Kaufbeurer Marien-Gymnasium will be open to boys from the coming school year
Created: 05/12/2022 13:36
By: Angelika Hirschberg, Felix Gattinger
The Marien-Gymnasium in Kaufbeuren, which was founded in 1831, is breaking new ground: starting in the 2023/24 school year, boys will also be admitted to the fifth grade.
This initially does not apply to the Marien-Realschule.
© Hirschberg
Kaufbeuren – The Marien-Gymnasium in Kaufbeuren also wants to open its doors to male students in the future.
This emerges from a letter to parents from the school last Friday.
It states that the facility, together with the responsible body, the Schulwerk der Augsburg diocese, decided to also admit boys from the 2023/2024 school year.
"We have carefully considered this step and weighed it up in many discussions with parents, teachers, our school authority and last but not least the sisters of the Crescentia monastery," the letter says.
The parents' association also supports this decision.
However, the school management emphasized that the entire school will not be open to boys from the next school year, and that lateral entrants to higher classes have not yet been planned.
The school management does not want the step to be understood as a departure from tradition.
The school's website says: "By accepting boys, we are consistently taking the next step towards a school of diversity without breaking with tradition."
The Marian schools were also a topic in the district committee last week.
The committee decided to increase the annual subsidy that the district gives to each Marien student whose main residence is in the Eastern Allgäu from 200 to 300 euros.
The background to this is an application by the Schulwerk for higher municipal participation.
As emerged from a conversation between District Administrator Maria Rita Zinnecker, Mayor Stefan Bosse and Peter Kosak, the head of the diocese's school department, increased costs for district heating and electricity led to a doubling of the schools' deficit for the budget year 2022 of around 1, 2 million euros.
Incidentally, the Marien-Realschule reports on its website: "We will remain a school for girls!" and "The decision that boys will also be accepted at the neighboring Marien-Gymnasium from the coming school year does not affect us." Currently, 523 students attend the grammar school and 573 students the Realschule.
