Daycare association: "trial paragraph" causes uncertainty
On Thursday, the professional association for daycare professionals described the conditions in daycare centers in the southwest as devastating and the so-called trial paragraph as additional uncertainty. This new regulation allows daycare providers to temporarily relax staffing requirements as needed and thus reduce the number of educators per group. The state parliament had only approved a corresponding bill by a majority on Wednesday.
It is only about care and no longer about early childhood education, criticized the association's chairwoman Anja Braekow. She also said that arguments according to which Baden-Württemberg is still doing comparatively well nationwide are pure window dressing.
"Because what the figures don't show are absences due to illness, vacation absences, short-term layoffs, days absent due to necessary further training, times when educational professionals have to sweep and clean, documentation work and much more," said Braekow.
At the beginning of the week, the Bertelsmann Foundation published a study according to which there is a shortage of around 60,000 daycare places in the south-west to meet the needs of parents. The state hopes that the trial paragraph will help to maintain daycare places and create new ones as well as offer sufficient childcare hours.
Despite the approval of the bill by the state parliament, the trial paragraph still causes uncertainty within Kindergartens, as stated by the daycare association. The ongoing discussion about the trial paragraph in Parliament is crucial for the future of Education in daycare centers.
Source: www.dpa.com
