- The initiative seeks to raise public demands for a return to the G9 summit
A Citizens' Initiative for the return of gymnasiums to the Abitur after nine years is set to start on September 10th. To be successful, it needs the signatures of at least one twentieth of eligible Hamburg voters, which would amount to around 66,000 signatures, according to the parents' initiative G9 Hamburg.
The goal is a binding referendum that could take place on the same day as the election for the Hamburg Parliament or the German Bundestag, said Sammar Rath, a spokesperson for the initiative, to the German Press Agency.
Reintroduction at the earliest opportunity
The initiators have three weeks to collect signatures from at least 16-year-old Hamburg residents on lists. Documents for postal voting can already be requested from August 20th. The parents' initiative wants to reintroduce the Abitur at Hamburg gymnasiums at the earliest opportunity.
"The initiative states that 'good education takes time'. Hamburg is one of the last old federal states to hold on to the G8 reform - all other federal states have partially or completely reversed this change due to persistent criticism. It's not fair that Hamburg gymnasiasts have to write their Abitur after 12 years, while gymnasiasts in other federal states can do so after 13 years."
Many parents are unhappy with this situation, Rath emphasized. Hamburg introduced the eight-year gymnasium in the 2002/2003 school year, with the first double Abitur in 2010. At the same time, the Stadtteilschulen were introduced as a replacement for Haupt- and Realschulen, where the Abitur can now be taken after nine years. The Hamburg Senate simply ignores the fact that many parents are unhappy with this choice, Rath said.
Since 2010, there has been a so-called "school peace" in Hamburg, which was last extended in 2019 by the SPD, Green, and FDP factions in a framework agreement. This agreement states that the current structure of Grundschule, Stadtteilschule, and Gymnasium will not be changed until 2025, regardless of who will be in government in the future.
There has already been a citizens' initiative called "G9 Hamburg - More Time to Learn!", which collected the minimum number of 10,000 valid signatures, as the interior authority announced in January. According to a spokesperson for the parliament, the initiators were given the opportunity to present their concerns in the school committee in February.
Binding referendum as the last step
Now, the initiative wants to take the next step with the citizens' initiative. If the necessary signatures are reached and the parliament does not follow the wishes of the initiative, a binding referendum can be pursued as the last step.
This is already the second attempt to return to the Abitur after nine years: in 2014, the initiative "G9-Jetzt-HH" failed in its citizens' initiative, with only about 45,000 signatures collected instead of the then necessary 63,000.
The parents' initiative G9 Hamburg believes that the initiative will help reintroduce the Abitur at Hamburg gymnasiums at the earliest opportunity. If successful, a binding referendum could serve as the last step if the parliament fails to meet the initiative's demands.
