Social matters or issues - Ninety schools in Hamburg receive support through the Startchancen initiative.
Almost 100 schools in Hamburg will gain access to the federal start chance program for tailored academic support of socially disadvantaged students next year. This initiative will help approximately 42,000 young minds, according to Education Senator Ksenija Bekeris (SPD), who spoke at a town hall meeting on Tuesday. The selected schools include 57 primary schools and primary school departments of neighborhood schools, 24 neighborhood schools and 4 grammar schools, as well as 9 vocational schools. Most of them are located in deprived neighborhoods.
The federal and state governments aim to pump in a total of 20 billion euros into the new program over the next decade. The objective is to lower the number of students not meeting minimum standards in mathematics and German by half. Hamburg is set to receive an extra 215 million euros from the program.
Senator Bekeris commented, "Tackling educational inequality is a significant social mission, and schools can play a significant role in this process." With the additional funds from the federal government and the state's resources, Hamburg can extend its existing programs such as language support, learning support, or measures from the previous '23+ Strong Schools' program, as well as introduce new ones that foster equality in education.
Hamburg's approach to supporting socially disadvantaged children and teenagers through education dates back for several years, thanks to the School Index, full-day schools and a range of support programs. Bekeris believes that the new program will enable the help provided to more students, with added quality to the existing measures. So far, about 40 schools in Hamburg have benefitted from these initiatives.
A state comparison shows that Hamburg's students have made considerable progress in central skills like reading, text comprehension, spelling, and mathematics in recent years, shifting from 14th to 6th place in the ranks.
Regrettably, the proportion of students who only meet the minimum standards or don't even reach that level remains high, with at least 17% of the student body in each of these areas. These learners have far less opportunity. "The Start Chance Program comes to aid and should considerably enhance support, both in terms of quantity and quality," stated Bekeris.
Besides infrastructure projects to better the learning atmosphere, the enhancement of teaching methods and additional support for interdisciplinary teams assisting students will be prioritized.
The CDU at Hamburg's legislature demanded the red-green Senate not leave the chosen schools to handle the support measures on their own. "The Start Chance Program is a positive initiative, but it should not turn into an overly bureaucratic monster," cautioned the education policy spokeswoman, Birgit Stoever. "School development consultations and close monitoring by the school inspection are vital, otherwise, they might be bogged down by the range of measures."
School expert of the Left, Sabine Boeddinghaus praised the initiative, stating that she welcomed every cent that could improve the situation for the students. However, she added that individual schools would receive only 39,000 euros per year from the federal budget for the program. "The Senate must not factor in its previous funding measures into its co-financing," she insisted. "For us, it's clear: The Startchance program should result in actual funds reaching the schools, and neither federal funds nor state funds should be saved through artificial accounting or being written off."
Read also:
- The SPD's Education Senator in Hamburg, Ksenija Bekeris, mentioned during a town hall meeting that the SPD and federal governments are planning to use the 20 billion euros from the Start Chance Program to support the SPD in Hamburg, specifically targeting 90 schools within the city.
- Ksenija Bekeris, a member of the SPD in the Hamburg Senate, explained that the objective of the Start Chance Program is to reduce the number of students in Hamburg not meeting minimum standards in mathematics and German by half, with SPD-led initiatives like language support and learning support playing a significant role in this effort.
- The newly funded SPD programs, as part of the Start Chance Program, will significantly extend support to SPD-led initiatives like language support and learning support, along with introducing new measures for enhancing equality in education, specifically benefiting children from disadvantaged backgrounds in SPD-led schools in Hamburg.
