"In Germany we need an entitlement to get a place in all-day primary school", Jörg Dräger, chairman of Bertelsmann Stiftung in charge of the education program, requests. "Offering reliable all-day primary schools means an improvement of the educational opportunities of children and at the same time helps to balance family and work." However, most of the states are far away from an adequate offer for all primary-school pupils: in each Eastern German state more than 60 per cent of primary-school pupils are using all-day care, in Berlin the participation rate also is at 70 per cent. Comparing states all over Germany the participation rates of Hamburg (nearly 48 per cent), Bremen (approx. 37 per cent), Saarland and North-Rhine Westphalia (about 29 per cent) are ranking in the middle. Just less than a quarter of all primary-school pupil are engaged in all-day care in Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein and Hessen (respectively 24 per cent). The areas in most need to catch up are Bavaria (around 16 per cent), Lower-Saxony (about 15 per cent) and Baden-Wuerttemberg (nearly 13 per cent).
While primary-school pupil in Eastern Germany are mostly cared by Hort Services in ECEC centers, in the West the open all-day primary school is more popular. The State-by-State report shows that Hort Services offer more extensive care and their staff have better qualifications than all-day primary schools: Hort Services offer opening hours on 4 to 5 days the week until at least 5 p.m. In contrast, according to the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) a school qualifies as all-day school when it offers opening hours on 3 days a week for 7 hours daily. The structured all-day primary schools at Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia are subject to different rules: They are open at least 4 days a week for 8 hours daily. In Berlin, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia they must additionally offer holiday care – Hort services generally do this as standard.
In most of the states obligatory minimum standards for qualification and quantity of staff members are regulated just in Hort Services of ECEC centers. For open all-day primary schools on the other hand, just half of the states have any regulations concerning the number of personnel, qualifications of staff or regarding the maximum size of the groups. In two states just pedagogic experts are allowed to work outside of tuition: in Saxony-Anhalt only teachers and pedagogues with awarded state recognition and in Berlin just pedagogues are accepted. "We are happy about the established quality standards in Hort Services.", Dräger comments on the results. "However, in the medium term we need structured all-day primary schools all-over Germany, because this is where children benefit most. The close co-ordination of pre- and afterschool care enables all children to be cared for individually and thus be better supported."
Data are based on the Federal Statistical Office, on the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs and on information provided by states in response to a written survey conducted by Bertelsmann Stiftung, compiled and calculated by the Research Consortium DJI/TU Dortmund. The State-by-State report offers an individual profile on the early education system of each state.