Hundreds of thousands of missing seats
According to the union: the situation in daycare centers is “hardly responsible”
In many daycare facilities, things are no longer as idyllic as in this picture.
© Kzenon / Adobe Stock
In some day-care centers, the lack of staff is very noticeable. According to the Trade Union for Education and Science (GEW), more than 50 percent of the staff will be absent this winter because of the cold wave.
The lack of staff is causing problems for many day-care centers. Even more than is usually the case at the moment. Because of the wave of colds, (still healthy) employees now often have to catch the work of sick employees. Not exactly a prospect where the already existing fluctuation in the industry could improve. “The conditions in the day-care centers are hardly justifiable anymore,” writes Doreen Siebernik online in a WELT guest article. She heads the youth welfare and social work department at GEW, the trade union for education and science.
Little has changed over the years
The problem of too few employees and too many children who have to be looked after is far from being solved. The supervision ratio alone often no longer allows for good pedagogical work, according to Doreen Siebernik in her comment. It is not possible to do justice to every child in the care function. This is nothing new either: the flu epidemic has caused further bottlenecks, but the GEW has been demanding changes in the system for some time. Among other things, she drew attention to the “extreme shortage of staff, the lack of daycare places, the stress caused by the pandemic or the admission of children who have fled,” Siebernik continues. However, the necessary support for the daycare system was not implemented.
Sometimes more than 50 percent of the workforce is ill
The degree of illness in the day-care centers is different, but sometimes particularly drastic. In some facilities, more than 50 percent of the daycare professionals would be absent. Facilities in which nobody is ill are the exception rather than the rule. While larger daycare centers can sometimes combine the groups of children, this is often not possible in smaller ones, Siebernik explains. Sometimes even parental services are required, childcare times are reduced or facilities even have to close for a short time.
Strong increase in employment
Due to the right of every child to a daycare place, the daycare facilities have already been expanded and the number of employees has increased. But even when the legal entitlement was introduced, there were several hundred thousand places too few in Germany, according to educator and GEW member Doreen Siebernik. The number of employees in day-care centers and kindergartens has doubled to 840,000 by spring 2022 and would grow by around three percent annually. What is missing, however, is clear political action: an expansion of additional places and the quality of care is urgently needed.
The situation will probably not improve much in 2023 either – loudly Bertelsmann Foundation around 384,000 daycare places will be missing in the coming year. In addition, another 98,600 professionals would be needed for the number of children. Doreen Siebernik calls for a specialist offensive to improve the situation for children, parents, educators and other daycare staff. Because: “Only when the working, framework and income conditions are right will even more people decide on these great jobs,” says Siebernik.
Sources used: GEW, Welt, Bertelsmann Foundation, Barmer Krankenkasse
This article originally appeared in ELTERN.