Minister of Culture - Piwarz sees schools at breaking point due to migration
Saxony's Minister of Culture Christian Piwarz (CDU) believes that schools in the state are reaching their limits due to the high number of children and young people with foreign roots. Integration work in a class can only be achieved up to a proportion of around 30 percent of pupils with a migration background, he said in an interview with the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" newspaper on Wednesday. "That's what all the experts say, and that's what our concept is based on. And if the proportion is higher - and it is significantly higher at quite a few schools in Saxony - it is precisely this integration effort on our part that is not successful."
Piwarz also attributed Germany's poor performance in the current Pisa study to this. "Pupils entering first grade in Saxony show development and performance differences of more than two years. This shows that something is going wrong." The number of pupils from other countries has tripled in less than ten years. "This is not leaving the education system unscathed."
Saxony had already announced that some of the unaccompanied refugee minors would no longer be taught in regular classes in order to ease the burden on the school system. According to Piwarz, the concept is to be implemented from the 2024/2025 school year. It will hardly be possible to lead the young refugees to graduation in the two or three remaining years of their compulsory schooling. "Instead, we have to make sure that we teach them German first and foremost and ensure that they can start an apprenticeship."
The Education and Science Union (GEW) disagreed with the minister. GEW head Burkhard Naumann saw the comments as an attempt to divert attention from home-made problems. "Education Minister Piwarz is right that our education system is at its absolute limit. However, the problem did not suddenly arise due to immigration, but is the result of years of misguided education policy."
According to Naumann, dealing with heterogeneity is the main problem. "The educational success of young people still depends much more on their social background than on their own learning and performance abilities. This is why the integration of children from other countries, some of whom have had traumatic experiences, is so difficult," explained Naumann. The main reasons for this are the overburdening of teachers and the lack of support systems.
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- Christian Piwarz, the Minister of Culture from the Free State of Saxony, expressed concern about schools in the state being overwhelmed by the high number of pupils with migrant backgrounds.
- Piwarz attributed Saxony's poor performance in the PISA study to the increased number of pupils with foreign roots, stating that the development and performance gaps among first-graders have significantly increased.
- In an effort to relieve the strain on the school system, Saxony announced that some unaccompanied refugee minors would no longer be taught in regular classes starting from the 2024/2025 school year.
- The GEW, the Education and Science Union, criticized Piwarz's comments, with GEW head Burkhard Naumann arguing that the education system's struggles are not solely due to migration, but are the result of flawed education policies for several years.
- Naumann emphasized the challenge of dealing with educational heterogeneity, explaining that the success of young people is heavily influenced by their social background and that the integration of pupils with traumatic experiences is complex, largely due to teachers being overburdened and lacking support systems.
- Reflecting on the situation, Christian Piwarz, the CDU Minister of Culture, emphasized the importance of teaching German to young refugees and preparing them for apprenticeships rather than focusing on graduation in their remaining years of compulsory education.
Source: www.stern.de
