Educators: all-rounders for a few euros
If I deliver my two boys in the morning in the kindergarten, I would have to address the governess actually with Mrs. doctor. What she can do: she is a specialist in early childhood learning. Artist with musical talent. Interpreter for German-Turkish. Therapist for divorce children. And sturdy lion tamer with iron nerves and noise-resistant hearing.
All this we demand from this demanding profession, and rarely were researchers and parents so unanimous: Until the age of seven children are laid the foundation for learning. An investment in kindergartens is therefore not alms, but the investment par excellence in the future. So far, the Sunday speeches, which are not held only since the Pisa study.
And what is the reality? Germany is at the bottom of the educator training. In almost all European countries, educators have to have attended high school and make a sound education at a college or university. In Germany, broadband training at a technical college is sufficient to cover all sorts of pedagogical professions, from caring for the homeless to working in kindergarten. According to bad the job is paid, about 1260 euros net earned a full-time educator. No wonder that hardly a man can ruin his nerves. Only two percent of educators are male. Too bad - because many children grow up only with mom and urgently need male role models.
And no wonder, that many good kindergarten teachers are looking for a bit of space after a short time, doing an advanced training or founding an Ich AG for rhythm lessons. Since German parents can then book in the afternoon for cash, which should actually offer the kindergarten. And why do we not qualify and pay the kindergarten teachers better, as do the less affluent EU countries? Because until today we have the old-fashioned idea that children are actually in the care of the family until school entry. Like the beginning of the 19th century, when the first "childcare centers" were built for women workers so that they would not be burdened with the welfare of the poor. Therefore, the municipalities are responsible to this day - and they have very little money.
A unique phenomenon in Europe: Almost everywhere, as for the schools, the Ministry of Education is responsible. The Germans have not even managed to tap into EU funds to promote educators training, which, for example, claimed Greece. That is why we now need development aid: at the University of Bressanone in South Tyrol, a few German educators are now allowed to complete their last year of training. Then we reimport them as academics. An indictment of our rich land.
The journalist Ursula Ott lives with her two children in Cologne.
