Several hundred young people had to be arrested last year because they… School skipped. This comes from a survey by Editorial Network Germany (RND) out. In Lower Saxony and Bremen, for example, there were a total of 241 male and 114 female young people in the first half of the year. By October, Hesse had 48 people affected. Baden-Württemberg, Thuringia, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony reported lower numbers. The remaining countries either have no current cases or do not record their number.
The Education and Science Union (GEW) criticized the practice. “The fact that young people have to go to prison for a few days because of repeated truancy is, in principle, a declaration of school policy and pedagogical bankruptcy and, as is often heard, largely ineffective or even counterproductive,” said union leader Anja Bensinger-Stolze
RND.
The focus must be on prevention instead of intervention and on pedagogy instead of punishment, she demanded. “In order to prevent school absenteeism, three things are necessary: a school prevention concept, a kind of ‘early warning system’ and an individual consideration of the causes,” said the GEW chairwoman.
The number of school truants has increased
The Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice defended the practice. Arresting school truants is a “fundamentally suitable means of influencing young people.” There are no fundamental technical concerns about the current sanctioning system.
In Germany, youth arrest can be used as a last resort against notorious
truant be imposed to enforce compulsory schooling. This measure is used under certain conditions and is limited in time. A youth arrest is one level below a youth sentence.
The number of school truants has increased in recent years, according to experts. Children from educationally disadvantaged and disadvantaged families are particularly affected.
