As of: February 18, 2024, 7:57 p.m
By: Peter Sieben
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A strange custom has become established in many schools.
A labor lawyer speaks of “feeding” and suspects such a custom exists in completely different countries.
Berlin - Unless you're a trainee in the food industry, rolls, cheese and coffee shouldn't play a prominent role in final exams.
For many young teachers, however, the opposite is the case.
Weeks before the exam, they are already thinking about the question: What breakfast should I serve my examiners?
A strange ritual has become established in numerous schools throughout Germany.
On the day of the final exam, the examinees and their fellow trainees make sandwiches and provide the examination committee with fruit, sweets and juice.
A young teacher said in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
that she found it humiliating.
Another called it a “huge mess.”
Spread the sandwiches for the teacher exam: serve up “something decent”.
There is no official announcement.
But the instructors often imply that such a breakfast is part of it - and that it can affect the exam result.
Even if it is only indirectly: If in doubt, the young teachers have the choice between an examiner who is in a good mood and someone whose stomach is rumbling.
She was told that it would be better to serve “something decent,” a teacher reports.
Labor lawyer: “I would expect something like that in countries with corrupt systems, but not here”
Prof. Dr.
Michael Fuhlrott is a specialist lawyer for labor law in Hamburg.
© private
The breakfast ritual has become increasingly important in recent years, according to the GEW teachers' union.
It is strictly forbidden, as the NRW Ministry of Education makes clear.
For very good reason, says Michael Fuhlrott, a specialist lawyer for labor law.
“That really shocks me, it makes me scratch my head,” said the lawyer in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
“I would expect something like that in any country with corrupt systems, but not here.”
“Feeding” is a punishable offense: “The state is particularly sensitive when it comes to civil servants”
In fact, from a legal perspective, the breakfast ritual is not a piece of cake.
Two aspects come into consideration under criminal law: accepting benefits and bribery.
Now one may doubt that civil servants will allow themselves to be bribed with a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
But: “Here there is at least the suspicion that an advantage has been accepted,” says Fuhlrott.
Acceptance of benefits involves a public official accepting something, but no specific consideration is explicitly requested.
“We also talk about feeding,” explains the legal expert – in the case of the breakfast ritual, this can be understood literally.
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If reported, this can result in severe fines and, in extreme cases, even imprisonment.
“The state is particularly sensitive when it comes to civil servants.
Sure, you can accept a coffee or a ballpoint pen.
But then it stops,” says Fuhlrott.
A few years ago, for example, a teacher from Berlin had to pay a fine of 4,000 euros because she accepted a gift from her high school graduating class.
Such graduation gifts from school classes to the teacher are often given and are meant nicely, but: “It puts the teachers in an unpleasant situation,” says Fuhlrott.
Breakfast at the final exam: Thankful for sandwiches and sweets
The issue with breakfast should be assessed completely differently.
“It's about a specific exam situation on which a career depends.
I consider the level of reprehensibility here to be significantly greater than if a teacher accepts a farewell gift,” says the labor lawyer.
This is particularly true if the examiners even demand breakfast.
This doesn't necessarily have to be the case, but an examiner who wishes to remain anonymous explained in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
that on a strenuous exam day you are definitely grateful for bread, sweets and coffee.
“I also check myself,” says Fuhlrott, who teaches as a professor of labor law at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg.
“The examination office gives us a coffee and we pay for it afterwards.
If an examinee arrived in the morning with sandwiches, we would never accept it.”
At some schools, however, the custom has long since developed into a strange vicious circle: the examinees assume that the ritual is expected and butter the examiners' sandwiches in the morning.
Once the sumptuous breakfast is on the table, some examiners may feel uncomfortable saying no.
It would be all the more important that the respective school management stop the strange custom from the outset.
Also in their own interest, because: “If a school management just tolerates something like that, it is not necessarily committing a criminal offense.
But it is a breach of official duty and can, under certain circumstances, lead to disciplinary consequences,” says specialist lawyer Michael Fuhlrott.