to make them decide to become one themselves.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060331/wl_nm/germany_school_dc_1
Berlin school violence sparks calls for change By Karin Strohecker
Fri Mar 31, 11:07 AM ET
Violence at a Berlin school has prompted calls in Germany to overhaul the country's education system and provide better integration for immigrant children.
Pictures of hooded pupils pelting journalists with heavy cobblestones and police officers lining the entrance of the Ruetli school in the heavily Turkish and Arab Neukoelln district of Berlin have filled primetime news since Thursday.
**Four weeks ago, teachers at the Ruetli school sent a desperate letter to state authorities asking for help and the closure of their current school.
"Any help for our school could only improve the situation," the teachers wrote, saying they had been attacked by pupils and that many would only enter a class room with their mobile phones switched on to be able to call for assistance immediately.**
"Looking ahead, the school as it is should be dissolved in favor of a new one with a completely different setup," the teachers added.
The Neukoelln area is hit by unemployment, social problems and poverty. Ruetli is a Hauptschule, a high school, providing a basic level of education in a multilevel education system.
At Ruetli school, more than 80 percent of the children are foreigners, the teachers said in their letter.
Experts said the violence showed that Germany had failed to integrate immigrant children in its school system and pondered the abolishment of this lowest school level.
"The Hauptschule has degenerated into a school for losers," said Christian Pfeiffer, head of the Criminological Research Institute in Hanover. "Children who are at such a school have a very slim chance of getting an apprenticeship later on and to grow into their work."
ON FIRE?
Although education in Germany is regulated by state governments, in most cases all children go to the same school for the first years before being divided up into those receiving higher education, which could open the door to university, while others remain at the bottom of the educational pecking order.
"The trend is going more and more toward higher education wherever it is possible," said Marianne Renz, specialist for education at the Federal Statistics Office.
"That means that the Hauptschule, wherever it is present, has become a school for whoever is left over while having a high proportion of foreign pupils," she added.
In 2004/2005, pupils visiting a Hauptschule made up around one fifth of all pupils in secondary education.
While politicians said consideration must be given to changes in the educational system, teachers said nothing had been done to help them and to change the system.
"This case shows that schools in Germany are being left alone with their problems until they go up in flames," said Ludwig Eckinger, head of the teacher's association VBE in an interview with daily Die Welt.