Kita Teddy in Plauen closes: too few children, new plans!

Kita Teddy in Plauen closes: too few children, new plans!

Plauen, Deutschland - In Stölligt at Plauen, the “Teddy” daycare center is closed at the change of school year 2024/2025. The reason for this decision lies in a merging with the neighboring "Kemmlerzwerge" daycare center in Oberlosa, which promises better utilization and use of resources in the region. Despite the efforts to advertise the facility in the past two years with a village character, the occupancy rate was left behind the expectations. This reports Freie Presse .

But the closure of the "Teddy" daycare center is only part of a larger trend in Saxony. The need for daycare places in the big cities has decreased dramatically, and according to the MDR, six kindergartens must be closed in Dresden by 2026 and until 2029, which concerns a total of 3,500 places. Kitas that are temporarily accommodated in containers are particularly affected, while job offers must also be reduced in Leipzig and Chemnitz. The birth level fell from 1.6 to 1.24 children per woman, which leads to a drastic change in children's number forecast.

demographic changes

Another aspect of this development can be seen in the current birth rate: Around 21,000 children aged three to seven years come to daycare centers every year, while this number will fall to just around 17,600 in three to five years. This imbalance means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the educators who make a high workload in Saxony (the childcare key is 17.7 children per supervisor). In Leipzig, 1,000 fewer births were registered last year, and this decline is expected to continue until 2027, as ZDF reports.

The circumstances mean that not only daycare centers close, but also suffer the quality of the care. The unions warn of impending job cuts for educators. At the same time, some cities see the opportunity to use the situation to renovate the remaining facilities and invest in the quality of early childhood education. The Saxon Minister of Culture Christian Piwarz emphasizes that this demographic change can also be viewed as an opportunity to invest in the future of the daycare centers.

challenges and opportunities

Overall, the daycare centers in Saxony face major challenges. While there was a lack of childcare places in the past, the picture is now changing rapidly. Cities use this opportunity to close or renovate institutions that are in poor condition. The possibility of improving the personnel key in the daycare centers and increasing the quality of early childhood education is considered a positive turn in the current situation. According to ZDF, children from socially disadvantaged families still have less access to daycare places, which is an additional social dimension in the discussion about daycare structure.

The situation in the daycare centers is therefore more complex not only through the dwindling number of children, but also through the steadily increasing need for individual care, especially from socially conspicuous children. It will be exciting to observe how the Saxon cities will develop in dealing with these long -term trends.