training
Federal Council calls for continuation of the “Language Kitas” program
Members of the federal states vote in the Bundesrat. photo
© Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
Federal funding for the “Language Daycare Centers” program expires at the end of the year. The Federal Council is now sending a clear signal with its unanimous decision.
The Bundesrat calls on the Federal Government to extend the “Language Daycare Centers” funding program beyond 2022 and to consolidate it as a permanent federal program. This was decided unanimously by the state chamber at its meeting this Friday.
The decision was based on an application from the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saarland, which contains the mandate to the federal government to continue to provide the funds for the program, which has been financed by the federal government since 2016.
Federal funding for the “Language Daycare Centers” program expires at the end of the year. Since 2016, the federal government has been financing additional staff at daycare centers for language development, especially at facilities with many children with language needs. From next year, according to the will of Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens), the federal states should take over the funding. But there has been resistance to this for weeks.
With its unanimous decision, the Federal Council has now sent a clear signal. According to the motion for a resolution by the regional chamber, almost 7,500 additional specialists are currently working in around 6,900 day-care centers thanks to federal funding. “This means that about every eighth daycare center in Germany is a language daycare center,” it says. The program has proven itself and is of particular importance for early childhood language education in day-care centers.
Family Minister Paus, in turn, refers to the so-called “Kita-Quality Act”, with which the federal government wants to provide the federal states with four billion euros for more staff and quality in their day-care centers – they could also use this to promote language, argues the Greens politician. At the same time, however, she concedes that the said law would only allow state financing of the “language day-care centers” from next summer. In order to be able to continue to employ the employees of the “language day-care centers” from January 1st to July 1st, 2023, transitional financing is required. The coalition is currently working on this.
The Federal Council’s call for action will now be forwarded to the Federal Government for examination. When and if she will comment on this is open. There is no obligation to deal with it.
Ekin Deligöz, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, expressed a lack of understanding about the position of the federal states on Friday. “Daycare centers are a matter for the federal states, permanent funding of language daycare centers by the federal government is not possible,” Deligöz told the German Press Agency. It is now a matter of transferring the “language day-care centers” from the “limited model program to the control system of the originally responsible countries”. The decision that has now been made in the Bundesrat shows that “unfortunately, the federal states have not yet been prepared” to work on a joint solution with the federal government. “It is to be hoped that they will soon be ready for talks,” Deligöz continued.