19.11.2010 - Ausgabe: 5/2010

More focus on early childhood education in Germany

Increasing numbers of 1- and 2-year-old children in Germany are making use of day care facilities. Last year, one in five children on average attended a pre-school or day care centre; in the case of 2-year olds, the figure was nearly 40%. This information is currently available online from the database of the ‘Ländermonitor Frühkindliche Bildungssysteme 2010’ site of the Bertelsmann Foundation. For the first time, visitors to the ‘Ländermonitor’ site can now obtain exclusive information on the amounts being invested by the various German states on early learning, child care and education in their regions; this shows that these vary considerably. While Berlin was the frontrunner, having invested an average of € 4150 for every child under the age of 6 years in 2007, Schleswig-Holstein brought up the rear by spending less than half that, some € 2000 per child.

According to the ‘Ländermonitor’, the number of children under the age of 1 year who were in day care and pre-school facilities fell last year. However, over Germany as a whole there are more and more young children aged 1 year and over who are taking advantage of the services offered by the early childhood education system. The pre-school education system has also been attracting more investment recently: related expenditure per child in Germany grew by 12% in the years 2005 - 2007.
This was not the case in all states; indeed, considerable differences with regard to outgoings in this sector are apparent when the individual states are compared. Berlin is closely followed by Hamburg, which spends around € 3400 per child under the age of six. At the bottom end of the investment table are Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. In order to be able to evaluate the relative generosity of each of the states, the money they spent on early childhood education was divided evenly by the number of children under the age of 6 years among their populations.
"If you cut corners when it comes to investing in pre-school and early childhood education, you will pay for it later”, warns Dr. Jörg Dräger, Chairman for Education of the Bertelsmann Foundation, in view of the ‘Ländermonitor’ figures. “International surveys and our studies have shown that there are benefits associated with investment in early childhood education.” According to Dräger, long term studies have demonstrated the positive effects of good child day care and pre-school facilities on the educational prospects for disadvantaged children. “The funds spent by society on good-quality early childhood education not only profit individual children but our national economy as a whole.”
Personnel costs represent the largest proportion of the capital invested in early childhood education. These costs are primarily determined by the number of children in day care, the duration of the care provided and the carer to child ratio. Those states that make pre-school facilities available to larger numbers of 3-year-olds are thus investing considerably more in the early education of their children. The average expenditure in the states of the former East Germany - approximately € 3000 per child - is thus higher overall than in the western German states, where the average is € 2400 per child. The Bertelsmann Foundation commissioned the research association of the German youth organisation (Deutsche Jugendinstitut) and Dortmund Technical University to carry out the analysis. The 2010 ‘Ländermonitor’ is currently evaluating the statistics for investment in facilities for children and youngsters in 2009. The individual investment rates are being calculated on the basis of the latest available figures for expenditure by local authorities and public bodies in 2005 to 2007 published by the Federal Office of Statistics, supplemented by data supplied by the states themselves.
(www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de)