The start of school after the summer holidays - Minister announces new school year
North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Education, Dorothee Feller, will inform on Thursday (11:00 AM) just before the end of the summer holidays about the focus points of the new school year. Major structural reforms are not planned for 2024/25.
However, the nationwide Startchancen program will begin with the new school year. Initially, 400 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia have been selected for funding. In total, 920 schools in challenging social situations will be specifically supported. The federal government will provide around 2.3 billion euros for this over the next ten years. The state also plans to invest.
Next week, around 2.5 million students will return to more than 5,400 schools. This is around 45,000 more children and young people than in the previous school year, according to the Ministry of Education in Düsseldorf.
More first-graders starting
According to the current student number forecast, around 180,000 students are expected to start in the first grades of public and private primary schools in the school year 2024/25. In 2023/24, around 4,000 fewer children started school, according to official school data.
First-graders can celebrate their first day of school with a candy bag and new backpacks on Wednesday or Thursday. All others will start the new school year on Wednesday after six and a half weeks of summer holidays.
Controversial teacher deployments
At the traditional press conference to mark the start of the school year, the recent ruling by the Administrative Court of Münster on teacher deployments to underserved schools in North Rhine-Westphalia is likely to be discussed. The court stopped the controversial practice last week in two cases, stating that the selection criteria were not appropriate.
This meant that emergency applications from a primary school teacher and a high school teacher were successful. However, the instrument of deployment has not been fundamentally abolished, the Ministry of Education emphasized.
The Minister's announcement about the focus points of the new school year will take place shortly before the 'Start of school'. Despite not planning major structural reforms for 2024/25, the nationwide Startchancen program will commence at this 'Start of school', providing support to 920 schools in challenging social situations.
