A recent report indicates that only 10% of Danish kindergartens provide a learning environment that effectively promotes children’s well-being, learning, development, and education. The study, commissioned by the Ministry of Children and Education, highlights concerns about the quality of care in the remaining kindergarten groups, particularly its impact on vulnerable children.

The report reveals that 60% of kindergartens offer a learning environment of sufficient quality, indicating responsible care, but with a need for improvements. However, 30% of kindergarten groups are considered to have insufficient learning environments, raising concerns about their ability to provide adequate support, especially for children in vulnerable positions.

The study emphasizes that nine out of ten daycare institutions have pedagogical learning environments of sufficient quality or lower, which might hinder their capacity to compensate for disadvantages faced by vulnerable children. The implications of inadequate pedagogical support are significant, potentially affecting all children’s needs, presence, care, meaningful activities, play, community, and participation opportunities.

The research, conducted by the National Center for Welfare Research (Vive) and the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA), involved observations, interviews with staff, municipal data on framework conditions, and Statistics Denmark data. It encompassed 100 daycare institutions across 56 municipalities, representing the entire country. The report found an average of 22 children per educator, but 7% of kindergarten groups had over 50 children per trained educator.

Bupl, the educators’ trade union, identifies a shortage of trained educators as a central challenge. They advocate for a long-term strategy that includes increased training opportunities for assistants and aides, as well as efforts to attract former educators back to the profession by improving working conditions. Data indicates that trained educators fill just under half of the full-time positions in the kindergartens. On average, there were seven children for each pedagogical employee during the observation period.