Measures that primarily affect children

Every day, STIBO staff welcome our children with empathy, care and experience.

Cutting morning supervision is not just an organisational choice.

It is the removal of an essential buffer, a gentle start to the day that for many children makes the difference between a calm start and a chaotic morning full of stress.

What's more, the helping hands that support teachers until 11 a.m. will disappear:
changing nappies, comforting upset toddlers, assisting with basic care—tasks without which a class group can hardly remain functional. How can one expect a reception class to function effectively without this support?

Serious consequences for families, especially the most vulnerable

The abolition of early childcare places the entire burden on parents and schools. And the price increase makes childcare less accessible for those who are already struggling to make ends meet. It is mainly single parents, families with atypical hours, and families in precarious situations who will bear the brunt of this.

For children, this also means less access to a caring, social environment where they can play, develop and feel safe. A child does not grow up only at home: it grows up in a community, with peers and carers who see, hear and understand them.

A blow to schools that are already under pressure

It is said that morning supervision will not disappear, but that schools will have to “organise it themselves”. Everyone in education knows what that means: even more tasks, even fewer resources, and even more pressure on a system that is already creaking. Schools cannot cope with this without sufficient support. In practice, this shift is nothing less than a silent cost-cutting measure that is being passed on elsewhere.

A loyal and competent team now being pushed into uncertainty

The STIBO teams consist of permanent care workers. They do their job for our children with heart and soul, but the current workload is already heavy to bear.

Many of them have organised their own families around the early shift, which allowed them to pick up their own children on time. With the abolition of morning supervision, they are now obliged to work until 6 p.m. every day—an impossible task for those who have children themselves.
The fact that they now have to train colleagues who will replace them tomorrow, not because they are doing their job badly, but because they are “too expensive”, is downright disrespectful. Putting pressure on them to change jobs in order to make up for the shortages in the city's crèches is also disrespectful.

As parents, we find this unacceptable, inhumane and totally incompatible with the values that the City of Ghent claims to defend.

We call for dialogue, solidarity and action.

We are writing this letter not only to inform, but also to mobilise.
We ask all parents, all residents of Ghent, all teachers and all childcare colleagues to stand together for a humane, stable and fair system.

And we urge the City Council to:

• not cut back on childcare
• not implement price increases
• engage in genuine dialogue with staff
• and give greater weight to the social impact of these decisions than to the financial spreadsheet.

Because a budget is a political choice. And today, it is about more than just numbers: it is about our children and the dignity of those who care for them.

For our children.
For our schools.
For the city staff.

The parents of Ghent's municipal primary schools