© dpa
Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch is convinced that violence and widespread conflicts in Berlin’s schools must have consequences.
Measures are needed to prevent both of these issues and to enable a better and swifter response to them, said the CDU politician during the presentation of a 13-point plan within the education administration.
The aim is to ensure that violence and breaches of boundaries are no longer dealt with differently from school to school. Instead, there is to be a standardised list of rule breaches and crisis incidents, setting out the steps that must be taken in response to each incident. A binding procedure and standardised fines are also planned for pupils who are repeatedly absent from school and are therefore in breach of compulsory schooling.
Günther-Wünsch also believes it is right to tighten disciplinary and corrective measures if pupils repeatedly come to prominence for acts of violence, for example. One consequence could be to make anti-violence training compulsory. The education authorities had already presented a comprehensive scientific study on the subject at the end of June. According to the ‘Berlin Conflict and Violence Barometer’, violence in its many and varied forms is an everyday occurrence in many schools. Four per cent of pupils reported having even been physically assaulted. One in five (20 per cent) cited sexist comments.