Same thing I posted yesterday, but now in English! My
husband has been very busy. (He translated it SO much better than I would have,
and in much less time!)
--Sheila in NRW, Germany
Violations of Human Rights in the German Education System
"Network Freedom of Education" reports to Vernor Muñoz
Berlin: Might it be that there are violations of human rights in the German education system? Of course not, is the more or less unanimous answer of politicians and civil servants. UNO is likely to see this in a different light, which is the reason for the special correspondent of the UN Human Rights Commission, Vernor Muñoz, to visit Germany at present. At a meeting with Vernor Muñoz in Berlin on Sunday the "Network Freedom of Education" submitted proof to him that in Germany there are actual violations of human rights by the present school system.
"In order to understand the German school system one has to know that the term 'compulsory elementary education' in article 28 (1) of the UN Children's Rights Convention was translated mistakenly into German as 'compulsory school attendance'. This means in practice that the right to education is being reduced to the duty to physically be present in a school building," said Stefanie Edel, spokeswoman for the Network Freedom of Education in Berlin. The mother of four children who has an M.A. in education and culture is known from many TV documentaries and interviews concerning home education. She knows what she is talking about: her children are being educated at home also.
There are manifold reasons which lead parents or children to move the place of learning from a school to the home: The giftedness of children, their partial weakness in an area or handicaps; families with international work contracts who only live in Germany for a limited time; families with low income and not enough finances to pay for an appropriate private school; families with alternative ideas on education or world views which are not represented in the present state school system, and last but not least children who fall victim to bullying or psychological problems caused by school stress or psychosomatic problems.
The acceptance and legal regulation of home education is an international standard in all developed nations. The reduction of the term "duty to be educated" to the "compulsory physical presence in a school building" leads to sometimes draconic compulsory measures against parents and children concerned. All done to the benefit of the child, of course, as the responsible actors always declare. Unfortunately they do not provide the explanation how it can be to the benefit of the children when they are forced to school by the police, declared a psychological case or separated from the parents and their environment by the removal of custody. Furthermore, when some parents are ruined financially by wilfully excessive levies and fines. "We have extensive documentation of individual cases by now, and new documents are reaching us daily", Stefanie Edel says. "There is, for instance, the eight year old Timo G., 100% handicapped, who has been learning at home for awhile at to the recommendation of his medical specialists. This should come to an end, the responsible leader of the Local Education Authority decided. Timo must be driven daily to a special education school which is 75 miles from home, despite the fact that several medical opinions proved that this travel and the separation from his known environment would disturb the development of the boy massively. As the family does not accept this verdict, the authorities are now threatening to remove custody.
Stefanie Edel's family has also experienced state reprisals first hand. "Nowhere in the world are there similarly intense and inappropriate state compulsory measures against people who exercise their right to choose the methods of education and training", says Edel. She submitted an extensive documentation to Vernor Muñoz today connected with some demands for legal change.
"We demand a deregulation of the German school system in order to allow and to legalize alternative forms of education which deviate from the present state system.
"We demand the application of article 26 (3) of the General Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates: 'parents are given the priority right to select the type of education and training for their children.'
"We demand the change of compulsory school attendance, which is practiced as a duty to be physically present in a school building, into a school attendance which is understood as the internationally adapted duty to be educated," Edel sums up.
The Network Freedom of Education is convinced that individual equal opportunities cannot be enhanced by force (i.e. forced attendance of schools according to regulated geographical areas, compulsory physical presence in a school building in order to fulfil school attendance; incapacitation of parents in choosing their children's secondary schooling …), but only through manifold, good and state financed offers. Unequal opportunities and violation of human rights prevail where these offers are not allowed or even oppressed by state force.
The Network Freedom of Education is a nation-wide cooperation of organisations, parent initiatives and individuals, who care for the right to freely access education, and who desire the free choice and shaping of individual paths of education making use of state as well as privately available resources. Among them there are, for instance, the "Federal Network Natural Learning", the "Foundation Network Giftedness", the "European Forum for Freedom in Education (effe)", the association "Schooling through Parents' Initiative", the initiative "German for Foreigners" and many others, as well as numerous university professors, educators, doctors, lawyers, psychologists, therapists, and committed parents and students.
Information for the media and a detailed documentation is available in German at:
http://www.sfev.de/UN-Rapport-de.pdf or in English at: http://www.sfev.de/UN-Rapport-en.pdf
Contact: Network Freedom of Education
Elisabeth Kuhnle, Karlsruhe, Germany, phone +49 721-611979, elisabeth.kuhnle1@gmx.de
Stephanie Edel M.A., info@sfev.de
Further contacts to the individual initiatives can be found in the documentation.
