Federal Family Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has praised the compromise of the mediation committee of the Federal Council and the Bundestag on all-day care in primary schools. She spoke of a good day for families in Germany. The all-day entitlement in elementary school age is "a very important setting of the course for more fairness in education and a better work-life balance," explained Lambrecht. All-day education and care offers ensured that “all children have good opportunities, regardless of their origins and their parents' wallet”. The investments of the federal government for the new legal claim amounted to up to 3.5 billion euros, so Lambrecht.
Lambrecht went on to say that the law ensures "that all children have good opportunities, regardless of their origin and their parents' wallet".
In addition to the better compatibility of family and work and the provision of skilled workers for companies, the coalition had also promoted the all-day expansion with the argument of greater equal opportunities.
The former Family Minister Franziska Giffey (also SPD) had said that children who sat unsupervised in front of the television or gambled on their mobile phones after school were giving away their potential.
Karliczek: Important course setting
Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) also spoke of a very good result for families and children in Germany. “All-day care is a huge step for parents to be able to better combine family and work in the future,” she said. "Above all, however, there are new opportunities to improve our children's educational opportunities." Because even in primary school, important groundwork is being set for how a child develops.
The mediation committee of the Bundesrat and Bundestag agreed on Monday evening on a legal right to all-day care in the elementary school. Accordingly, from the school year 2026/27, every child who starts school should be entitled to a full-day place in the first four school years, as the Bundestag announced on Monday evening. Several East German federal states have already anchored this claim; the rest must now follow suit and create new full-time places. The Bundestag and Bundesrat still have to approve the compromise. The Federal Council should decide on Tuesday, the Federal Council in September.
The Green politician Britta Haßelmann said it was important to the Greens that the legal claim “not in the last few meters” before the federal election falls under the table. The parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Carsten Schneider, emphasized that children and families have in beared considerable burdens during the months of the pandemic. Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) told the German Press Agency that the legal right to all-day places at elementary schools is a milestone for the compatibility of family and work. The deputy Union parliamentary group leader Nadine Schön (CDU) said: "After the introduction of the legal right to a childcare place for daycare children, we are now finally closing the" care gap ",which, above all, is forcing numerous women in the West German federal states to start schooling their children into part-time work. "
The Federal Council called the mediation committee at the end of June. The federal states had called for a number of changes to the law passed by the Bundestag on June 11th, which concerned the financing of all-day care. The compromise that has now been reached provides, among other things, that federal financial aid will also be granted for the maintenance of existing childcare places and not just for the creation of new places. In addition, the federal government contributes up to 70 percent instead of 50 percent of the investment costs. "A shovel up", as it was said, was mainly due to the running costs for the operation of the all-day places. Berlin now wants to support the federal states with 1.3 billion euros per year in the long term. That is a good 300 million more per year than was last promised.
Without the last-minute agreement, the law, which was anchored as a goal in the coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD, would have had to be re-introduced and negotiated by a new Bundestag. The Green politician Britta Haßelmann said it was important to the Greens that the legal claim “not in the last few meters” before the federal election falls under the table. The parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Carsten Schneider, emphasized that children and families have in beared considerable burdens during the months of the pandemic. With the compromise, a central project of this government will be realized, said Karliczek. This is an "important contribution to the modernization of the country".