“More artistic and literary diversity in our schools”, the SEW demands. The union believes that the Ministry of Education should revise the school curriculum to adequately reflect the multiculturalism of pupils.
Language classes in particular are said to be dominated by white male authors. Spokeswoman Vera Dockendorf argues that literature has more to offer than just Goethe and Frisch: “If we look at the authors that are taught in secondary education, we quickly see that they are mainly white and male, and most of them have been dead for quite some time.”
Dockendorf further elaborated that both literature and art open up many ways to discuss the diversity of the population, or issues such as racism: “And yet, nothing of the like in our syllabus. French literature in particular has much to offer.”
The SEW intends to compile new literature lists and forward them to the syllabus commission. SCRIPT director Luc Weis welcomes the initiative, noting that the English programme is already much more balanced. The new Luxembourgish classes in the literature section will revolve around three authors, two women and one man, explained Weis.
Although both French and German classes still lack a similar balance, the syllabus commission is already working on adapting the offer, stressed Weis.
