Support children earlier, know

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Support children earlier

Long before the alleged "Seriousness of life" children who have started school have the right to education. According to a representative survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation, about 84 percent of the German population. To kick off their project "Support children earlier" the foundation had started the study a year ago. According to Bertelsmann, 2,500 men and women aged 14 and older were interviewed on the topic of early childhood education. The experts made statements for the general population as well as for the group of parents surveyed.

For about a third of those surveyed, the right to education begins at birth, and for about half, this entitlement is at the latest when they start kindergarten, i.e. at the age of three. In the group of parents surveyed, the study also showed: the higher the own Education qualification, the sooner they apply their children’s educational entitlement. 60 percent of parents with a (technical) high school diploma stated that there was an educational right from birth. With parents with "medium maturity" it was 35 percent, for mothers and fathers with a primary or secondary school leaving certificate 25 percent.

Most of the respondents were not satisfied with the public offers for early childhood support between the ages of 0 and six years. According to the survey, 60 percent of Germans consider the current offers and political actions to be insufficient (46 percent) or even inadequate (14 percent).

Not surprisingly, the parents were even more dissatisfied with the public offerings – it was 64 percent. It is astonishing, however, that parents in eastern Germany are even more dissatisfied with the involvement of the state and local authorities (75 percent) – even though more childcare places are available in the new federal states and childcare for those aged 0 to 3 years traditionally plays a greater role than in the west.

A right to education for children under the age of three – East and West Germans agree – should be enshrined in law – in the form of a nationwide legal right to education and childcare (60 percent). The red-green federal government had considered just that when it passed the Day Care Extension Act in 2004. However, unlike the legal right to a kindergarten place (from the age of three), the coalition decided not to do so for cost reasons.

More crèche places alone do not create educational quality – the Bertelsmann Foundation also addressed this in its survey. Not only the scope and price, but also the quality of the offer play an important role in early childhood support, say 81 percent of those surveyed. The offers for toddlers (0 to three years) would have to "binding quality criteria" correspond. In this context, more than two thirds of the respondents (68 percent) supported pedagogical training for child minders.

Also about The Bertelsmann Foundation wanted to invest in education to get an opinion. The survey showed that 48 percent of the total population (55 percent of parents) would direct public investment in offers for the first ten years of life. The state should invest the most not in secondary schools or universities, but in primary schools.

Another key message from the study could provide politicians with a template to rethink education funding: 80 percent of parents would like to be able to choose between childcare allowance and free education and childcare services for children under the age of three. (Ki)

Support children earlier

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