After the education summit for stronger cooperation between the federal, state and local governments, Bavaria insists on independence. “There will be no centralized education with us, that doesn’t suit Germany,” said the Bavarian Minister of Science Markus Blume (CSU) of the German Press Agency. Education is the responsibility of the federal states. A joint approach in this field is therefore often difficult.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger called for more cooperation at the education summit in Berlin on Tuesday and announced the establishment of a “Team Education” task force. The FDP politician wants to get the federal, state, local authorities and experts on board.
“Less announcements and admonitions, more togetherness”
Blume accused her of having “become Federal Minister of Announcements”. Instead of being at an educational summit, you are in a valley when it comes to trusting cooperation. “Fewer announcements, fewer warnings, more togetherness – that would be the order of the day,” he said.
“We saw at the summit that there is a realization that we can only tackle the educational emergency together,” said the President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The teachers’ association now hopes that there will be broad cooperation in the new working group that has been announced, including with representatives of educational practice.
The German Association of Cities called on the federal and state governments to cooperate with the municipalities on an ongoing basis. “We have to join forces and act in a more planned manner in the field of education,” said the chief executive of the city council, Helmut Dedy, of the “Rheinische Post”. “The federal and state governments keep launching individual funding programs that expire with the next election and offer no planning security. That has to change.”
