Too few teachers, poor school equipment, deficiencies in the inclusion of children with disabilities: teachers, students, parents and unions are taking to the streets across the country.
At a nationwide “education protest day” on Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated for a change in education policy. By the afternoon, more than 15,000 people across Germany had taken to the streets, the organizers announced.
In Berlin alone, 7,000 people came together and marched from the Brandenburg Gate to the Red Town Hall. The police spoke of 4,500 participants in Berlin-Mitte. The educational transition now! alliance, consisting of trade unions, educational associations, parent and student representatives, called for the demonstration.
According to the organizers, around 2,000 people came to the rally in Munich; there was initially no estimate from the police. The police spoke of around 2,000 demonstrators in Cologne in the early afternoon; the organizers initially assumed there were more than 3,000 participants. According to the police, 530 people demonstrated in Hamburg and marched from Jungfernstieg through the city center to near Dammtor train station.
The participants wanted to demonstrate for inclusive and sustainable schools and daycare centers. “Germany is in one of the most serious educational crises since the founding of the Federal Republic,” it says on the alliance’s homepage. There is a shortage of hundreds of thousands of daycare places nationwide. “The shortage of teachers and educators continues to increase and is met with an outdated and underfunded education system that is socially unfair.”
The alliance is calling for a special fund for education worth at least 100 billion euros for investments in daycare centers and schools. In addition, a contract is required that requires all federal states to train enough teachers, as well as a plan with which sufficient and well-qualified daycare specialists can be recruited.
Source: Stern
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