Education International Research
Several resolutions by GEW’s national congress in May 2017 strengthen its existing positions and actions, calling for a review of national education policies by more consistently taking the realities of migration in the context of globalisation into account.35 4.1.2. “Education cannot wait” – calling for action During the summer of 2015, it became apparent that the arrival of several hundred thousand refugees in Germany would challenge the educational system. Even though this was not the first time Germany experienced an increased influx of new migrants, the different sectors, especially the schools, were not well prepared to absorb such a high number of new pupils. Already existing deficits became even more visible: from the critical shortage of teachers and educators, the cutbacks and withdrawals in the vocational education sector, to the lack of skills in teaching diverse learners in heterogeneous groups/classrooms. In October 2015, GEW published recommendations titled “Education cannot wait”36 and informed the public about the union’s proposals and demands to ensure unrestricted access to education and participation for refugees and asylum seekers. At the core of these recommendations lies a commitment to welcome and support people seeking asylum and to guarantee them their fundamental right to education, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, regardless of their residence status. For this purpose, necessary adjustments of the existing legal framework and administrative practices, such as the removal of discriminatory rules in the asylum legislation or statutory changes in school regulations (see Chapter 2), would be required. Also, need-oriented short and medium-term measures to support the work of the educational institutions and their employees were proposed. These related to concrete programmes and activities in all education sectors – from the broadening of the federal language learning programme in early childhood education (so-called Sprach-Kitas), more social work, and training to teach German as a second language in schools and vocational schools to capacity building in higher and adult education, as well as additional counselling, care and welfare services. More particularly, the demand for more qualified educators and teachers called for appropriate investment by federal states and local government. As there was a lack of reliable data due to the overburdened administration of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, GEW made their own extrapolations and calculated the necessary additional resources. On the basis of the expected number of refugees and former ratios of the age cohorts, GEW anticipated 35 https://www.gew.de/aktuelles/detailseite/neuigkeiten/migration-als-normalitaet-anerkennen-undgestalten/ Accessed 20 October 2017. 36 https://www.gew.de/flucht-und-asyl/ Accessed 20 October 2017.
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