Gender debate: State of Lower Saxony allows gender-equitable language in the Abitur

Created: 02/25/2022, 14:44

By: Monja Stolz

In the state of Lower Saxony, gender in the Abitur should no longer be marked as a mistake.

© Gregor Bauernfeind/dpa

According to a newspaper report, genders will be allowed in the Abitur in Lower Saxony in the future.

The Council for German Spelling doesn't think that's a good idea.

Hanover - When it comes to the debate about gender, there are two camps: some fight for it, others, including Jürgen von der Lippe*, consider it "wrong German".

Gender-equitable language has long been part of the curriculum in schools in the Northeim district of Lower Saxony*.

According to a newspaper report, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs now also wants to allow gender language in high school, as also reported by hna.de*.

According to a statement by the Lower Saxony cultural bureaucracy, texts with internal symbols should not be counted as errors in the Abitur, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday (February 25, 2022).

"The linguistic debate about gender-equitable language, which often merges seamlessly into an ideological debate, should not be carried out on the backs of the examinees," said the Ministry of Education when asked by the newspaper.

In the announcement it says: "Due to multiple inquiries, we would like to clarify that gendered texts (e.g. students) in the most diverse spellings are not Duden-compliant, but are not rated as errors in Abitur examinations." The ministry referred to the guidelines of the Conference of Ministers of Education from 2016 on equal opportunities through gender-sensitive school education and upbringing.

Lower Saxony allows genders in the Abitur: Criticism from the German Spelling Council

The chairman of the Council for German Spelling, Josef Lange, is not very enthusiastic about the unilateral effort of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education: "If a country says goodbye to the official set of rules, it also says goodbye to the uniformity of spelling in the German-speaking area." been decided by state authorities and is binding for the school and administration.

Different spellings with special characters do not meet the criteria recommended by the Council with regard to comprehensibility, legibility and portability.

At the beginning of 2019, the city of Hanover launched a public debate with a recommendation for gender-equitable administrative language.

In the meantime, many universities, municipalities, companies and the media have introduced gender symbols.

For the Duden, “the tenant” only means a male person, which triggered criticism.

(Monja Stolz with dpa material)