soziale stadt - bundestransferstelle
besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf - Soziale Stadt"
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5.5 School and Education
Education prospects for children from socially disadvantaged families are extremely limited. This was not only revealed by the latest PISA results, it is also backed up by the Worker Welfare (AWO) study "Poverty among young school children", published in February 2003 (1). The report defines education as a "comprehensive process developing and honing the skills which enable people to learn, act decisively, solve problems, form relationships and increase their capacity to achieve (2). Schools are not solely responsible for educating young people in this way; successful lives and social integration rely equally on education processes in the family and in childcare, youth work and career-training establishments. As an institution the school takes on central importance, particularly in Socially Integrative City neighbourhoods. According to the survey results, measures and projects within the framework of school and education are implemented in almost two thirds of programme districts, and over a quarter consider this framework to be of overriding importance ; schools are involved in drawing up Integrated Action Plans in two thirds of districts.
School and education-related problems and potential in districts
Many parents struggle to bring up their children properly due to their own impoverished situation. "A growing number of children who suffer parental neglect and live in socially disadvantaged areas display behavioural disturbances, relationship disorders and developmental deficits ... such children and young people tend towards aggressive behaviour, are hard to involve in group work and display both linguistic shortcomings (3) and motor deficiencies." (4) In short, many children are inadequately prepared to fulfil traditional expectations at school.
District schools in the former West Germany are also confronted with the difficulties of multi-ethnic classes. The primary school in the pilot district Berlin-Kreuzberg–Kottbusser Tor "is attended by around 110 native German children, 100 children with German passports but of non-German origin, 300 children with a Turkish passport and 120 other pupils with foreign passports."(5) Reports from the model districts Flensburg-Neustadt, Hannover-Vahrenheide-Ost, Ludwigshafen-Westend, Nuremberg-Südstadt/Galgenhof and Singen-Langenrain reveal that 50% to 70% of school children do not speak German as their native language (6). Many of these children do not have sufficient command of the language used in their schools; this fact explains the serious learning difficulties they display (7). The children's language difficulties are often accompanied by similar problems for parents, which makes it almost impossible for schools to target them (8) and hinders the communication between parents and the school necessary to fulfil their joint task of bringing up children. 55% of districts had this fact in mind when declaring the lack of language promotion for immigrants as a problem.
Fluctuating attendance levels, caused by families often moving out of a neighbourhood after only a brief stay, have a negative impact on learning conditions in many districts (9). Families often leave a particular neighbourhood out of concern for their children's educational prospects. This has been observed in the pilot district Berlin-Kreuzberg–Kottbusser Tor: "Schools in Kreuzberg have for decades been a key factor in parents' decisions to move in or out and in their willingness to stay, for both the German and Turkish sections of the population" (10). Some worried parents may chose to remain in a neighbourhood but register their children at schools in other districts using a false address (11). Schools in the former East Germany are being closed as a result of the high numbers of people moving out and of dramatically falling birth rates (12).
However, almost 30% of districts believe their schools have potential for development: "They are a platform for intercultural exchange, meetings, social and cultural education for both children and parents, and for integration."(13)
District-related strategies
In the light of the specific challenges facing disadvantaged neighbourhoods, schools see themselves increasingly as places where social and communication skills can be acquired and implemented, rather than simply as sites where knowledge is transferred. The different strategies can essentially be characterized as follows:
The opening up of schools has emerged as a key strategy (14). Opening up a school entails a ”domestic policy”, which embraces new teaching forms, methods and content, and a ”foreign policy”, which facilitates contact with the local neighbourhood, the school's surroundings, and hence cooperation with youth support groups, local businesses, associations and other district players. Schools often develop programmes tailored to the pupils' social backgrounds and derived from local expectations and needs rather than just general education targets (15).
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Practical example |
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(Pictures Nr.1, 2 und 4 (from left): Daylight Filmproduktion, Berlin, Picture Nr.3: Wolf-Christian Strauss, Berlin) |
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The Gelsenkirchen–Bismarck/Schalke-Nord protestant comprehensive school The new building for the protestant comprehensive school, which conforms to the latest ecological standards, has created a school and district centre which doubles as a family, life, experience and district school (FELS school). By taking the motto "multicultural upbringing" to heart, the children learn the meaning of mutual acceptance and experience cultural diversity in their everyday school activities. Pupils, parents and teachers alike participated in planning and implementing the project (building the classroom "houses" themselves). Opening up the school to the district has enabled a restructuring of the school's daily operations. |
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Activities taking on new dimensions in this context include school social work, afternoon clubs, health prevention (16), anti-violence measures (17)and language support. Extracurricular activities, primarily sport and cultural offers round off the programme (18). The general idea is to enable local initiatives, associations and resident groups to utilize classrooms and the yard outside normal teaching time. In some cases new space is created (19) to transform the school into a place of district encounters, communication and integration.
