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EDUCATION

German parents go to court after police seize kids over homeschooling

A German couple temporarily lost custody of their children because they were homeschooling them. Now the family is taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights to defend what they say is their parental right.

German parents go to court after police seize kids over homeschooling
File photo: dpa-tmn

The parents of four children are appearing before the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights on Thursday to fight Germany’s near ban on homeschooling.

In August 2013, the Wunderlich family had just begun their first homeschooling lesson of the year near Darmstadt, Hesse, when around two dozen police officers and social workers “stormed the home” using a battering ram, according to the parents and a religious freedom advocacy group ADF International.

The children were initially taken away from their religious parents, Dirk and Petra, under Germany’s strict homeschooling laws.

Germany requires all children to attend school, and homeschooling is essentially banned, except for in very rare circumstances. Therefore, because the Wunderlich parents had refused to send their children to school, they briefly lost custody.

Parents who do not send their children to school face fines and imprisonment as well. Police are also allowed to take children away from their parents, as officers did to the Wunderlich family, and bring them to school. Authorities say they make such decisions based on the best interests of the child.

But Dirk and Petra argue that it is their right to homeschool their children and that the police raid caused harm to their family life.

“I sincerely hope the European Court of Human Rights will reaffirm that the state has no right to abduct children from their family just because they are being homeschooled,” said Dirk Wunderlich in a statement.

“Our youngest daughter was only four years old when the authorities broke into our home and took the children without warning. She could not stop crying for 11 days. Her older sister has not laughed since this incident. We chose to educate our children at home, because we believe this to be the best environment for them to learn and thrive.”

The Conference of State Education Ministers estimates that between 500 and 1,000 children are being homeschooled across the country despite the requirement to attend school.

In 2014, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled that restrictions on homeschooling were justified, explaining that the community at large has a valid interest in preventing the formation of religious or ideological parallel societies. The court argued that otherwise, homeschooled children could be closed off from engaging with those who think differently from themselves.

The European Court ruled in 2006 that there is no right to homeschooling, using similar arguments as the German Constitutional Court, saying that parents can teach children about their own religious convictions after school.

But other European countries are not as strict as Germany. The Wunderlich family, for example, wanted to move to France, while another family moved to Austria.

“Children deserve the loving care and protection of their parents. It is a serious thing for a state to interfere with the parent-child bond. It should only do so where there is a real risk of serious harm,” said Robert Clarke of ADF International, lead counsel on the Wunderlich case, in a statement.

“Petra and Dirk Wunderlich simply exercised their parental right to raise their children in line with their philosophical and religious convictions – something they thought they could do better in the home environment. The right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is a fundamental right protected in all of the major human rights treaties. Germany has signed up to these treaties and yet continues to ignore its obligations with devastating consequences.”

Clarke is not alone in criticizing Germany’s strict rules against homeschooling.

“It is in fact legally wrong,” said law professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf of the University of Hanover.

Brosius-Gersdorf suggested that rather than an “all-or-nothing principle”, Germany could consider whether homeschooled children could also become integrated into society in other ways, such as through sports or music groups.

But Ilka Hoffmann of the Union for Education and Science warned against weakening Germany’s school attendance requirement.

“It is a great democratic achievement,” Hoffmann said of the policy.

“Often what lies behind the desire for homeschooling are radically religious groups. It cannot be within the interests of democracy to fulfill these unreasonable demands.”

Hoffmann added that children must be protected from these kinds of sects.

But whether the EU Court would actually make any drastic decision against Germany’s laws is another question. And though ADF International is supporting the Wunderlich family, even their organization said they don’t think the Court will insist on overturning Germany’s essential ban.

“We hope though that a discussion about this will get started as to whether a complete ban is out-of-date,” said ADF International spokesman Andreas Thonhauser.

A spokesman from the Conference of State Education Ministers also said reform would be unrealistic, “unless the ruling would require it”.

“The stance is clear. There is compulsory schooling. Period.”

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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