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Wiesenthal primary school is closed: parents protest violently!
The district council in the Wartburg district decides to close the Wiesenthal primary school due to insufficient student numbers.
Wiesenthal primary school is closed: parents protest violently!
In an emotional meeting, the district council in the Wartburg district decided to close the Wiesenthal state primary school at the end of the 2025/2026 school year. The decision was passed with 27 yes and 18 no votes, which has drastic consequences for the approximately 50 students affected. Starting next year, they will move to the Dermbach elementary school, which will also open a new educational facility that will go into operation in August 2025. Tagesschau reports that the decisive step is due to the lack of students; There are currently 58 children attending the Wiesenthal school, but only four are scheduled to enroll next year.
The discussion in the district council was characterized by heated debates, with around 60 parents and children leaving the meeting to protest against the closure. The primary school speaker Cornelia Hofmann also criticized the unfashionable teaching style and the small number of teachers - only three teachers work at the school. A suggestion from the Wiesenthal school management to also teach Dermbacher children in Wiesenthal was not approved. Instead, the new school district will include the communities of Dermbach, Wiesenthal and several districts.
Promised quality improvement
The decision in favor of the closure is in the context of a general discussion about the challenges in German education. The current edition of the school barometer from the Bosch Foundation shows that there is an urgent need for reforms not only in Wiesenthal, but in many schools. [Bosch-Foundation] (https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/de/presse/2024/11/ Kriege-leistungsprilt-und-klimakrise-deutsches-deutsches-diegelt-Aktuelle) proves that 83 percent of the pupils experience frequent teaching disorders and that it lacks constructive feedback from teachers. These problems can affect school well -being and mental health of children.
The study emphasizes the need for a new understanding of teaching, which focuses more on the learning process. Support and feedback from teachers are of central importance for students to improve their services. These findings throw another light on the discussions that were conducted in Wiesenthal.
A look back
The school closings during Corona pandemic also presented parents and students with enormous challenges. An essay by Lena Nusser and others in the "School during Corona pandemic" collecting illuminates the effects on learning at home during this time. Pedocs describes that students increasingly had to use digital learning opportunities, which often went to an unsecured parent satisfaction with regard to school support.
These experiences show how important it is that schools adapt and become more innovative in order to meet the needs of the students. The path to school changes is rocky, and the closure of the Wiesenthal primary school is only part of a larger picture that is drawn in the German educational landscape.