Daycare center Teddy” in Plauen closes: too few children, new plans!

Daycare center Teddy” in Plauen closes: too few children, new plans!

In Stöckigt near Plauen, the “Teddy” daycare center will be closed at the start of the 2024/2025 school year. The reason for this decision is a merger with the neighboring “Kemmlerzwerge” daycare center in Oberlosa, which promises better utilization and use of resources in the region. Despite efforts to promote the facility with a village character over the last two years, occupancy has fallen short of expectations. This reports Free press.

But the closure of the “Teddy” daycare center is only part of a larger trend in Saxony. The need for daycare places in large cities has fallen dramatically, and according to the MDR, six kindergartens in Dresden will have to close by 2026 and five by 2029, affecting a total of 3,500 places. Daycare centers that are temporarily housed in containers are particularly affected, while job vacancies also have to be reduced in Leipzig and Chemnitz. The birth rate has fallen from 1.6 to 1.24 children per woman, leading to a drastic change in the number of children forecast.

Demographic changes

Another aspect of this development can be seen in the current birth figures: around 21,000 children between the ages of three and seven come to daycare centers every year, while this number will fall to only around 17,600 in three to five years. This imbalance means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for educators, who have a high workload in Saxony (the care ratio is 17.7 children per caregiver), to meet the requirements. There were 1,000 fewer births registered in Leipzig last year, and this decline is expected to continue until 2027, as ZDF also reports.

The circumstances mean that not only daycare centers are closing, but the quality of care is also suffering. The unions are warning of the threat of job losses 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 Education, Christian Piwarz, emphasizes that this demographic change can also be viewed as an opportunity to invest in the future of daycare centers.

Challenges and opportunities

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

The situation in daycare centers is becoming more complex not only due to the dwindling number of children, but also due to the constantly increasing need for individual care, especially for children with social-emotional problems. It will be exciting to see how Saxon cities develop in dealing with these long-term trends.