Status: 03/10/2023 10:29 am
Although there is a general legal entitlement to a daycare place, fewer children from disadvantaged families go to these facilities. The BiB writes that they could particularly benefit from this.
Children from poorer and less educated families continue to be disadvantaged when it comes to the allocation of daycare places. This is the result of a study by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB).
Although there has been a legal entitlement to a daycare place for children from the age of one for ten years, the profession, education and language of the parents are decisive in determining whether a child is cared for or not.
Desire for care often not fulfilled
Among other things, the researchers examined the data on daycare attendance by around 96,000 boys and girls under the age of three. According to the study, in 2020 only every fourth child at risk of poverty (23 percent) was cared for in a day care center – but every second child from financially non-precarious circumstances (46 percent). The childcare requirements of poorer families are not met in around 17 percent of cases, and in the case of richer families, daycare centers only fail to meet one in ten childcare requirements.
A similar pattern can be seen in families with a migration background. While 38 percent of German-speaking children attended a day care center, only 24 percent of boys and girls from families who did not speak German at home did so. About 50 percent of these families expressed their need.
Spiess: “Increase opportunities for participation”
The scientists speak of a gap. “If we want to reduce educational inequalities and want all children to develop their potential in the best possible way, then we have to increase the chances of participation for all children,” said BiB director Katharina Spieß.
“The day care center is the first important place of education outside of the family.” However, those who could particularly benefit from this are still underrepresented in the daycare groups for under-threes.
Demand for more daycare places
With a view to the federal government’s education summit on March 14th and 15th, the researchers are calling for families to be given low-threshold information about the advantages of attending a daycare center early and for parents to be supported in their search for childcare places. In addition, the number of places must be further expanded.
The nationwide legal entitlement to early childhood support in a day care center or in day care for children from the age of one was introduced on August 1, 2013.