The majority of Germans are in favor of a law requiring children to attend kindergarten from the age of four. 82 percent support this demand. If you only ask the mothers and fathers concerned, approval even rises to 87% – and this is largely across party and lifestyle boundaries.
Only 18% of German citizens reject compulsory kindergarten – men (22%) more often than women (14%). This group would like parents to be able to refuse the institution of kindergarten, according to some of the questions on this topic that infas asked in cooperation with the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) as part of an even more comprehensive survey of 1,500 German citizens.
Respondents were also asked about the reasons for their negative attitude. Of the just under one-fifth who are against compulsory attendance, 15 percent are of the opinion that kindergarten attendance does not promote the child’s development. However, this is only around three percent of all respondents. 71% of those opposed to compulsory attendance believe that the relationship of trust between parents and nursery teachers would be disturbed.
More than one in two kindergarten skeptics are more pragmatic and doubt whether there are currently enough childcare places available for all children of the right age. In turn, 45 percent believe that the quality of childcare would suffer under compulsory kindergarten. These critics could presumably be won over to compulsory kindergarten if the necessary facilities and quality of the institution were guaranteed. Persuasion, sufficient funding and transparency would therefore further increase the already high proportion of supporters (89%).
