Highschool students fight education cuts
A NEW highschool student movement has arisen in a West German state, in which the example of the French and Spanish upsurges played an important role. The following article, from the March 26 issue of Sozialistiche Zeitung, the paper of the United Socialist Party, describes it.
BJORN MERTENS
After the Christian Democrats' victory in the national parliamentary elections in January and in the state elections, the Christian Democratic minister of education in Lower Saxony, Georg-Berndt Oschatz, felt strong enough to start swinging the axe. The orientation level [an initial level of comprehensive education for all students, after which they can make choices about specialization] and the reformed upper level [the last three years in a 13 year system] which never suited the Christian Democrats, were to be essentially abolished.
On March 6, the education committee was informed of plans to break up the orientation level into courses, to limit the choice of subjects for the academic diploma, to change the weighting of the subjects, and to introduce a third elective [thereby increasing the students' study load] and even a central academic schoolleaving examination. And all of this was to be introduced in the next school year.
The state highschool council was invited to offer "constructive proposals." It decided to call a day of action and a wind-up demonstration. But no one expected what happened. In Hannover alone, there were strikes in at least twelve highschools and, in spontaneous action, a thousand highschool students stormed the barriers to demonstrate in front of the state parliament building.
After these preparations, the statewide demonstration on March 12 went far beyond all expectations. Instead of the 5,000 that had been counted on, 15,000 students came in feeder marches from the schools to the rally in the city, where a Green deputy and the SPD opposition leader, Gerhard Schroder, spoke alongside a representative of the State Student Council.
To constantly recurring chants of "Paris Madrid-Hannover " which showed clearly how much the highschool student movement had been influenced by the struggles in France and Spain, Hannover's biggest high. school student demonstration in a decade then marched to the Ministry of Education, where a ministry official put off a delegation with empty phrases.
On the following day, there were general assemblies in all the schools, stretching out over the entire day. The readiness to fight was still intact, but for the moment there were no proposals for action, and the spon. taneous movement had come up against its limits. Part of plan withdrawn
Education Minister Oschatz, therefore, opened up an outrageous campaign in the papers against the students. They were supposed to have been "misled by false information spread by ringleaders," and besides "ASTA [the university student associations, in which the left remains generally predominant] played a decisive role in organizing the whole thing."
He withdrew part of his plans, including the third elective, which shortly before had been defended at great length by Christian Democratic politicians in discussions in the highschools, as well as the central academic school-leaving examination ("'all of this was invented") and put forward the pretext that he had been
3
- 0E
BRAUN
DARSMAND
SCHIVFIG
• .
15,000 students demonstrated, chanting "Paris, Madrid,
12,
March
On 1
Hannover!" (DR)
high-tech factories, then the bosses and their parties want it to be as cheap as possible (12 grades) and to keep it limited to drumming in "the basics." The right to a comprehensive education is to be limited to the future "leadership forces" in the DTrack classes, since the originally planned elite schools could not be imposed.
From the SPD, nothing could be expected other than the sort of high-flown words Schroder offered. In fact, in the last Conference of Ministers of Education, it gave the signal for a deal 'in the interests of quality and comparability, an advance is now desirable and possible ... a strengthening in particular of the subject group including German, foreign languages, and mathematics..."
However, the highschool students are not going to let themselves be kicked around any more. In the meantime, a city-wide coordinating committee has been built with dele.
forced to proceed as he did by the decisions of the Conference of Ministers of Education, which had been put into practice a long time ago in the SPD-ruled states.
Unfortunately for him, the last Conference of Education Ministers on February 2 was blown up precisely by the conflict over these "reforms," and so there could be no question of his being obliged to follow its "decisions." After he had compromised himself in this way, for a time there was open speculation that he would resign. The Oldenburg CDU already proposed a substitute. SPD leader Schroder advised him to resign.
However, with the ebb of the highschool movement, the CDU [Christian Democratic Union] and the FDP [Free Democrats, the CDU's coali- I Free Democrats, the scoltion partner] fell in behind him again. And, referring to "a document circulating in the CDU ranks," the press reminded him that he had only gotten his post because his predecessor, Remmers, had not "radically revised the policy followed by the SPD government," and had "failed to turn the wheel around."
So now the additional examination requirement was maintained for German and a foreign language, for mathematics and a natural science (instead of "or," as was the case before, and history in addition. At least eight schools were to have "D-Track Classes" in which gifted students were to prepare for the leaving examination from Grade 5 to 12, which suited the CDU's dreams of eliminating Grade 13 altogether. of eliminatino Grade 12 altoothar
The orientation level was undermined by being divided in A, B, C and D tracks from the start, which would be taught by gymnasium [academic], realschule [technical], and hauptschule [basic education, giving no access to further education] teachers.
If there is still no way of avoiding the need to give working-class children a good highschool education, in committee has been built with delegates from 15 schools. An "Education Around the Clock" action has begun at the Tellkampf school to sign up volunteers for an occupation. On Friday, March 27, a demonstration was held to send off a delegation to make contact with the highschool movement in Paris. The struggle order to provide new workers for
INPRE
INTERNATIONALE PRES
K coen
Орган Цент основана
Газета
1912
MO.
Ne 80 (250071
ЛЕНИНЫМ
8.
Sowjetunion: Ernest Mandel über den neuen Reformkurs Gorbatschows: ein
Interview über die Auswirkungen der Reformen auf den sowjetischen Alltag:
Die Internationale: eine Reportage über die Tage von Tschernobyl.
the
SSEK d DU раль continues.
GERMAN
INPREKORR is available from
Zulpicher Str.
39,5000
Cologne 1
Individual copies
ORRESPONDENZ
4.50 DM;
Subscription (12 issues)
Пролетарии всех стран соединейтесь
45 DM
Советского Союза и я
АВДА ного Комитета КПСС
Цена і «ал.
года ra. 11 rankreich: Das Manifest der KP.
pposition: ein Interview über die Krise er KPF. Chancen für den Aufbau einer reiten revolutionären Partei.
außerdem: Parlamentswahlen in
Euskadi: Gewerkschaften in Guatemala.
DM 4,50
April 1987
Nr. 192
International Viewpoint 20 April 1987
P