On Thursday, October 18, Lower Saxony's Minister of Education Grant Hendrik Tonne, Hanover's Lord Mayor Stefan Schostok, the Lord Mayor of Salzgitter Frank Klingebiel, the Lord Mayor of Wilhelmshaven Andreas Wagner and the First City Councillor of Delmenhorst Markus Pragal officially launched the "Lebensort und Schule" program together.
"Schools with social challenges are always the focus of educational policy discussions. We are not leaving schools to fend for themselves, but are working with local authorities to find ways to provide sustainable support. With the 'School [PLUS]' program, we are therefore now exploring our own path. We are focusing on immediate aid and also a well-founded professional analysis and are looking for new ways to develop schools," said Minister of Education Grant Hendrik Tonne, emphasizing the importance of the new programme.
Klingebiel added: "Investments in education are investments in the future and not luxury projects - that has long been my conviction. Even when the dispute between the local authority and the state over who should pay for school social work was still ongoing, it was clear that we had to make advance payments despite the difficult budget situation. The particularly difficult social structure in some neighborhoods would not tolerate any delay. I am delighted that this state government is setting the right educational policy priorities and backing them up with action."
The program is starting at 20 schools in Lower Saxony, namely in the cities of
- Hanover with eight schools,
- Salzgitter with six schools,
- Delmenhorst with three schools,
- Wilhelmshaven with three schools.
The selected 20 schools will be provided with a total of 300 teacher hours at the start. In addition, a further
- 75 full-time teacher units and
- 25 full-time units for socio-educational specialists
that can be allocated as part of the program.