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

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

Mülheim, Deutschland - The Nippeser Catholic Maternus primary school has dared to take a clear step towards change. In the most recent coordination, the parents voted with an overwhelming majority for the conversion to a community primary school. There were only six votes out of 211 votes cast. This is not only a local decision, but also a signal that can be heard in Cologne and beyond. The school committee has formally confirmed the vote of the parents as a conversion decision, which makes the Maternus primary school the fifth Cologne Catholic primary school, which is transformed into a community primary school within a year and a half. ksta.de reports that the history of this wave of conversion can be attributed to general dissatisfaction with the church rules. The parents no longer want to accept the preference for Catholic children.

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

The way to the community primary school

Conversion of confessional schools in community primary schools are not without obstacles. For example, parents in many cities, including Borken and Bonn-Buschdorf, had to fight repeatedly for these changes. In Cologne, the “Short Legs - Short Ways” initiative led the discussion about the conversions and actively supports this change. Nevertheless, the discussions about the approval of such conversions are often lengthy and shaped by the uncertainty about the future of the confession schools. Confessional Grundschulen-nrw.de shows that some schools in Paderborn and other cities continue to remain Catholic, while others, such as the Michael-end and Peter Lustig primary school, have already been successfully converted.

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

political framework conditions

The framework conditions for such conversions are not easy. In the past, the hurdles in North Rhine -Westphalia were kept high by legal regulations. Approval of over 50 percent of parents is currently necessary to decide on a conversion. [Deutschlandfunk.de] (https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/nrw-umklungt- von- Confessions Schools-100.html), however, reports that a new change in the law is being planned that only requires a simple majority of parents to convert. In the future, municipalities may also initiate a conversion to better control school development.

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