Municipalities doubt the goal
Will all-day care come to primary schools by 2030?
6/22/2023 4:33 am
From 2026, gradually until 2030, there should be a nationwide offer of all-day care in primary schools in the municipalities. The municipalities see this critically: In view of the lack of educators, this requirement is not realistic.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities sees the agreed legal entitlement to all-day care at primary schools in jeopardy. It will be phased in from 2026. “By 2030, the municipalities would have to create at least 600,000 additional full-time places, which will not be feasible due to the tense personnel situation in the area of educators,” said managing director Gerd Landsberg of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
According to him, the legal entitlement to all-day care will not be able to be implemented across the board either with the gradual start in 2026 or in 2030. He therefore demanded that the entry into force be postponed and at least suspended in regions where the legal entitlement cannot be fulfilled.
Landsberg’s warning comes at the beginning of the two-day conference of Ministers of Education, which will meet in Berlin from this Thursday. At the regular meetings of the ministers and senators for education, science and culture, the federal states coordinate their education policy among themselves.
SPD warns: “We have to get into the pots”
The chairwoman of the family committee in the Bundestag, Ulrike Bahr from the SPD, rejected a postponement. It would not only be an indictment of family policy, but against the background of the shortage of skilled workers, it would also be a devastating signal for the compatibility of family and work, she said. The legal claim had already been pushed back by a year. It stipulates that all children nationwide who start school from the 2026/2027 school year should be entitled to an all-day place at school for the first four years.
The federal government has provided over three and a half billion euros for investments and has promised a share of the operating costs, said Bahr. Now the states have to ensure that the money reaches the primary schools. “Municipalities, states and the federal government must now come to terms with the implementation of the legal entitlement and find pragmatic solutions together instead of pushing reproaches back and forth.”