Minority Children

Instruction in the mother tongue is voluntary, and it can be noted that it is getting increasingly difficult to get enough children for these Turkish courses. There used to be a 90 to 100 percent participation in these courses some years ago, but now numbers have dropped to around 50 percent.

There is a clear tendency for all beginners to take part in these courses, with numbers dropping down to 40 percent in the fourth form.

One reason for this development could have been the Turkish teacher. He has just been replaced and it is hoped that more children can be interested in their mother tongue. A second reason be might be that these courses take place on a free afternoon, which means that these children have to spend an additional afternoon in school. This holds particularly true for the 3rd and 4th year pupils as they have got classes on two afternoons anyway plus Islam on Friday afternoon, which is a must for religious parents. But even here there has been a visible cut in numbers. It used to be no problem to have more than 10 children from the top three classes. This year they had to include the first year pupils in order to bring the number of pupils above 10, which means enough children for two lessons per week.

In the area of Islam teaching there was also a teacher replacement, and beginning with this school year the Islam teacher is a 25-year-old Turkish woman. The other surprising thing is that Islam must be taught in German as there might be several nationalities sharing these classes. In reality all the children in these classes are Turkish.