Cologne parents demand school change: Maternus primary school becomes GGS!

Cologne parents demand school change: Maternus primary school becomes GGS!

The Nippes Catholic Maternus primary school has taken a clear step towards change. In a recent vote, parents voted overwhelmingly in favor of converting it into a community primary school. Of the 211 votes cast, there were only six negative votes. This is not just a local decision, but also a signal that can be heard in Cologne and beyond. The school committee has formally confirmed the parents' vote as a conversion decision, making the Maternus primary school the fifth Catholic primary school in Cologne to be transformed into a community primary school within a year and a half. [ksta.de]. The parents no longer want to accept any preference given to Catholic children when it comes to admission.

At a time when primary school places in Cologne are scarce, parents are calling for a fairer distribution of places. The numbers also speak for themselves: only a quarter of the students at the Maternus primary school are Catholic, while many parents are demanding places for their children that are close to home. This need is not new, as a third of the 3,000 primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia are denominational schools, 43 of which are in Cologne. The overload of these schools unsettles non-Catholic parents who are looking for more opportunities for their children.

The path to the community primary school

Conversions of denominational schools into community primary schools are not without obstacles. For example, parents in many cities, including Borken and Bonn-Buschdorf, had to repeatedly fight for these changes. In Cologne, the “Short Legs – Short Paths” initiative led the discussion about the transformations and actively supports this change. Nevertheless, discussions about approving such conversions are often lengthy and characterized by uncertainty about the future of denominational schools. becognitgrundschulen-nrw.de shows that in Paderborn and other cities some schools remain Catholic, while others, such as the Michael Ende and Peter Lustig elementary schools, have already been successfully converted.

An important point is that denominational religious education continues to be offered at converted community primary schools, supplemented by practical philosophy, and school services and Christian festivals also remain in the program. This ensures continuity and gives parents the choice of how religious education will be organized in the future.

Political framework conditions

However, the framework conditions for such transformations are not easy. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the hurdles were kept high in the past by legal regulations. Currently, the consent of over 50 percent of the parents is required to decide on a conversion. However, deutschlandfunk.de reports that a new change in the law is being planned, which only requires a simple majority of parents for the conversion. In the future, municipalities will also be allowed to initiate a transformation in order to better control school development.

These changes show that dissatisfaction with the status quo is growing and that parents in Cologne are actively looking for alternatives to provide their children with the best education. The Maternus primary school is therefore in the midst of a major change that could not only influence school policy in Cologne, but also the educational landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia.