Mainz (dpa/lrs) – The Rhineland-Palatinate state government wants to accelerate the expansion of daycare places with an additional total of 40 million euros. The funding for the coming year will be increased with five million euros from this special program, and 35 million will be made available in 2024, explained Education Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) on Monday in Mainz. She spoke of a “daycare powerhouse” that should support the municipalities even more. The money is intended for the construction, renovation or expansion of existing daycare centers. The opposition CDU parliamentary group spoke of a “drop in the ocean”.
“We don’t yet have enough places in Rhineland-Palatinate,” said auh Hubig. But children need their daycare center, and parents also need daycare places for their offspring in order to balance family and work. More and more parents had their children cared for longer in the facilities and registered their children earlier. Increasing care beyond midday makes sleeping and dining rooms necessary. All of this must be taken into account. “We want the municipalities to expand faster,” said Hubig.
The special program is also about maintaining or securing existing daycare places, explained Hubig. Carriers reported that without an expansion they would have to close groups if rooms were used for sleeping and eating, for example. “We don’t want that,” said Hubig.
The CDU parliamentary group’s daycare policy spokesman, Thomas Barth, said 40 million euros was too little. “Daycare expansion and conversion measures are a mammoth task,” he emphasized. In addition to sufficient money, there was a lack of flexible renovation concepts and alternative rooms that would make a conversion possible during ongoing operations. “The country is still lacking answers here.” The education policy spokesman for the Free Voters faction, Helge Schwab, welcomed the fact that the state was finally supporting the municipalities more. “We will keep an eye on developments.”
According to the state government, the financial help for the municipalities should be accompanied by technical knowledge on daycare construction. For this purpose, a separate website is to be created, which will, among other things, bundle information, list contact persons and show successful examples from practice. Daycare providers and municipalities should be provided with more know-how, said the President of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Care, Detlef Placzek. When it comes to money, it is assumed that the sum can be used to cover the needs of the municipalities.
Most recently, the Bertelsmann Foundation also came to the conclusion that there is a lack of daycare places in Rhineland-Palatinate; in the “State Monitoring for Early Childhood Education” the foundation spoke of around 27,400. Rhineland-Palatinate could claim the legal right to a daycare place The foundation complained at the end of November that it was still not being met in line with needs. In addition, a total of 5,300 skilled workers will be missing from daycare centers in Rhineland-Palatinate by 2025.
Hubig also admitted: “We see that we have many parents who do not have an offer that meets their needs.” In addition to the places themselves, Rhineland-Palatinate and all of Germany needed more educators. The minister referred to a campaign for more daycare professionals that was launched in February of this year. Hubig also said that training capacities in the country have been increased and the hurdles for the recognition of foreign skilled workers have been reduced. “It’s no longer about a little care in the morning,” she emphasized. “It’s really about education.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:231217-99-330096/6
2023-12-18 14:33:33
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