Teachers' association calls for migration quotas in schools

The President of the German Teachers' Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, has spoken out in favor of quotas for pupils with a migration background at German schools. "We have an integration problem in Germany," said Meidinger of the "Bild" newspaper. If integration is to be successful, "mandatory pre-school support, nationwide language tests and migration quotas" would have to be introduced. The newspaper quotes him as saying that integration does not succeed if, for example, 95 percent of the students in classes at troubled schools are non-German.

Meidinger did not tell "Bild" how high the quota should be. In his opinion, from a proportion of 35 percent of children with a migration background in a class, “the performance decreases disproportionately”. According to this, a quota of around one third of migrants per school and class is optimal. In reality, however, this is often difficult to implement.

With the reference to an "integration problem", Meidinger also referred to the New Year's Eve riots in Berlin. The incidents are a "question of value education," said Meidinger. Many parents would no longer provide this type of education today or would transfer it to the schools. The teachers would do their best to catch up on the education, he emphasized. "But without cooperation with their parents, they often fight a losing battle here."

The definition of migration background is inconsistent - it is often understood to mean that someone or at least one parent was not born with German citizenship. According to the Basic Law, no one in Germany may be disadvantaged or preferred because of "his descent, his race, his language, his homeland and origin, his faith, his religious or political views".

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