The first day of school: The excitement is great, the parents are proud, the school cone is full. And the classroom? There isn’t. This is how the students at the Willbergschule in Bochum feel this week.
Actually, there should be two new school containers here for the start of school on Monday to defuse the space problems at the school. “At the beginning of the holidays things started in no time at all, we started preparing the ground,” says Martin Rogausch, chairman of the school board. “Then came the big cut”.
School has to improvise
Nothing happened anymore, an empty gravel surface remained. Til today. Two more containers that had already been delivered were moved. They should later form a unit with the two containers that are still missing.
At first the school had no choice but to improvise. Among other things, one of the differentiation rooms will initially serve as a classroom. According to the head of the school board, however, it is too small for one class. In addition, the remedial classes that actually use the room would have to give way. The result: Children with language problems could not be properly supported from the first day of school.
Delivery problems with school containers
A total of 172 containers were to be set up at 13 school locations in Bochum during the summer holidays. That didn’t work everywhere. The city of Bochum writes: “The background to the delay was a disruption in production.” According to WDR information, the urgently needed containers are therefore not available at a total of six schools when school starts.
They should be delivered to the Willberg School this week. According to the city, it will probably take until the beginning of September before classes can take place there. At other schools, the containers should not be delivered until the autumn holidays.
Special meeting of the school committee in Bochum
In the school committee in Bochum, the city also had to face the critical questions from the politicians on Tuesday. Birte Caspers-Schäfer from the Bochum Greens speaks of a “catastrophic situation.” Sascha Dewender from the CDU from a “declaration of bankruptcy of the administration.”
The politicians want to clarify whether the delays are actually only due to delivery problems. The city may have taken too long to get building permits for the school containers. A special meeting of the school committee in Bochum is planned for the autumn holidays. The only topics: school toilets and school containers.
We also reported on this topic on August 8th, 2023 on WDR television: Local time Ruhr, 7.30 p.m.