Kita crisis in Berlin: A shortage of skilled workers brings educators to their limits!

Kita crisis in Berlin: A shortage of skilled workers brings educators to their limits!

in Berlin and Brandenburg, the situation in the daycare centers is dramatically head for: An alarming lack of specialists is troubled by the facilities, as current data from the Bertelsmann Foundation show. The proportion of trained educators has dropped from 53 % to only 35 % in the Berlin daycare centers in recent years, while the situation in Brandenburg is even more critical - here the proportion fell to 81 %. These worrying numbers illustrate how urgently a reform of the personnel key is urgently needed. Already 84 % of children in Brandenburg are cared for in groups that do not meet the child-friendly standards, in Berlin it is 77 %, as berlin-Live.de

Significant sick leave among daycare staff

The location is additionally tightened by high absenteeism of the employees. Kita employees in Brandenburg in 2023 were on sick leave on average 35 days a year-in Berlin it was even 36 days, which was well above the nationwide average of 20 days. Respiratory infections and mental illnesses are at the top of the causes of illness, as another study shows. This leads to a vicious circle: Because of the lack of personnel, the remaining specialists are overloaded and are therefore even more common. The Bertelsmann Foundation is now calling for an immediate improvement in the personnel situation in order to maintain the operation and secure the quality of the care, according to rbb24.de

These alarming developments put pressure on the Berlin education administration. The ver.di union therefore calls for a change in the political framework and criticizes that non -specialist forces are often set, which only exacerbates the situation. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, stable basic equipment could cost around 5.8 billion euros annually and would require almost 97,000 additional full-time positions to fill the daycare centers sufficiently and to offer children the care they urgently need.