Regional day care management plan under fire

Pedagogues have handed Tórshavn City Council signatures protesting the plan to prioritise funding for regional leaders rather than hiring more pedagogues.

The City Council wants to set up a team of five regional managers to improve the link between the council’s own central administration and the nearly 40 management teams in day care centres across the municipality.

This plan has come under heavy criticism, not only from pedagogues but also from city council members.

Pedagogues, not managers needed

The council’s plan is estimated to cost at least DKK 2.5 million per year, money which could be spent much more wisely, according to city council member Anfinn Brekkstein.

“The challenge has always been to give greater priority to day care centres, but this new measure does not solve anything, and I feel it is my duty as a city council member to speak up about it,” he says.

“Spending much-needed cash on new management teams is the wrong way to go about it, because the money really ought to be spent on hiring more pedagogues in our day care centres.”

Signatures handed in

This sentiment is echoed in the Pedagogues’ Union, and pedagogues have handed protest signatures to the City Council in the hope that the plan will be taken back.

“We simply cannot accept this. The real problem is that we need more staff in our day-care centres, and once that problem has been solved, perhaps we could start looking at the management structure,” says pedagogue Edda Bjarkadóttir, one of the organisers behind the signature campaign.

Gunvør Balle, chairwoman of the City Council’s culture committee, says it is too early to comment on the matter as the council has not yet discussed the protests.

Translated by prosa.fo