Jena's head of education calls for the preservation of school peace

As a school authority, the city of Jena is appealing to the Thuringian Minister of Education, Christian Tischner, and the members of the state's education committee to stand up for school peace and to preserve or strengthen the self-determination of schools. The background to this is the draft regulation submitted for consultation, which includes making transfer decisions in schools earlier again and (re)introducing the top marks for "cooperation and behavior".

Jena is characterized by school diversity and a high willingness to innovate

"As a university city, the city of Jena is proud of the broad acceptance of its school diversity. Its brand essence was and is a high willingness to innovate and the identification of teachers, pupils and parents with their specific school",

said Johannes Schleußner, Head of Education.

Some schools in Jena may also see the planned changes as support for their work. However, for the majority of Jena's community schools, where around 6,000 boys and girls, around half of all pupils, study, this would mean an intervention in the school's work and individual responsibility.

Lived practice as the result of many years of processes

Based on concepts approved by the Ministry of Education in the past and now tried and tested, some of the community schools do not use traditional grading up to and including year 6 or 7 and assess behavior and participation orally. The planned changes are therefore particularly sensitive for these schools, according to education department head Schleußner:

"The schools' current practice is the result of many years of school development processes, is based on city council resolutions and is an expression of parents' wishes.

Results prove the success of the implemented concepts

Evaluations of these types of schools show, among other things, that fewer young people leave school without any qualifications. As failures are less frequent, some families are more likely to use the option of voluntary repetition after intensive discussions between the school, parents and pupils. As the decision is made jointly, this is seen more as an opportunity for improvement. Ultimately, this approach demonstrably leads to more young people in a year being able to achieve higher educational qualifications.

Freedom of choice for school management and school conferences

"We will significantly strengthen the autonomy of schools and improve educational quality once again." From the point of view of Jena city council and the responsible committees, this also means strengthening the individual schools and their school management teams in their ability to make pedagogically important decisions with the involvement of the school conference as the highest local body of the individual school. The head teachers and school conferences of those schools that are willing and able to do so should continue to have the freedom to make decisions regarding promotion decisions and verbal assessments.