Children are entitled to a daycare place from the age of one. But the latest figures show that there is far too little capacity across Germany.
According to official calculations, 378,000 places in day-care centers were missing across Germany. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Family Affairs to a request from the left, which the German Press Agency has received.
Accordingly, in 2021 – this is the most recent available data – there were 291,000 places missing in the age group one to three years. In the age group between three and six years there are 87,000 places. First, the editorial network Germany (RND) reported about it.
Chronically underfunded daycare system on the verge of collapse
Despite a legal entitlement to a daycare place for children from the age of one, the children are “denied the opportunity for early childhood education and social learning”, criticized the children and youth policy spokeswoman for the left-wing faction, Heidi Reichinnek. “But instead of the federal government taking these numbers as an opportunity to finally give municipalities and states appropriate support in expanding daycare centers, they continue to shirk their responsibilities.”
The federal government does not bear more than 2.8 billion euros of the constantly increasing costs for day-care centers, which are now almost 50 billion euros a year. Even the investment program for day-care centers announced in the coalition agreement does not exist to this day – the chronically underfunded day-care system is on the verge of collapse like never before, said Reichinnek.
The inquiry shows that between 2020 and 2022 additional places were created for almost 10,000 children under the age of three and for around 87,000 children between the ages of three and six.
