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SCHOOLS

Here’s when school summer holidays start across Germany’s 16 states

Children in the northern state of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania went off on summer holidays on Friday. Here's a look at when the break starts in other states.

Published: 19 June 2020 16:13 CEST
Here's when school summer holidays start across Germany's 16 states
Archive photo shows a teacher in Dortmund wishing pupils a good summer holiday. Photo: DPA

The coronavirus pandemic has hugely interrupted the school year across Germany and much of the world.

All schools and daycare centres (Kitas) for youngsters were closed in March for around one to two months.

Since the end of April, pupils have been getting back in the classroom, mostly on a part-time basis and with a mix of online distance learning.

When a coronavirus infection is detected, schools have closed in a bid to control any localised outbreaks.

However, now the summer break, which usually lasts about lasts about five to six weeks in the Bundesrepublik, is approaching. 

Similar to the school system, holidays vary in Germany depending on the individual states. They operate on a staggered schedule so that the travel infrastructure is not overloaded.

After Friday, school is out for summer for youngsters in Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania – the first of Germany's 16 federal starts to begin the summer break (Sommerferien).

'Back to normal'

After the summer holidays end, the German governments says schools will get back to regular operation as far as possible (as long as the coronavirus situation remains stable) in a bid to restore normality to students' lives.

“Everyone agrees that we need regular schooling again,” said North Rhine-Westphalia's state premier Armin Laschet following a meeting between state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday June 17th.

It will be up to the schools themselves to decide on distancing rules, the president of the Conference of Education Ministers and Rhineland-Palatinate education minister Stefanie Hubig said. 

In many schools across various federal states, teaching is already taking place again in class without distancing rules.

Here's a look at when school holidays begin and end this year, as well as 2021, to get them in your diary.

READ ALSO: What to know about the different types of schools as an expat parent

Baden-Württemberg

2020: 30.07. – 12.09.

2021: 29.07. – 11.09.

Bavaria

2020: 27.07. – 07.09.

2021: 30.07. – 13.09.

Berlin

2020: 25.06. – 07.08.

2021: 24.06. – 06.08.

Brandenburg

2020: 25.06. – 08.08.

2021: 24.06. – 07.08.

Bremen

2020: 16.07. – 26.08.

2021: 22.07. – 01.09.

Hamburg

2020: 25.06. – 05.08.

2021: 24.06. – 04.08.

Hesse

2020: 06.07. – 14.08.

2021: 19.07. – 27.08.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

2020: 22.06. – 01.08.

2021: 21.06. – 31.07.

Lower Saxony

2020: 16.07. – 26.08.

2021: 22.07. – 01.09.

North Rhine-Westphalia

2020: 29.06. – 11.08.

2021: 05.07. – 17.08.

Rhineland-Palatinate

2020: 06.07. – 14.08.

2021: 19.07. – 27.08.

Saarland

2020: 06.07. – 14.08.

2021: 19.07. – 27.08.

Saxony

2020: 20.07. – 28.08.

2021: 26.07. – 03.09.

Saxony-Anhalt

2020: 16.07. – 26.08.

2021: 22.07. – 01.09.

Schleswig-Holstein

2020: 29.06. – 08.08.

2021: 21.06. – 31.07.

Thuringia

2020: 20.07. – 29.08.

2021: 26.07. – 04.09.

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DISCRIMINATION

Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

Parents with Arabic-sounding names get a less friendly response and less help when choosing schools in Sweden, according to a new study from the University of Uppsala.

Published: 6 April 2022 12:05 CEST
Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

In one of the largest discrimination experiments ever carried out in the country, 3,430 primary schools were contacted via email by a false parent who wanted to know more about the school. The parent left information about their name and profession.

In the email, the false parent stated that they were interested in placing their child at the school, and questions were asked about the school’s profile, queue length, and how the application process worked. The parent was either low-educated (nursing assistant) or highly educated (dentist). Some parents gave Swedish names and others gave “Arabic-sounding” names.

The report’s author, Jonas Larsson Taghizadeh said that the study had demonstrated “relatively large and statistically significant negative effects” for the fictional Arabic parents. 

“Our results show that responses to emails signed with Arabic names from school principals are less friendly, are less likely to indicate that there are open slots, and are less likely to contain positive information about the school,” he told The Local. 

READ ALSO: Men with foreign names face job discrimination in Sweden: study

The email responses received by the fictional Arabic parents were rated five percent less friendly than those received by the fictional Swedish parents, schools were 3.2 percentage points less likely to tell Arabic parents that there were open slots at the school, and were 3.9 percentage points less likely to include positive information about the municipality or the school. 

There was no statistically significant difference in the response rate and number of questions answered by schools to Swedish or Arabic-sounding parents. 

Taghizadeh said that there was more discrimination against those with a low social-economic status job than against those with an Arabic name, with the worst affected group being those who combined the two. 

“For socioeconomic discrimination, the results are similar, however, here the discrimination effects are somewhat larger,” he told The Local. 

Having a high economic status profession tended to cancel out the negative effects of having an Arabic name. 

“The discrimination effects are substantially important, as they could potentially indirectly influence parents’ school choice decision,” Taghizadeh said.

“Investigating socioeconomic discrimination is also important in itself, as discrimination is seldom studied and as explicit discrimination legislation that bans class-based discrimination is rare in Western countries including Sweden, in contrast to laws against ethnic discrimination.” 

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