Germany currently lacks around 384,000 daycare places, according to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation published in October 2022.

In order to meet the needs of all parents of kindergarten children in terms of care and to ensure that children are not only kept but also adequately nurtured, 308,807 additional specialists would have to be recruited nationwide in 2023 alone.

Of these, 87,403 will be needed in the eastern states and 221,404 in the western states.

The greatest shortage of educators is in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the current workforce should ideally be doubled to meet needs.

North Rhine-Westphalia has the highest absolute gap, with a shortage of more than 65,000 kindergarten teachers and social pedagogues in 2023 alone.

The question of where the urgently needed daycare staff will come from remains open.

New solutions must therefore be found. More practice-oriented training, which is already being used in many German states, is a step in the right direction.

In addition, qualified lateral entrants and everyday helpers could provide support in the daycare centers.

Similarly, uniform recognition of specialists throughout Germany is of great importance. At present, some federal states still require a re-examination when kindergarten teachers move to another state, which makes filling positions even more difficult.

All of these proposed solutions have a common goal: they should be implemented as quickly as possible, because the shortage of skilled workers affects not only daycare staff, but also parents and, above all, children.