Decision on the education of refugee children and adolescents

Resolution of the State Advisory Council for Participation dated 15.04.2024

The State Advisory Council for Participation has decided:

The right to equal educational opportunities is not negotiable!

- For the right to education. For the right to a school for everyone. Everywhere. -

The Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family as well as the members of the Berlin Senate are invited to

1. to prevent refugee children and adolescents from receiving special education in LAF accommodation,

2. to ensure that instead all children and young people in Berlin have access to equal educational opportunities and are taught in welcome classes at mainstream schools or in regular classes.

It includes all children and adolescents who live in Berlin.

Justification

Participation starts with the equal right to education for refugee children and the right to equal educational opportunities for all based on global human rights. This right is not negotiable and must be treated by the Senate Administration as a supreme asset and political principle. At Berlin level, this right is therefore also included in the overall concept for the participation and integration of refugees and in the Education Act. Beyond the Berlin level, it is also included in Articles 28 and 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which is applicable law in Germany. The UN CRC also states a prohibition of discrimination in Article 2 and underlines in Article 22 that the State party must enable a refugee child to exercise his rights.

For this reason, the State Advisory Council for Participation is very critically monitoring the current educational policy measures and plans of the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family for refugee children and young people and categorically rejects their plans for nationwide special education in temporary initial reception facilities such as in Tegel without a child-friendly day structure and above all in all regular reception facilities and/or refugee accommodation! Children may only be taught in one school, and that is standard school for everyone!

“In recent years, we have been able to observe how refugee children and young people were taught separately in the welcome classes. Subordinate access to regular school life meant that refugee children and young people had problems arriving. It is all the more frightening that, instead of improved access to the school system, people are thinking about completely excluding them. That is discriminatory and unacceptable. Refugee children and young people have the right to participate in regular school life, in our society and, above all, to non-discriminatory treatment. In addition, the educational success of children is risked and there is a risk of being affected by life-long inequalities of opportunity,” says Manal Sode, member of the State Advisory Council for Participation from the Education Working Group.

“The problem of inadequate education cannot be addressed by further segregation in the education sector for children and young people and expanding the isolation of refugees. It is unbearable to hear when poorer teaching quality is associated with the additional education of refugee children. The structural and personnel problems of schools must finally be taken seriously and addressed in order to protect children from such discrimination,” adds Alina Lange, also from the Education Working Group.

Special schools are an expression of institutional segregation, isolation and separation from society. We know from scientific research that the risk of continued segregation with such “parallel structures” is institutional and that the risk of perpetuating poorly qualified “special education” is greater than effective educational preparation.

The education administration must give priority to the legal claim of all (!) Strategically pursue children in Berlin for access to equal educational opportunities in regular classes and develop measures that counteract inadequate education. The special education separates refugees from non-refugee children. We are currently losing opportunities to develop a participatory society!

Even in the 1960s, the model of “special education” in so-called “foreign classes” was used for children of so-called “guest workers” in the old Federal Republic of Germany. We know today that the consequences were fatal: systematically underqualified educational offers, consolidated parallel structures and a discriminatory education system that resulted in an entire generation being systematically unable to offer the same right to participate in education. We cannot risk a similar experience today, and the education administration must set a good example to offer a political solution here.

The lack of places for a mainstream school is part of a multiple crisis for which the Senate and, in particular, the education administration urgently need to provide answers. The problem is the lack of access for refugee children in mainstream schools combined with the lack of access to apartments or shared accommodation. However, compulsory education also applies to refugee children. However, around 2,000 school-age children are still waiting for a place at school. Most of these children live in Tegel. The plans of the SfBJF to also plan 5 schools in the new container accommodation to be built show, on the other hand, that discrimination against refugee children should not be combated, but that a political paradigm shift should follow on their backs. Special education is no longer just being debated in Tegel as an exceptional location, but actually also for regular AE and GU! To that, we clearly say “Stop! 'We need inclusive mainstream schools for everyone!

This problem is not understood in its political dimension and instead the SfBJF is now planning a political paradigm shift out of this emergency situation

The SfBJF is also planning 5 schools in the new container accommodation to be built. We are not even hinting at this stage, we are too focused on Tegel. But these plans are just showing the political paradigm shift. It is no longer just about the emergency situation in Tegel as an exceptional location, but also for regular AE and GU!

The Tegel Arrival Center was specifically designed as a temporary solution to organise short-term accommodation. The appalling reality shows us today that people have to live there in inhumane tents for up to a year and longer. This affects children and adolescents particularly hard. The lack of privacy, lack of access to adequate socio-medical services for trauma victims, experiences of violence, poor hygiene and absolute isolation from urban society and normality exacerbate the actual and lived stigmatization. The inadequate housing supply leads to inhumane long stays in Tegel and to a much more dangerous situation, namely the gradual and tacit consolidation of Tegel and the transformation of the temporary arrival center into a 'warehouse complex. ' Berlin must organise sleeping places for refugees and also make use of transit rooms, but at the same time, regular housing policy accommodation must be consistently designed. The coalition must not lose sight of this goal. Unfortunately, the special education measures from the education administration signal otherwise.

We call on the education administration and the Berlin Senate to grant refugee children their right to equal educational opportunities and to urgently discuss cross-administrative measures that offer equal educational opportunities to all children regardless of origin and residence status. In particular, sustainable solutions are required, because an inclusive education policy is the basis for a sustainable participatory society.

We need comprehensive measures so that young people can be taught in mainstream schools again and not in containers on the grounds of accommodation!

There is an urgent need to recruit teachers to counteract the lack of teachers. This requires both qualification offers and accelerated and simplified recognition of educational qualifications from teachers from abroad, regardless of their country of origin!

It is urgent to clarify how the administrative and educational transition to the standard class should take place!

A combined range of preparation classes and standard classes must be planned!

The State Advisory Council is in favour of providing greater support to schools and educational specialists and assistants!

Native language teaching and qualified parallel German courses for students must be made possible!

Cross-district “round tables” must coordinate administrations and school leaders that have positively supported shift education. Afternoon lessons are a short term solution!

The right to equal educational opportunities is not negotiable and must be the focus of the coalition!