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🇦🇹 Austria /Culture & Society

Study: Austria added childcare facilities, but quality did not improve

From Der Standard · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data Context piece
  • Austria increased the number of public childcare services by 5% over six years, according to a study by the Austrian Institute for Family Research.
  • Average kindergarten opening hours rose only slightly, from 8.8 to nine hours between 2016/17 and 2022/23, while group sizes stayed almost unchanged.
  • Family Minister Claudia Bauer said the country had not yet achieved the level of choice for families that policymakers want.

Austria has expanded its public childcare network, but a new study says the growth has done little to change the everyday conditions for children and parents.

The number of public childcare services rose by 5% over six years. Yet group sizes remained almost the same, and opening hours increased only marginally, from an average of 8.8 hours in 2016/17 to nine hours in 2022/23.

The findings come from a study by the Austrian Institute for Family Research on spending for early childhood education and childcare in Austria. Family Minister Claudia Bauer presented the results on Monday together with study author Markus Kaindl and Johannes Pressl, president of the Austrian Association of Municipalities.

Bauer said the expansion had not delivered the flexibility families were seeking. “It is not yet the freedom of choice we wish for,” she said. The study therefore points to a gap between the growth in available facilities and improvements in the quality and accessibility of care.

It is not yet the freedom of choice we wish for.

· Claudia BauerAustria's family minister described the remaining shortcomings in childcare access and flexibility.
About this summary

Originally published by Der Standard in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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