A Square Kilometre of Education
How can we build community responsibility for educational success in primary schools?
The realities of the classroom demand that the primary school not only imparts cultural techniques; increasingly it must also address the task of relationship-building, integration and child-rearing. Day nurseries must provide professionally the prerequisites for learning such as improvement in language skills and acquaint migrant parents in particular with their role in the German education system.
The “Square Kilometre of Education” is a pragmatic model for the development of a new type of school geared to respective local requirements. The school authorities and a foundation are together responsible on the spot for facilitating unbeaurocratic and tailor-made qualification, furthering individuals and groups and organizing meetings and interlinks between educational establishments and families in a pedagogic workshop. A first Square Kilometre of Education initiated by the Freudenberg Foundation in Berlin-Neukölln in 2006 has flourished and is already showing concrete results. The Breuninger Foundation has taken on as development partner the second Square Kilometre of Education in Berlin-Moabit. This was set up on the model of Neukölln but also puts particular emphasis for example on the preventive use of learning therapy. At present there are already eight local Square Kilometres which test individual solutions on the spot and develop further through the exchange of ideas and experience.
Kontakt: Helga Breuninger