Munich (dpa / lby) – The association of daycare professionals in Bavaria has sharply criticized the new line of the Ministry of Social Affairs of deliberately forgoing quality education in children’s facilities. The association appealed to all daycare providers not to implement the innovations.

Social Affairs Minister Ulrike Scharf (CSU) had announced that she would deliberately make cutbacks in the education of small children due to the shortage of skilled workers. In the current kindergarten year, for example, children up to the age of four can also be cared for by untrained staff in so-called entry groups.

“We are convinced that the changes now endanger the well-being of the child, the duty of supervision and the right to education even more,” says the association’s statement. “Parents now knowingly have to accept that their children spend a lot of time during their most important and extremely useful development phase in facilities that cannot ensure sufficient quality,” the association continues to criticize. The government’s focus appears to be on allowing parents to work at all costs.

Minister of Social Affairs Scharf rejected the criticism. “Nothing will change in the regular operation in the daycare centers, the model projects will change to measures in the area of ​​mini daycare centers, large day care and the new entry-level groups,” she emphasized. The aim of the measures is to maintain the municipalities’ ability to act and to open up the opportunity for high-quality early childhood education, upbringing and care. “In times of rising energy costs and high inflation, parents will have to work more in the future and take longer hours accordingly. We cannot ignore that,” wrote Scharf in a letter in reply to the association. “And these developments were not foreseeable even with the most differentiated youth welfare planning.”

The minister called on the association to recruit new employees in the day-care centers together with the Free State and the municipalities. “With your association work, you make a significant contribution to how the professional field becomes known to the public,” wrote Scharf to her critics. “Here I also expect from you as a specialist association that you keep an eye on the big picture and help to classify it correctly.”

© dpa-infocom, dpa:220902-99-605253/3