Schwerin (dpa / mv) – Working parents in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania can have their primary school children looked after for up to ten hours a day free of charge in the holiday resort from next week. On Wednesday, the state parliament decided to change the child day-care law with the votes of the red-red government camp. Critical tones came from the opposition: It was an expensive gift and there were not enough staff to ensure quality care for the children.
The Minister of Education responsible for day-care centers, Simone Oldenburg (left), defended the new social benefit. The free after-school care has been a reality during the summer holidays since 2020, she said. The offer was introduced during the corona pandemic and financed from the MV protection fund, and it is now being made permanent. According to Oldenburg, many after-school care centers in the state offer care for at least a few weeks during the holidays. Before 2020, only six hours of holiday home care were free. Anything more than that was paid for by the parents.
The Greens politician Anne Shepley appealed to the government to first hire more educators, to enforce a nationwide minimum staff ratio and to significantly improve the skilled worker-child ratio before further free-of-charges are granted. Four out of five educators no longer felt able to meet the needs of the children, Shepley said, citing a survey by a large social association. Speakers from the CDU and FDP made similar statements. However, the Jamaican opposition failed with their demands, which they had formulated in a joint application.
The parliamentary group leader of the left, Jeannine Rösler, replied that the state government had the qualitative improvement in childcare in mind. This year and next, 15.2 million euros are planned for a specialist offensive and the minimum staffing ratio, she said. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is repeatedly criticized in nationwide studies on the quality of childcare because one specialist is responsible for a comparatively large number of children. In the case of 0 to 3-year-olds, for example, there are six children per teacher. A ratio of 3 to 1 is recommended.
