According to Karin Korte (SPD), city councilor for education, the former school building of the Carl Legien School on Leinestrasse in Berlin-Neukölln is currently not in use. As she said when asked by the SPD district councilor Marina Reichenbach, the building was rented to the Senate Education Administration – which in turn, to her knowledge, does not use the house.
The district office already has plans for the building: you have communicated to the Senate several times that you would like to use it for a new general school, said Korte. “Most recently, at the end of May, in a letter to State Secretary Slotty, I proposed opening a German-Ukrainian school there,” Korte continued – as far as she knows, the matter is currently being examined.
The establishment of a German-Ukrainian school would be an important signal in several respects, said Korte. In general, the supply of school places at secondary schools is a problem – even if this year, unlike in other districts, all Neukölln pupils received a place.
“In this sense, I think it is difficult to explain why an entire school building in Neukölln is empty,” said Korte. And further: “A short-term reactivation would relax the school place situation in the district and enable us to take in more students from neighboring districts.”
She justified her desire for a German-Ukrainian school by saying that more than 400 students from Ukraine had been admitted to Neukölln schools since March. A German-Ukrainian school could, for example, offer Ukrainian as a foreign language and enter into school partnerships with Ukraine.
That “would have more than just symbolic value, but could also be an important basis for a deeper partnership with Ukraine in the school sector,” said Korte.
She countered the corresponding demand of the Neukölln left-wing faction to set up a German-Arabic school by saying that Arabic was already being taught as a foreign language at some schools, such as the Rütli School. “That’s good and right,” said Korte.
