Germany has a refugee policy that puts the United States’ to shame. Here, conservatives use dead children as political footballs—forget about the process of actually helping these families once they find asylum from their war-torn countries.
About 196,000 children fleeing war and poverty will enter the German school system this year, and 8,264 “special classes” have been created to help them catch up with their peers, Die Welt said, citing a survey carried out in 16 German federal states.
Germany’s education authority says 325,000 school-aged children reached the EU country in 2015 during Europe’s worst migration crisis since the second world war.
The numbers of displaced families and their children are staggering, as we have all read and seen. The United States’ biggest claim to fame is that we have a president who has said we will accept 10,000 refugees in the coming year—who knows what social services there will be available to them? Especially with political leaders like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz who grew up having to work so hard for their fortunes! The good news is that Germany seems to have its priorities in something resembling a human order.
Heinz-Peter Meidinger, head of the DPhV teachers’ union, said Germany would need up to 20,000 additional teachers to cater for the new numbers.
“By next summer, at the latest, we will feel that gap,” he said.
The next generation’s best and brightest must be taught and cared for.