The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs wants to make the funds from the “Action Program Catching Up After Corona” available for children and young people as quickly as possible. To this end, the existing program is primarily to be increased.
“We use our nationwide network of partners because, on the other hand, it would not be possible at all to use so many funds in such a short time on site,” said State Secretary Juliane Seifert on Monday in Berlin. These are “proven and stable” programs.
For the catch-up package, the federal government is making a total of two billion euros available for children and young people and their families. One billion euros flows through the Ministry of Education into tutoring and support programs for students with learning backlogs. The Ministry of Family Affairs awards a further billion euros for early childhood education, school social work and for leisure activities.
The first offers would be concrete from the summer, said Seifert. However, it is not a matter of “short-term measures”, because the catch-up program will run until the end of 2022. “Children and young people spent the last year under very difficult conditions,” emphasized the State Secretary. Many suffered and fear of the future and loneliness. Some would have problems finding their way back to everyday life.
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“It’s not just about the students catching up on the material they missed,” said Seifert. “They should be able to regain their social life, meet friends, play sports and take advantage of leisure activities.”
State Secretary: Not serious to speak of a drop in the ocean
As the first element of the Corona catch-up package, the Bundestag had already decided on the children’s leisure bonus last Friday. From August, families with low incomes will receive an extra payment of 100 euros per child from the state. It can be spent on vacation, sport or leisure activities.
The payment goes to families who are dependent on Hartz IV, who are entitled to housing benefit or child allowance or who receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. The bill assumes around 2.7 million children. Most families do not have to submit a separate application and receive the bonus automatically.
For example, the federal program “Language Daycare Centers”, which promotes linguistic education in child day care, will be topped up by 100 million euros by the end of 2022. The funds are to be used to support up to 1,000 new additional skilled workers.
The application process has been running since June 7th. “This means that the new skilled workers can start punctually for the start of the new daycare year,” promised State Secretary Seifert. It had been checked that there were enough educators who could become specialists for language development.
According to the Ministry of Family Affairs, the federal government is providing the federal states with 220 million euros to strengthen school social work. This is done through an amendment to the Financial Equalization Act. For this purpose, federal-state agreements have been concluded in which the states explain what they want to spend the money on.
State Secretary Seifert underlined that it was about areas in which there was a “high level of responsibility” of the federal states. It is due to the special situation caused by Corona that the federal government has decided to provide additional funds.
To the total of two billion euros of the federal government must be added what the states financially. The public sector invests 51 billion euros annually in child and youth welfare alone – regardless of Corona. To speak of a “drop in the ocean” is therefore “not serious”.
FDP calls for a nationwide and scientifically supported inventory
According to the FDP parliamentary group, there is no basic inventory of the effects of the pandemic on children and young people. The “consequences of the Corona restrictions on development and educational opportunities as well as the psychological and physical health of children and adolescents must finally be taken seriously by politicians,” states the “act without delay” motion that the parliamentary group has decided and the Handelsblatt is available.
It goes on to say that children and young people have been exposed to stigmatization time and again since the beginning of the pandemic. Optionally, they were dubbed “virus throwers” or reckless “party goers”. Now there is talk of a “lost generation Corona”.
The FDP parliamentary group calls for a “nationwide and scientifically supported inventory” of the mental and physical health of children and adolescents as well as their level of development and learning in the application that is to be submitted to the Bundestag.
At the same time, “best practice” examples of structural and content-related innovation ”from practice in education and child and youth work are to be identified.
The child and youth policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Matthias Seestern-Pauly, accused the federal government of having “grounded” its family policy in the corona crisis. He demanded quick support: “We must not now let the young generation down by inaction.”
More: According to economists, the long-term costs of Corona in Germany are extremely high
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