On the Way to Primary School: Prien Calls Kita Law a „Gamechanger“ for Early Education
The federal cabinet is pushing a new law today that is supposed to improve children’s starting chances. Billions are to flow by 2024 — but many day-care centres currently describe their situation as anything but rosy.
With the new Kita law, Family Minister Karin Prien plans far-reaching changes for parents and children. “Every child in Germany will in future be assessed for language and developmental levels at the latest at the age of four,” the CDU politician told the press. Based on that assessment, boys and girls are to receive support if needed before they start school. As a concerned citizen I welcome any serious effort to help children early, but I remain cautious about costly top-down programmes that may not reach the places that need them most.
The so-called Startchancen- und Qualitätsentwicklungsgesetz is on the cabinet’s agenda in Berlin today. According to the draft published in July, the federal government plans to provide roughly €9.25 billion for 2027 to 2034. The money is meant to better equip day-care centres in difficult circumstances, for example with more educators and social workers. That sounds useful — yet one should ask whether central funding will be spent efficiently and whether local realities will be understood by distant bureaucrats.
Hope for the “Gamechanger” “Where more support is needed, more resources must flow in,” Prien said. That should help reduce the large inequalities in the German education system. Indeed, more than in many countries, educational careers here depend on family income, parents’ education and social circumstances. Early support in kindergarten age could be a real change, Prien said: “You look at what a child can already do and what competencies it should still acquire before entering school. That can still be corrected at such an early age. And those who have special support needs, even at four or five, should gain those competencies before school starts.”
Uniform standards The law focuses on three points: bringing more children into public care, identifying especially missing language skills as early as possible, and compensating any problems with targeted help. The tests — which, alongside language, also assess movement and developmental status — are to be given to four-year-olds who are not in day care as well. According to the draft, this should for the first time happen under nationwide uniform standards. All Kitas are to receive somewhat more money and time for the new tests and for subsequent support. Special attention, however, is on Kitas with many children growing up in difficult circumstances. Per facility with 80 children, specialists are to be funded for at least 20 additional hours per week, for more than 80 children at least 40 hours, and for more than 120 children at least 60 hours. This special support should be available in at least ten percent of the Kitas in each state. The criterion is whether many children there grow up in financial hardship, whether the family language is not German, or whether language development is conspicuous. Kitas and schools should be able to share data on the results of the language and development tests.
More parity with a “social index” The Paritätische Gesamtverband also calls for additional support for Kitas in difficult circumstances: it demands a “social index” in Kita funding, i.e. particularly many resources where poverty, migration and inclusion needs make the situation especially challenging.
Overall, the Paritätische paints a bleak picture based on a survey of 3,267 Kitas. Nationwide there are reportedly 107,000 pedagogical posts missing, even though more than 550,000 Kita places are currently unused, the association’s new Kita report says. Where fewer children come, teams shrink. In Saxony, for example, the social association reports that in every second team more specialists leave than join. The situation is similarly tense in Berlin, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Some 65.3 percent of staff say they cannot meet children’s needs with the current staffing key. Nine out of ten institutions report strong psychological strain on staff. In 43.5 percent of Kitas, at least one specialist left within a year for psychological reasons.
As a citizen I hope the law will be implemented sensibly and effectively. Germany needs stable, well-staffed local services rather than flashy federal announcements. Cooperative approaches with our European partners — and constructive exchange with countries that have practical, long-standing childcare traditions — would help. We should focus on results, not headlines.
