Household policy - Senator criticizes high costs for new schools
Berlin spends too much money on new schools according to Building Senator Christian Gaebler. With the ongoing discussion about budget savings, SPD politician Gaebler urged for planning smaller schools. He criticized the standard, which is extremely high in terms of space requirement in the "Berliner Morgenpost". "We can certainly build smaller schools again without the children being less reasonably educated as a result," he stated.
Gaebler calls for more flexibility
Gaebler criticized the current practice of considering an exact square meter area per student. "Even with a slight undercut, the education administration has said it won't work; these are minimum values, we can't deviate a square centimeter," the Building Senator told the newspaper. "That's completely absurd and unheard of in agriculture. We need to be more flexible here."
The approach has already been loosened to some extent, but Building Senator Gaebler sees "more savings potential" in school construction. He cited the Compartment School at the Allee der Kosmonauten as an example, where two buildings connected house an Integrated Secondary School and a Gymnasium with a total of 1600 school places and over 80 classroom and group rooms. "Certainly pedagogically very nice, but enormously large - and expensive," Gaebler criticized.
"It's all well-intentioned and well-thought-out"
"A school place in Berlin now costs over 100,000 Euro, which is top nationwide," so the Building Senator. "Whether the performance of the students and pupils in Berlin is top nationwide, there are other statistics. It's all well-intentioned and well-thought-out, but it's getting a bit detached from reality. Other federal states come with a third of the sum."
The state chairwoman of the Left, Franziska Brychcy, warned that saving money on school construction is hardly possible in the short term. "You would have to change existing plans," she said. "That's not sensible." Long-term, a departure from the concept of more expensive Compartment Schools is possible. "That would be pedagogically completely unnecessary," said the Left deputy. "There should be no budget cuts at the expense of students, pupils, teachers, and educators."
- Gaebler suggested revising Berlin's household policy regarding schools, proposing the construction of smaller schools to save budget, as mentioned in the Berlin Morgenpost.
- Despite SPD politician Gaebler's proposal to build smaller schools without compromising education, the education administration maintains strict minimum square meter requirements.
- Gaebler emphasized the need for flexibility in school construction, comparing the current rigid standards to farming practices that allow for variability.
- The Building Senator noted that a school place in Berlin costs over 100,000 Euro, which is the highest in the nation, yet the performance of students may not reflect this high investment.
- Left party's state chairwoman Franziska Brychcy asserted that saving money on school construction in the short term is implausible, suggesting that longer-term changes could be considered to deviate from the costly Compartment Schools method.
