Hesse: Thousands of specialists for all-day care are missing in Hesse

Wiesbaden/Gütersloh (dpa/lhe) - According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, there will be a lack of thousands of additional educators for all-day care in Hesse in the coming years.

Hesse: Thousands of specialists for all-day care are missing in Hesse

Wiesbaden/Gütersloh (dpa/lhe) - According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, there will be a lack of thousands of additional educators for all-day care in Hesse in the coming years. With the currently existing training capacities, a gap of more than 5,000 educators must be expected by 2030, according to the expert opinion published on Tuesday.

Last September, the federal and state governments decided on a legal entitlement to all-day care in primary schools, which is being gradually introduced. From the 2026/2027 school year, the regulation will apply to children in the 1st grade, from 2029/2030 to all grades. By the end of the decade there should be a place for every child with support for 40 hours per week.

"Hesse will not be able to implement the legal entitlement for all children by 2030, because the need for skilled workers can hardly be covered by then," explained Kathrin Bock-Famulla, an expert on early childhood education at the Bertelsmann Foundation. Hesse must therefore launch a long-term specialist offensive with all those responsible in order to give every primary school child the best educational opportunities.

According to the foundation, 53 percent of primary school children in Hesse are currently cared for all day. This puts the federal state slightly above the West German average of 47 percent. A shorter afternoon offer until 2.30 p.m. would be attended by 18 percent of the children. If some of the children continued to take advantage of the shorter care in the coming years, the shortage of staff would be significantly lower: Then only around 900 additional educators could be missing, according to the "Specialist Radar for KiTa and Primary School 2022".