Suche
Mein Konto
Language dispute in Lower Saxony: Turkish & Ukrainian soon mandatory?
Lower Saxony is planning multilingual lessons, offering Turkish and Arabic. Criticism: German promotion could suffer.
Language dispute in Lower Saxony: Turkish & Ukrainian soon mandatory?
A storm of indignation is sweeping through Lower Saxony: the new multi-cultural plan for schools is causing heated discussions. Shocking, provocative, revolutionary – the idea: Children should receive more instruction in their native language! A courageous initiative by Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg is dividing the country. The Green politician wants to promote multilingualism in Lower Saxony and plans for students to be taught two to three hours a week in their home language in addition to regular lessons.
But what's behind it? The decree applies to groups of at least eight students, who can come from different grades or schools. Requirement: The teachers must be specially trained [source: Bild.de ]. So Turkish, Arabic and Ukrainian will soon be on the curriculum? Yes, supporters claim, saying: “This is a step into the future!” But the criticism doesn't take long to arrive: Meanwhile, the debate about the loss of German language support is raging!
German lessons on the decline?
The CDU in particular is sounding the alarm: Christian Fühner, education expert for the CDU, sees the priorities as being completely wrong. German lessons have already been cut and there are no longer any special language learning groups. “Instead of improving German skills, the home language should now be promoted,” he criticizes, adding that language support is completely neglected. And this despite the fact that the shortage of teachers in Lower Saxony is already clearly noticeable - 3.1 percent of the teaching hours remain unfilled!
Heinz-Peter Meidinger, Honorary President of the German Teachers' Association, takes the same line: He warns against the formation of parallel societies. "German is the key to integration. Additional lessons in the home language are counterproductive," he says.
A controversial plan with consequences
And the Ministry of Culture? It's reassuring: it's not a competition to the German language, but rather a complement. Multilingualism should help to promote the educational language of German [Source: Bild.de ]. But the population is simmering - is the plan really a step forward or the beginning of the end of integration? Discussions go into the next round!