Status: 10.12.2022 10:57 a.m
According to the Education and Science Union, daycare centers can hardly do justice to all the children to be cared for. A wave of infections among staff would meet politically caused abuses.
In view of the high sickness rates among educators, day-care centers are on the verge of collapse. The Education and Science Union (GEW) criticizes this.
Rampant infections among the employees, but also general exhaustion and an unusually high fluctuation in the workforce mean that it is no longer possible to do justice to all children, writes Doreen Siebernik, board member for youth welfare and social work at GEW, in a guest article for the newspaper “Welt am Sunday”.
“Only safekeeping”
“The conditions in the day-care centers are hardly justifiable anymore,” says Siebernik. “There are houses with a sick leave rate of more than 50 percent.” Often it is “only about keeping” the children. The result is massively reduced care times or the closure of entire facilities.
In some places the situation is dramatic. Siebernik emphasizes that this is not only a consequence of the flu epidemic, but also of a general lack of staff and daycare places.
In addition, there would be additional burdens from the pandemic or taking in refugee children. “That’s why the current wave of illnesses is now hitting an overall weakened system,” writes the trade unionist.
criticism of politics
The day-care centers were denied the necessary support. Because there is still a lack of decisive political action to improve the space expansion and quality development, according to Siebernik’s criticism.
Only when the working, framework and income conditions are right would more people want to work as educators in day-care centers again.