It has become evident that schools can not permanently maintain these efforts without the support of municipalities and the Länder in financial, personnel and organizational matters. Grants for individual projects, lesson quotas for teachers, better equipment, and professional training and assistance for the staff are all necessary. If schools are awarded more autonomy, for example acquiring the power to make personnel decisions and manage their own budgets, they may be motivated to raise their profile by shaping curricula themselves and joining forces with parents and other school partners to promote the social integration of children and young people.
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Practical example |
(Picture: Wolf-Christian Strauss, Berlin) |
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Mum's learning German "Mum's learning German" is running with notable success in numerous Socially Integrative City districts and demand for further courses is considerable. Immigrant mothers acquire knowledge of German which enables them to support the integration of their children at school and in the workplace more effectively. Obtaining improved German skills also paves the way for independent learning and promotes contact and communication between parents and teachers. Lessons often take place in rooms provided by a kindergarten or primary school. Curricula range from literacy programmes to the transmission of simple communication methods and book-reading. |
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A further key strategy in disadvantaged areas is language support . At many schools immigrant children are receiving more language instruction (20) to buck the trend of youngsters of non-German origin or with learning difficulties or poor school-leaving qualifications (21) having limited access to jobs and further training. This explains why all-day programmes are increasingly being initiated in schools, since "children who speak German from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. will invariably learn better and faster than their classmates who finish lessons at 12 p.m. and spend the rest of the day at home speaking their mother tongue" (22). However, it is evident that language support at school alone does not achieve the required results. Countering linguistic deficiencies must begin in kindergartens and pre-schools (23) and include measures which address parents' language skills (24). It is essential that language-support schemes target specific groups by distinguishing, for example, between different ages, ethnicities and sexes.
Schools are becoming more committed to smoothing the transition from school to work (25) in their neighbourhoods. Lessons focus specifically on training for key qualifications and are geared towards acquiring practical skills. Real-life work patterns are integrated more intensively into learning routines. Schools are incorporating into pupils' timetables both new and tried and tested careers projects providing information, orientation and training. But schools alone cannot facilitate young people's access to further training and jobs; they are therefore cooperating with district firms, youth workers, job centres, professional associations, training centres, employment institutions and the responsible authorities to construct local support networks (26). The variety of different approaches to improve the transition into work is illustrated by the response to the national competition "Fit for life and work - new practice models for integrating young people in the workplace and social spheres" organized in 1999 by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, which involved over 400 projects and initiatives (27).
(1) ”Armut schmälert Bildungschancen”, die tageszeitung, 28 February 2003, p. 7. 
(2) ”Bildung ist mehr als Schule”. Leipzig hypotheses on prerequisites for a turnaround in education policy; neue praxis, Zeitschrift für Sozialarbeit, Sozialpädagogik und Sozialpolitik , Vol. 4 (2002), p. 317-320.
(3) A survey in 2000 of six-year-olds in the Berlin-Wedding borough revealed that socially-deprived parents were more likely to encounter difficulties in providing their children with the necessary language skills to succeed at school, irrespective of their nationality. According to the study, three quarters of the school children required some help and 40% needed intensive support (Senatsverwaltung für Jugend und Sport (Ed.), Auswertungen der Sprachstandserhebung in allen ersten Klassen der Weddinger Grundschulen des Bezirks Mitte von Berlin im Schuljahr 2000/01 , Berlin 2001).
(4) Breckner/Herrmann/Gonzalez/Läpple, p. 40.
(5) Beer/Musch "Stadtteile ...", p. 57.
(6) Frinken/Rake/Schreck, p. 32; Geiling/Schwarzer/Heinzelmann/Bartnick, Begleitende Dokumentation , p. 66; Schröder/Werth, p. 21 Krings-Heckemeier/Heckenroth/Geiss, p. 17.
(7) Immigrant children's learning difficulties are recorded in the results of the PISA-study: the largest share of immigrant children (40% of 15- year-olds in Bremen) mirrors the worst results in all categories (Ralph Sonnenschein , "Deutsche Schulen müssen nachsitzen. Bildungspolitik vor PISA 2003"; Stadt und Gemeinde, Vol. 11 (2002) , p. 446).
(8) Cf. for example Beer/Musch, "Stadtteile ...", p. 57.
(9) More than one third of the population in the pilot district Innenstadt Neunkirchen in 1997, for example, had lived there for under three years, and the proportion in the lower part of town was over 50%. One third of pupils switches schools each year, and at one school the turnover rate actually exceeded 50% (Jacob/Herz/Mazak/Pauly, p. 10).
(10) Beer/Musch, "Stadtteile ...", p. 71.
