal claim at risk.
The Education and Science Union (GEW) also criticized that the guidelines could not replace legal regulations, but should only be a first step towards legally binding minimum standards.
State chairwoman Ayla Çelik complained that there was a lack of a clear statement about qualifications: “If you want to ensure educational quality, you have to employ qualified staff, pay them accordingly and create good framework conditions in which educational work is possible.”
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The nationwide entitlement includes eight hours of all-day support every day on school days.
During the holidays, the OGS offers can be closed for up to four weeks.
The ministries explained that the implementation of the legal right to all-day funding, which will take effect from the 2026/27 school year, can take place in schools as before.
What is important for the preparations on site is: “The OGS will continue to be organized in the tried and tested support model, which has been based on reliable cooperation between schools and youth welfare services for more than 20 years.” A spokesman explained that the offers could continue to be individually designed within the guidelines of the Ministry of Education.
“Cooperation with extra-curricular partners, especially from sports and culture, remains a central design feature of the OGS.” The municipalities have to ensure a needs-based offering and coordinate the expansion of places with their youth welfare and school development planning.
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Existing offers remain permitted
An important point for the practitioners: “All non-curricular full-day offers at the OGS that already existed on August 1, 2026 are considered permitted in the sense of the federal legal requirements and do not require renewed approval.” Even the staff of the full-day providers who do not have basic qualifications can continue to be employed and should in the future receive a training and qualification offer.
“In addition to the OGS, municipalities can continue to set up additional and flexible offers such as afternoon care with a shorter amount of time, the ministries also announced.
The state has promised to continue to support schools, municipalities and providers in designing all-day offerings through a service agency and the state school institute Qualis.
NRW expects 80 percent of children to be of primary school age
With the All-Day Support Act, the federal government introduced the legal right to a full-day place for primary school children, from the 1st grade from the 2026/27 school year to the 4th grade in the 2029/30 school year.
In the final expansion, the state government expects that around 80 percent of the students will need it.
In contrast to the so-called bound full-day, students at the OGS are not obliged to take part in the full-day program.
In order to create the necessary capacities, the federal, state and local authorities have provided a total of around 892 million euros for NRW.
According to its own information, the state government is already funding 392,500 OGS places in the current 2023/24 school year, and the number is expected to be 430,500 for the next 2024/25 school year.
A total of 780 million euros is available for this in the 2024 budget.
State government: A lot of effort, but doable
“If the momentum in the expansion of full-day places on site is maintained, the legal claim in North Rhine-Westphalia can be fulfilled,” the ministries concluded.
However, this will be a major effort for both the state and the municipalities.
dpa