With the upcoming model for minimum staffing ratios, there is a prospect of a reckoning with the early promotion to kindergarten, which has been common practice in Herning Municipality for far too long.

Now, the nursery staffing ratio must follow the children if they are moved up to kindergarten before they have turned 3 years old. That is 1 pedagogical staff per 3 children. This means that it will now be impossible to pressure the children into an earlier promotion to save money.

A place in a nursery or daycare costs more than a place in kindergarten, but being a nursery child and thus having a staffing ratio that is twice that of being a kindergarten child has its reasons. In addition to the physical ones, such as the fact that more diapers need to be changed, a greater need for help to get around and up and down from chairs, there are also the frameworks that may not be as easy to spot, such as what impact it has on the child’s well-being and development in relation to other people.

Danish research shows that the brain’s ability to adapt and develop is greatest up to the age of 7. If children are moved to kindergarten at 2 years and 9 months instead of 3 years, they lose 5 percent of the total time up to the age of 7 with the best conditions for development. Time that could have developed the child and increased its well-being. In relation to the total time in the nursery, calculated from the child starting at the age of 9 months, an earlier promotion would involve more than 10 percent of the child’s time in the nursery.

By giving children 3 months more in the nursery before they are moved to kindergarten, more will develop better relationships in play and interaction with the other nursery children and adults. At the same time, more nursery children will be finished using diapers, so the kindergarten staff will have more time for the whole group of children. In addition, the daycare providers will have more time for their group of children, as the average age in their group of children will be increased a little.

The statutory staffing ratios come into force in 2024, but why should the children in Herning Municipality wait as long as possible to get decent conditions? I think it’s time to do something now!

This reader’s letter has been translated from Danish.