Luxembourg City's municipal council passed the organisational plan on Friday morning with the votes of the DP-CSV majority. By doing so, the School Committee's proposal to send some pupils from rue Michel Welter to rue du Commerce and vice versa was rejected. Disappointed parent representatives criticised that the partial merging of the schools would have led to "smaller classes, improved tutoring, and contributed to more socially and culturally mixed classes". Committee members have announced that they had decided to step down collectively next week.
Children living around rue de Strasbourg in Quartier de la gare will thus continue to go to school in rue du Commerce, while those living in the quieter neighbourhood around rue Michel Welter will stay in their local school. Tifenn Layr-Eyraud, whose child attends school in rue du Commerce, stated that this situation is "disadvantageous". Layr-Eyraud points out that there are big differences between pupils in rue du Commerce and those in rue Michel Welter. A reorganisation would have contributed to greater diversity.
The school around rue de Strasbourg mainly welcomes new arrivals, and refugee children in need of additional tutoring compared to other pupils. Jutta Filot, parent representative and mother of two children who go to school in rue du Commerce, explains that this has an impact on school organisation. More children arrive throughout the school year, making the already big classes even bigger. Due to the mixed population in the neighbourhood, she argues, there is a high risk that pupils advance more slowly in their curricula.
Besides longer ways to school, scholastic development was one of the main concerns of parent representatives from rue Michel Welter, who aggressively fought against the merger of the two schools. They ended up imposing their will and their children will now stay in the smaller, more intimate environment.
Séverine Callens, another parent representative from rue du Commerce, states that she can understand the concerns. In fact, she too was worried to send her children to the big school at first. However, she quickly changed her mind when she saw that the school employs "amazing people" and her child visibly enjoyed going there.
On the other hand, parent representatives reject the argument that the proposal would have led to longer ways to school. Firstly, they argue that the preschool in Quartier de la gare is already located in rue du Commerce, while children attending Cycle 1 go to rue Adolphe Fischer. According to parent representatives, this means that certain parents already have to go to three schools every morning.
Colette Mart, a member of the municipal executive, stated that as a municipality, they understood that neither parents nor children would have appreciated to be abruptly taken out of the smaller school. This is why the Council decided to continue as before for now. However, from the 2022/2023 school year onwards, it is planned to enroll all children starting in Cycle 1 together. This would allow them to get to know each other and make friends, which in turn would calm down parents and mitigate fears.
The school in Quartier de la gare was also granted two additional job positions by the Ministry of Education in order to better deal with the more difficult conditions.
Nevertheless, parent representatives from rue du Commerce remain disappointed with the municipality's decision to not change anything. According to them, the interests of a few were put before the interests of the community. In a statement, the School Committee stressed that they felt let down by both the Democratic Party and the Christian Social People's Party, hence their decision to collectively step down. The statement concludes by saying that "this active team, which has in part been a part of the School Committee since 2009, will now invest the time and energy demanded by the work for the Committee into their daily lives with the children".
Video report in Luxembourgish:
