Minister of Education Calls for Revisions to Federal Daycare Plans

Saxony’s Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, Conrad Clemens (CDU), sees a need for improvements to the federal government’s daycare plans. Specifically, he is referring to the draft bill for the Daycare Equal Opportunity and Quality Development Act. While it contains some good ideas, Clemens told the German Press Agency, citing, for example, the focus on early childhood education, language tests for all four-year-olds, and funding based on social factors.

Criticism: More Requirements for Less Money

“However, the draft combines more requirements with less support. That won’t work,” the minister said. In an area where the federal government does not have sole jurisdiction, he noted, it is seeking to impose high standards on local governments. “At the same time, it is cutting funding significantly. Instead of the previous 16 billion, there will only be around 9 billion for the coming years.”

The funds previously made available to the states—amounting to two billion euros annually—are to be reduced to 1.49 billion euros in 2027 and 2028, to 1.24 billion euros in 2029, and to 993 million euros annually between 2030 and 2034.

Federal Government Aims to Reverse the Trend in Education Policy

Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) presented the draft bill this week. With language tests for all four-year-olds and targeted support in daycare centers, she aims to reverse the trend in education policy. “After all, a good education doesn’t start in school, but in daycare,” said the minister. The new Daycare Act is intended to ease children’s transition to elementary school. To this end, the federal government has pledged a total of 9.25 billion euros through 2034. 

The background to this is the extremely unequal educational opportunities for children in Germany, which often become apparent as early as elementary school and persist throughout their entire educational careers.