Language skills, rule of conduct, school, minority languages, majority language 

project leader

Herbert Hoover School

city

Berlin

country

Germany

year

2005

kind of project

agreement

kind of actor

school

area

education

more info

Insufficient language skills are one explanation for the low educational achievements of many children from migrant families. In case of some of the minority communities living in Berlin, insufficient knowledge of the German language can found even in case of the second and third generation. The problem is intensified by the concentration of migrants in certain parts of the city. Increasingly, there are public schools in which only a small minority of students are from German families. How should public schools ensure under these circumstances equal chances for children from migrant families? The practice presented in this case study, a voluntary agreement of teachers and the representatives of students and parents to communicate only in German while being at school, represents one possible approach, which stirred a lot of public debate.