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Students in the classroom (symbolic picture): outrage and confusion
Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
At an elementary school in Burg near Magdeburg, a first class was formed entirely from children with an Arabic mother tongue at the beginning of the school year - without the parents' knowledge.
The responsible state school office apologized yesterday for this process.
A spokesman for the authorities said in response to a request from SPIEGEL that the school office had been in touch with the school management about the matter.
It was assumed, however, that the planned class formation would be coordinated with the parents.
"Unfortunately, this did not happen." The school recognized this as a mistake and will improve communication with parents in the future.
The process had become public through a Facebook entry by a father.
His daughter, he wrote, was unable to attend a class with her best friend because of the school management's decision.
On social media, representatives of the Left Party, among others, were outraged about the process, and some accused the school administration of racism.
The state school authority rejects such allegations.
It is not true that all children with a migration history have come to one class.
"The other two first grades also visited children with a migration background, but with different mother tongues," said the spokesman.
"Best possible and in the interests of the children"
The education policy spokesman for the left in the state parliament, Thomas Lippmann, was outraged.
According to the reports of the parents, there is no specific need for language training for the 13 children affected: Many were born in Germany, and all of them attended daycare centers here.
The eagerly awaited start of school was subjected to a heavy burden, "which cannot be repaired anytime soon."
The state school authority asked for an excuse "for the irritation that arose", but presented the process differently: the girls and boys with Arabic mother tongue should have been schooled together in order to use the opportunities for language promotion "as best as possible and in the interests of the children."
The designated class teacher speaks Arabic himself and has experience in teaching German as a second language.
Nevertheless, the parents' express request was already followed on Monday and the children in the class in question were distributed over the other two first years of school.
The state network of migrant organizations in Saxony-Anhalt described the process as "racist separation due to external attributions" and demanded that the process be dealt with.
mxw / tgk