--Sheila in NRW, Germany
Violations of Human Rights in the German Education System
"Network Freedom of Education" reports to Vernor Muñoz
Berlin: Might it be that there are violations of human rights in the German education system? Of course not, is the more or less unanimous answer of politicians and civil servants. UNO is likely to see this in a different light, which is the reason for the special correspondent of the UN Human Rights Commission, Vernor Muñoz, to visit Germany at present. At a meeting with Vernor Muñoz in Berlin on Sunday the "Network Freedom of Education" submitted proof to him that in Germany there are actual violations of human rights by the present school system.
"In order to understand the German school system one has to know that the term 'compulsory elementary education' in article 28 (1) of the UN Children's Rights Convention was translated mistakenly into German as 'compulsory school attendance'. This means in practice that the right to education is being reduced to the duty to physically be present in a school building," said Stefanie Edel, spokeswoman for the Network Freedom of Education in Berlin. The mother of four children who has an M.A. in education and culture is known from many TV documentaries and interviews concerning home education. She knows what she is talking about: her children are being educated at home also.
There are manifold reasons which lead parents or children to move the place of learning from a school to the home: The giftedness of children, their partial weakness in an area or handicaps; families with international work contracts who only live in Germany for a limited time; families with low income and not enough finances to pay for an appropriate private school; families with alternative ideas on education or world views which are not represented in the present state school system, and last but not least children who fall victim to bullying or psychological problems caused by school stress or psychosomatic problems.
The acceptance and legal regulation of home education is an international standard in all developed nations. The reduction of the term "duty to be educated" to the "compulsory physical presence in a school building" leads to sometimes draconic compulsory measures against parents and children concerned. All done to the benefit of the child, of course, as the responsible actors always declare. Unfortunately they do not provide the explanation how it can be to the benefit of the children when they are forced to school by the police, declared a psychological case or separated from the parents and their environment by the removal of custody. Furthermore, when some parents are ruined financially by wilfully excessive levies and fines. "We have extensive documentation of individual cases by now, and new documents are reaching us daily", Stefanie Edel says. "There is, for instance, the eight year old Timo G., 100% handicapped, who has been learning at home for awhile at to the recommendation of his medical specialists. This should come to an end, the responsible leader of the Local Education Authority decided. Timo must be driven daily to a special education school which is 75 miles from home, despite the fact that several medical opinions proved that this travel and the separation from his known environment would disturb the development of the boy massively. As the family does not accept this verdict, the authorities are now threatening to remove custody.
Stefanie Edel's family has also experienced state reprisals first hand. "Nowhere in the world are there similarly intense and inappropriate state compulsory measures against people who exercise their right to choose the methods of education and training", says Edel. She submitted an extensive documentation to Vernor Muñoz today connected with some demands for legal change.
"We demand a deregulation of the German school system in order to allow and to legalize alternative forms of education which deviate from the present state system.
"We demand the application of article 26 (3) of the General Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates: 'parents are given the priority right to select the type of education and training for their children.'
"We demand the change of compulsory school attendance, which is practiced as a duty to be physically present in a school building, into a school attendance which is understood as the internationally adapted duty to be educated," Edel sums up.
The Network Freedom of Education is convinced that individual equal opportunities cannot be enhanced by force (i.e. forced attendance of schools according to regulated geographical areas, compulsory physical presence in a school building in order to fulfil school attendance; incapacitation of parents in choosing their children's secondary schooling …), but only through manifold, good and state financed offers. Unequal opportunities and violation of human rights prevail where these offers are not allowed or even oppressed by state force.
The Network Freedom of Education is a nation-wide cooperation of organisations, parent initiatives and individuals, who care for the right to freely access education, and who desire the free choice and shaping of individual paths of education making use of state as well as privately available resources. Among them there are, for instance, the "Federal Network Natural Learning", the "Foundation Network Giftedness", the "European Forum for Freedom in Education (effe)", the association "Schooling through Parents' Initiative", the initiative "German for Foreigners" and many others, as well as numerous university professors, educators, doctors, lawyers, psychologists, therapists, and committed parents and students.
Information for the media and a detailed documentation is available in German at:
http://www.sfev.de/UN-Rapport-de.pdf or in English at: http://www.sfev.de/UN-Rapport-en.pdf
Contact: Network Freedom of Education
Elisabeth Kuhnle, Karlsruhe, Germany, phone +49 721-611979, elisabeth.kuhnle1@gmx.de
Stephanie Edel M.A., info@sfev.de
Further contacts to the individual initiatives can be found in the documentation.
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