In the course of the negotiations, the federal and state governments had also agreed on additional funds for the expansion of all-day school places as well as secretarial staff and psychosocial support for pupils at compulsory schools, which has now also been approved. The new 15a agreement on kindergartens stipulates that the federal government will give the federal states 200 million euros per year in the five kindergarten years 2022/23 to 2026/27 for early language support and expansion of the offer (each with 52.5 percent co-financing from the state ) as well as the free compulsory kindergarten year. In addition, the federal states can continue to use unused funds from the last three-year contract period. In the previous 15a agreement, which expires at the end of August, the federal states were most recently provided with funding of 142.5 million euros per year.
Above all, the money is to be used to expand the offer for children under the age of three and in underserved regions. In a first step, by summer 2023, a third of the under-threes should attend a kindergarten, and 52.8 percent of the places for older children should be compatible with full-time parents thanks to more flexible opening hours. The contract also stated that the countries should develop a proposal for common minimum quality standards in certain areas.
According to the Council of Ministers’ presentation, there will also be more funds for compulsory schools. Most recently, there were already additional administrative staff for the compulsory schools via a temporary AMS project. 400 jobs were mediated in this way, which is an expansion of 50 percent. From 2023/24, two thirds of the costs for the secretarial staff are to be covered by the financial equalization system, with a maximum of 15 million per school year for the federal states.
In addition, the federal government provides up to 7 million euros for psychosocial support staff via financial equalization, whereby the federal states have to bear half of the staff costs themselves. This means that the number of school social workers could be doubled compared to the last school year to up to 240, according to the Council of Ministers speech. Most recently, the co-financing was carried out via the Education Investment Act, which is now expiring.
In addition, the expansion of places in all-day schools, which stalled during the corona pandemic, is to be given momentum. By 2024/25, 230,000 places should be available; this goal had originally been set for autumn 2022. In the next two years, an additional 33 million euros will be available for the existing building and expansion. Together with the unused funds, a total of around 140 million euros will be available by 2024.
Source: Nachrichten
