Even ten years after the introduction of a legal entitlement, there are still not enough daycare places in Bavaria. According to a current study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, there will be a shortage of 70,100 childcare places in the Free State in 2022. “Bavaria is still unable to fulfill the legal right to a daycare place in line with their needs. The children do not have access to early childhood education, while parents find it more difficult to combine family and work,” says Kathrin Bock-Famulla, an expert in early childhood education at Bertelsmann -Foundation, endowment. A total of almost 430,000 daycare places are missing nationwide to meet the care needs of parents.
The Free State could close the gap by 2030, according to the “State Monitor for Early Childhood Education Systems”, which was presented on Tuesday in Gütersloh.
Around 30 percent of those under the age of three in Bavaria were looked after in a daycare center last year – slightly less than the national average. Overall, 42 percent of parents wanted childcare for a child in this age group. Even among the older children, expectations and reality were a few percentage points apart. 98 percent of parents said they wanted a daycare place. However, the care rate in 2022 was only 92 percent. By 2030, the gap could be closed with appropriate efforts to recruit new staff, said Kathrin Bock-Famulla.
In the meantime, a temporary solution must also be considered. The foundation also suggests shorter opening times in the daycare centers. A reduction to six hours a day could mean that all parents would have a place if needed as early as 2025. Some parents would like the option to book shorter childcare times anyway. The parents’ working hours would then also have to be adapted to the opening times of the daycare centers. Lateral entrants and additional administrative staff could also relieve the burden on educators.
Bavaria’s daycare centers “could not currently fulfill their educational mandate for the majority of children”
According to the foundation’s estimates, 61 percent of the children in existing daycare places are not cared for in a child-friendly manner due to a lack of staff. “It can be assumed that the daycare centers in Bavaria are currently unable to fulfill their educational mandate for the majority of children,” said Bock-Famulla.
The experts’ recommendation for the care ratio in the daycare group is one to three. In the kindergarten, one specialist should then look after an average of 7.5 children. In Bavaria, however, according to the evaluation, the care ratio is one to 3.6 in the crèche group and one to eight in the kindergarten. The situation would be even worse if vacation and sick days or even team discussions were deducted, said Bock-Famulla. This means that only two thirds of the working time is available for looking after the children.
The study by the Bertelsmann Foundation reveals clear differences within the Federal Republic. There are therefore 385,900 daycare places too few in the western German federal states. In East Germany, including Berlin, there are 44,700. The proportion of children there who attend a daycare center is significantly higher than in the West – especially among girls and boys under the age of three: their care rate in the East German states is 53 percent; while 61 percent want care.