The dispute over the drafts of the new educational plans for Hamburg’s schools continues unabated. Two days after school senator Ties Rabe (SPD) had signaled in the school committee that he would meet the critics of the plans on several points, the chambers of parents and students spoke up. They demand a stop to work on the educational plans.
In March, the education authority presented the drafts. It is the first new version of the education plans in twelve years and initially affects the subjects German, English and mathematics, as well as individual other subjects depending on the type of school. Rabe had justified the revision, among other things, with new specifications from the Conference of Ministers of Education and explained that the new educational plans should “define the learning and teaching content more clearly than before”. He announced that there would be more written exams again.
On Monday in the school committee, the school senator finally declared that they were prepared to reduce the number of compulsory learning contents and to be willing to compromise on the number of written exams. However, it would remain important to observe the standards of the Conference of Ministers of Education and to strengthen the written language in the schools of the Hanseatic city. Hamburg must not cheat its way away, otherwise the students would lose touch with the children and young people who go to school in other federal states.
A “pseudo-revision”, as planned by the school authorities, is not enough to make good educational plans out of the “regressive, scientifically questionable concept” that has characterized the drafts so far, the chamber of pupils said in response to Rabes Announcements on Wednesday with. The structural deficiencies of the drafts could not be remedied with “improvements”. A fundamental redesign of the educational plans is necessary, according to the parents’ association.
Both chambers were also upset that they – like many other actors in the school scene in the Hanseatic city – should be excluded from the further procedure. Rabe had announced in the school committee that the further revision of the educational plans would be coordinated with the school management. There will be no broader discussion of the drafts, as demanded by the left, which had requested a public hearing in the school committee. The Left’s motion, which would have allowed chambers to present their positions before the committee and citizens to ask questions about the bills to the Senate, was rejected.
According to the Chamber of Parents, one strictly rejects a process behind closed doors. Alexandra Fragopoulos, the chairwoman of the Parents’ Chamber, said they were ready for dialogue. “Take our word for it!”. She called on the ruling factions of the SPD and the Greens in Hamburg to “pull the emergency brake, stop the regression and enable forward-looking educational plans”.
Charlotte Schmiedel, chairwoman of the student council, was even more drastic: “The insufficient revision of the draft educational plans will have fatal consequences for school life,” she said. “If the ruling parties don’t step in now, they will be responsible for over 10 years of regressive education and additional burdens that neither the students nor the teachers can bear.”
