Survey: Children from Focus Kindergartens Often Lack School Readiness
70 percent stated that they did not have a good feeling about the school readiness of more than half of their children.
However, the final assessment of school readiness is not made by kindergarten educators, but by primary school teachers during school enrollment. Over 50 percent of the kindergarten management surveyed were very or rather dissatisfied with the cognitive and linguistic development of the children, and 60 percent were dissatisfied with the socio-emotional development. For children whose parents have immigrated from Turkey, the Arab or African regions, half of the management were concerned about their development.
For the study, a team led by Bernhard Koch (University of Education Tyrol) combined their surveys of kindergarten management from Styria and Upper Austria from 2024 with survey results from Tyrol and Vorarlberg from 2021. The target group was kindergartens where at least 50 percent of the children have a non-German first language and the parents mostly do not have a high level of education. In Upper Austria, this affects about 17 percent of the institutions.
Particularly Challenging Situation
The situation was particularly challenging in kindergartens where low parental educational levels, partly low parental involvement, dominance of a common first language other than German, and problems in all educational areas due to the children speaking little German, come together. In addition, there are the conditions in the kindergartens, where the staff has been demanding smaller groups and better care ratios for years.
Despite the label "focus kindergarten," the management of these kindergartens with high linguistic and cultural diversity were satisfied with the working atmosphere in their institutions. Despite intense debates about a shortage of staff, three-quarters were also rather or very satisfied with the number and qualifications, the same applied to cooperation with families. Nine out of ten managements stated that they live a culture of integration in everyday kindergarten life, for example by using or singing words or songs in other languages as a bridge to the children's cultures of origin. At the same time, it was important for three-quarters to convey values and customs from Austria.
59 percent of the management stated that working with children and families with a migration background had become "more difficult." Nine out of ten respondents saw it as a problem in their kindergarten that some children or their parents had too little contact with German-speaking children or parents, or that some parents were not aware of their important role in their children's German learning.
Research Team for Improvement of Care Ratio
According to the study authors, with regard to the immigration of people with low qualifications, the kindergartens examined could be seen as an "early warning system." Although the issues have been known for years and a lot has already been invested. "But it is to be expected that the challenges will increase in many more kindergartens," said Koch. Based on the results, the research team advocates, among other things, improving the care ratio in kindergartens and mixing children with different first languages more strongly. For kindergartens with many children who do not speak German as their first language and whose parents have little education and income, there must be more money. Education policy must also ensure that children can learn German by the age of three at the latest.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.