Saxony extends model project for all-day education

In Saxony, the model project "Ganzjahrespiloten" (all-year pilots) to dovetail school and after-school care will be extended for another school year. The project, which has been running since 2022, aims to enable all-day education and facilitate learning by increasing cooperation between teachers and after-school care professionals, Saxony's Ministry of Education announced.

The aim is for pupils to learn more successfully. Until now, lessons and after-school care have usually been clearly separated. The model is currently being tested at eleven locations - including eight elementary school, two special needs centers and one secondary school.

The implementation of the pilot project is also being scientifically supported by the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Dresden. In the long term, the aim is to develop models that can be extended to other schools.

The extension of the project was made possible by the adoption of the current double budget with the help of the votes of the Left and Green parliamentary groups. From next August, children at elementary school will have a legal entitlement to all-day care.

In light of this, the Green parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament is calling for more political attention to the issue of all-day care beyond the pilot projects. There are structural problems, said Christin Melcher, education policy spokesperson for the Green parliamentary group in the state parliament. This concerns, among other things, "the professionalization of staff" and the promotion of "cooperation structures between youth welfare (after-school care), schools and extracurricular places of learning".