(11) Cf. among other contributions Sybille Volkholz, ”Kann man die Flucht aus der Schule stoppen? ”, Kirsten Bruhns and Wolfgang Mack (Eds.), Aufwachsen und Lernen in der Sozialen Stadt. Kinder und Jugendliche in schwierigen Lebensräumen, Opladen 2001, p. 312.
(12) Schools have either been closed (Halle–Silberhöhe, Leinefelde–Südstadt, Leipzig–Leipzig East, Schwerin–Neu Zippendorf) or are awaiting closure (Cottbus–Sachsendorf-Madlow) in all pilot districts without exception.
(13) Beer/Musch, "Stadtteile ...", p. 71.
(14) North Rhine-Westphalia for example implemented the special programme "Shaping School Life and Opening Schools (GÖS)" as early as 1987
(15) Cf. the Fridtjof Nansen primary school project "Mobilized School - the School as District Learning System" in the model district Hannover–Vahrenheide-Ost (Geiling/Schwarzer/Heinzelmann/Bartnick, p. 66 ff.), the transformation of the Haupt- und Realschule Veermoor in the model district Hamburg–Altona–Lurup to a district school (Breckner/Gonzales/Herrmann/Läpple, p. 77 ff.) and the following projects in the database: the Gelsenkirchen–Bismarck protestant comprehensive school, in Gelsenkirchen–Bismarck/Schalke-Nord, Infra West in Ratingen - West and the Schafflund school centre in Schafflund–Gesamtdorf.
(16) Cf. Chapter 5.7.
(17) Cf. Chapter 5.3.
(18) Cf. the following project in the database: MAUSIE - Musical Training as an Extracurricular and Socio-Integrative Experience in Bremen–Oslebshausen.
(19) Cf. two examples in model districts: the conversion of the Bach school in Neunkirchen–Innenstadt into a district centre (Jacob/Herz/Mazak/Pauly, p. 41) and the extension of the Astrid Lindgren Schule in Schwerin–Neu Zippendorf to incorporate a centre for cultural events (Cramer/Schulen-Hartje, p. 33 f.).
(20) Cf. school language schemes in the pilot districts Berlin-Kreuzberg–Kottbusser Tor (Beer/Musch, "Stadtteile ...", p. 57) and Neunkirchen–Innenstadt (Jacob/Herz/Mazak/Pauly, p. 18).
(21) While 8% of German pupils left school in 1999 without a school-leaving certificate, the corresponding proportion of foreign pupils was 19%; 41% of the latter group obtained leaving certificates from a Hauptschule (lower secondary school) in the same year, whereas the rate for Germans was only 25%. More German pupils achieved school qualifications enabling university study and school-leaving certificates from Realschulen (vocation-skill-based schools) (Statistisches Bundesamt (Ed.), Im Blickpunkt, Ausländische Bevölkerung in Deutschland, Wiesbaden 2001, p. 58 ff.).
(22) Sonnenschein, p. 447.
(23) VCf. the language-support measures in day nurseries in Gelsenkirchen (Austermann/Ruiz/Sauter, p. 33).
(24) Cf. the following projects in the database: language support in Ingolstadt–Piusviertel, MIKELE (joint inter-cultural training for parents) in Ludwigsburg–Eglosheim II and women's German lessons in Rosenheim–Lessingstraße/Pfaffenhofener Straße.
(25) Cf. for example Ulrike Lierow, Neue Wege von der Schule in die Ausbildung Lurup im Blick, February 2003, p. 3 f., and the following projects in the database: RAZ (Getting to grips with the future) - advice point providing careers orientation and life planning counselling for pupils in Bremen-Gröpelingen; Pro Beruf - social work with young people on the transition from school to work in Hannover–Vahrenheide-Ost; INKOMM - (inter-cultural competence in the transition from school to work) in Munich–Neuhausen; improvement of careers orientation and the transition from school to work in Trier-Nord.
(26) Cf. for example the round table for the category "School and Education" in the pilot district Hamburg-Altona – Lurup (Brecker/Herrmann/Gonzalez/Läpple, p. 77-81).
(27) Elke Schreiber and Kerstin Schreier (Eds.), Praxismodelle zur sozialen und berufliche Integration von Jugendlichen: Die Preisträger des Wettbewerbs “Fit für Leben und Arbeit” , Munich 2000; The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, The German Youth Institute (Eds.) , Fit für Leben und Arbeit. Neue Praxismodelle zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration von Jugendlichen , Munich 2000; Nicole Kraheck (Ed.) , Verbesserung der beruflichen Chancen von Mädchen und jungen Frauen , Munich 2001 ( Praxismodelle Vol. 6).
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Translated from: Soziale Stadt - Strategien für die Soziale Stadt, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven – Umsetzung des Bund-Länder-Programms „Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2003 |
Im Auftrag des BMVBS vertreten durch das BBR. Zuletzt geändert am 04.08.2005