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Awo-Kita in Hannover (archive image)
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/ dpa
The "body exploration room" announced by a day-care center of the Hanover Workers' Welfare Association has been stopped by the State Youth Welfare Office in Lower Saxony. In the opinion of the authority, the pedagogical concept endangers the well-being of the child in this form and does not exist, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education in the capital of Lower Saxony. Previously, the "Bild" newspaper had reported that the daycare center had announced the establishment of such an exploration room in a letter to parents and set rules in it.
Among other things, a rule from the letter obtained by the newspaper reads: "Every child decides for himself whether and with whom he wants to play physical and sexual games."
According to the chairman of the board of directors of the Awo Region Hannover, the parents' letter of the daycare center had not been coordinated and approved with the specialist advice of the Workers' Welfare Association. The impression given by the head of the daycare center that the Ministry of Education is calling for "body exploration rooms" is also wrong.
According to the ministry, the state youth welfare office has made the condition for the further operation of the facility that the pedagogical concept of the Awo daycare centers in Hanover as well as the child protection concept with external advice must be revised immediately. All Awo daycare centers in Hanover are affected. Awo confirmed that the concept is currently being revised with the regulator and external consultants.
In the Awo daycare centers, there are no rooms in which children are encouraged or motivated to nudity or body exploration games, emphasized the Awo chairman of the board. The previous internal working aid of the daycare center counseling nevertheless contains a text module on rules for body exploration games of children, which comes from trade magazines of ProFamilia. This tool is now being reviewed.
czl/dpa