Seven out of ten children really enjoy going to their day care center. This was the result of this year’s parent survey in the city’s day-care centers. In the survey at the beginning of March of this year, 48 percent of parents whose children attend a municipal daycare center, a kindergarten, a house for children, a day care center or a cooperative all-day facility took part. According to the Department for Education and Sport, this is an increase of almost six percent compared to the previous year.
“We are pleased that so many parents took part in the survey and that most of them are satisfied,” says Daniel Gromotka from the joint parents’ council of the city’s day-care centers. “The questionnaire is very abstract from the parents’ point of view.”
Much, such as the question of whether a child has enough time for himself in daycare, parents cannot assess well because they do not even notice. The joint parents’ councils would like more specific questions, for example about music and art, about food or satisfaction with digital communication. Gromotka criticizes: “This questionnaire is not suitable for finding out where things really burn and press.”
Most parents see their care needs fully met
The majority of the parents, namely 92.7 percent, stated that the opening times of the facility corresponded to their needs. The results of the survey were worse than in the previous year, especially with regard to the parenting partnership: Around 74 percent of the parents surveyed stated that they are invited to a development meeting at the daycare center every year. In the previous year it was around 84 percent. “Discussions like this are very important right now,” says Gromotka. He would like the teachers to approach the parents who they see a need.
Compared to the previous year, the survey also showed that parents feel less welcome in the daycare center, and they less often agreed to the statement that they could talk to the teachers about their child. In the field of education, too, individual results were slightly worse than in the previous year. The statement, “My child is supported in accepting other people for who they are”, roughly 82 percent of parents fully or completely agreed. In the previous year it was around 85 percent. The parents of after-school care children rated their children’s leisure opportunities as worse than in the previous year. From the parents’ point of view, the support with homework has improved slightly.
According to the Department for Education and Sport (RBS), the corona pandemic could show its effects on the topics of education and educational partnership. The pandemic-related measures had an impact both on everyday pedagogical work and on the opportunities for contact between the facility and parents. “Various activities were only possible to a limited extent or not at all, and the otherwise close opportunities for exchanges with parents were greatly reduced,” says a template for the education committee. It is important that the individual daycare teams analyze with the parent representatives, if necessary, how the cooperation can be structured in the future under the current conditions.
More than half of the parents praise staff and projects
The parents could also address their own topics. More than half of the parents who did this praised the daycare staff, projects and educational offers. Some would like more offers, daily information about their child and more frequent parenting discussions.
The ratings of the mothers and fathers, writes the RBS, were once again extremely good this year. It is noticeable, however, that parents often stated that they were unable to assess something or that they did not provide any information. “This may be due to the unusual times of emergency care in the past year. It will have to be analyzed on site whether special efforts are still required to provide the necessary transparency in everyday life,” says the submission of the authority.
With more than 38,000 childcare places in around 450 facilities, the city is the largest provider of childcare in Munich. There are a total of 1450 daycare centers in the city.