Emergency plan in Vienna's kindergartens: Lack of Personnel meets families hard

Emergency plan in Vienna's kindergartens: Lack of Personnel meets families hard

Wien-Donaustadt is currently faced with a serious challenge in the field of early childhood education. Due to the shortage of personnel, the Bildungscampus Attemsgasse activated a special emergency plan last week. This measure, which is known as the "step plan", ensures that children whose parents are not working must temporarily remain at home.

The magistrate department 10 (MA 10), responsible for the Viennese kindergartens, confirmed that this step became necessary to avoid the closure of entire groups. Karin Broukal, the management of MA 10, made it clear that the parents are not forced to keep their children at home. The aim of these measures is to minimize the effects on the children's learning and game environment.

The background of the personnel emergency

A moment, a wave of illness has tightened the already tense personnel situation in the Viennese kindergartens. Special challenges occur in urban institutions, where even the emergency plan from the pandemic periods had to be returned. An additional pressure arises from the personnel bottleneck: around 740 educators for over 200 groups are missing in the municipal kindergartens.

"The duty to kindergarten must not be violated," continued Broukal. It is ensured that children are not excessively excluded from the care last year, which is mandatory for entering school. "No child is sent home for a whole week during kindergarten obligation," she emphasizes. The legally required childcare period is 20 hours a week.

resources and solutions

The situation was still exacerbated by inflation and increased living costs, which means that the places in urban kindergartens are increasingly rare. In contrast, private institutions are often not fully utilized, which presents parents before additional decisions.

In order to cope with the shortage of personnel, measures have already been taken in summer. Manfred Obermüller from the Younion union reported that external cleaning staff had to be hired in order to have more staff available for the pedagogical tasks. "It is dramatic that the mandatory year cannot be offered for all children," he added.

The union also urges the federal government to improve the situation in the long term. Obermüller demands that political responsibility are clearly recognized so that the important topics related to kindergartens will be treated appropriately in the future.

These developments throw a light on the current challenges in the field of early childhood education in Vienna and illustrate how important it is to seriously address this problem. Further details can be found in a report on wien.orf.at .