Germany proposes mandatory language tests for all four-year-olds in €9.25 billion Kita reform

The scale of the problem

Shortly before starting school, up to one third of children in Germany lack sufficient German language skills to follow classroom instruction, according to data from multiple federal states. The issue affects not only children from immigrant families but also native German speakers who struggle with formulation and comprehension. Education minister Karin Prien (CDU) argues that the gap in opportunity opens well before the first school bell rings.

The education gap is closed when a child is born, and it opens up until school enrolment, and after that it is only closed to an insignificant extent.

The legislative response

Prien's draft, titled the Kita-Startchancen-und-Qualitäts-Entwicklungsgesetz, was circulated on Wednesday 15 July 2026. It follows the 2019 Gute-Kita-Gesetz and the 2023 Kita-Qualitätsgesetz and implements coalition-agreement goals between the CDU and SPD. The federal government is pledging €9.25 billion through 2034, with the funds primarily earmarked to finance more intensive supervision and dedicated staff time for assessments and support.

Good education does not begin at school, but in the Kita.

The law targets three areas: bringing more children into public childcare, identifying language deficits as early as possible, and compensating for problems through targeted assistance. For the first time, the assessments (which also cover motor skills and general development) would follow nationally uniform standards and apply to four-year-olds who are not enrolled in a Kita as well as those who are.

What the tests and funding look like

The draft specifies that Kitas will receive personnel resources equivalent to two hours per child for conducting the assessment, plus at least 30 minutes per child per week for planning and accompanying follow-up support. Kitas with a high proportion of children in challenging circumstances (defined by financial need, non-German family language, or noticeable language-development issues) will receive additional staffing: facilities with 80 children get at least 20 extra specialist hours per week, those with more than 80 children get at least 40 hours, and those with more than 120 children get at least 60 hours. This enhanced support is to reach at least 10 percent of Kitas in every federal state.

The patchwork of current practice

Germany's national education report notes that only half of the federal states currently use statewide standardised observation procedures. School-entry examinations also vary, making results barely comparable. Several states have introduced programmes with names such as BaSiK, BeoKiz, HASE, and BaSis, and Hesse runs so-called preliminary courses before school entry, but coordination remains inconsistent.

The access barrier

Waltraud Weegmann of the German Kita Association points to a different bottleneck: children who most need language exposure often enter childcare too late. Although a legal entitlement to a childcare place from the first birthday has existed since 2013, Weegmann notes that some families cannot secure a place, find it too expensive, or are uneasy with the Kita system. When difficulties are only detected at age five, the window before school enrolment becomes too narrow.

If all children are to start school with excellent German skills, then we must ensure that they start Kita as early as possible.

Weegmann adds that for most children, language acquisition happens naturally in the daily Kita routine and does not require special programmes; only a small number have specific issues such as speech defects. The draft also enables Kitas and schools to share data from the language and development assessments, aiming to smooth the transition into primary education.