Working-visit to the Danish-German borderregion
Introduction
Mercator-Education started a new initiative: a digital network for multilingual (pre-)primary
schools in minority language areas. Mercator noticed a growing demand for the exchange of
information between people involved in bi- and trilingualism in the different European
minority language communities. Small but interesting projects and experiments on bi- and
trilingualism in the different language communities are often carried out unnoticed while they
could be relevant for other language communities. Mercator wants to give greater publicity to
such projects and experiments. Through the construction of a digital platform we want to
create space for the exchange of information among practitioners in education.
During the last months Mercator web-editor Johannes Hamersma and research-assistant
Tsjerk Bottema contacted multilingual primary schools in several European minority
language areas. Although a lot of schools were enthusiastically about the project it turned out
to be quite difficult to acquire the necessary data from these schools. Therefore a working
visit to the German-Danish border area was planned, with the goal to visit a number of
interesting schools where Danish (in the case of Germany), German (in the case of Denmark)
and Northfrisian (Germany) were used as medium of instruction. Next to that visits to
umbrella organizations in the field of education were made part of the program. Moreover a
visit to the scientific institute of the Northfrisians, the Nordfriisk Institut in Bredstedt was
planned and an appointment with Prof. Dr. Jarich Hoekstra, Professor Frisian at the Kiel
University was made. Main goal of the trip was to adopt all appropriate schools in the region
in the new Mercator-network. Base of operations was Flensburg, where both Mercator-
Education staff-members booked a hotelroom. The places to visit, Risum-Lindholm,
Bredstedt, Aabenraa, Kiel and Husum were geographically located around Flensburg, and
therefore this town seemed to be a logical choice.
Tuesday 25th of March
First we visited the bilingual school of Risum-Lindholm, the so-called "Risumskole ". The
Risumskole is one of the 49 schools that are united in the network
of the Danske Skoleforeningen , the umbrella-organisation for Danish schools in Germany.
These Danish schools are financed by the Danish and the German government. The
Risumskole however is different from the other schools in the network, because next to
Danish another language is used as the instructive language, namely North Frisian, or
"Frasch"1.
Typical for Danish schools in Germany is that the number of pupils in classes is a lot smaller
then what is usual in German schools (the average is 10 to 15 pupils in each class). The
Risumskole is so to say a very extreme example of this situation, because the total number of
pupils is only 39, which are educated by seven fulltime teachers. Striking is that only one
pupil has the Danish language as native language. Eleven of them speak North Frisian as there
mothertongue, while 27 have German as their native language. The Risumskole is a so-called
"Gesamtschule", which means that, in German terminology the "Grundschule" (primaryschool;
classes 1-6) and the "Hauptschule" (first years of secondary school, "middleschool",
classes 7-9) are united in one school. In this perspective the Risumskole also differs from the
other Danish schools in Germany where the children are taking there courses in the classes 1
to 6. The strive of the Risumskole, led by Jörgen Hahn (
)
president of the Foriining for Nationale Friiske and very active in the Northfrisian movement
in Germany, is that Danish and North Frisian should have an equal status. This means that they
should be used both in fifty percent of the lessons. This is however not the case, because there
is a lack of North Frisian learning materials. Therefore Danish is used more often as an
instructive language then North Frisian. Moreover three of the seven teachers use North Frisian
as their native language, while the others have a Danish language background. This
proportion naturally also reflects the division Danish-Frasch as educational languages. The
Risumskole however is the only school on the land where the North Frisian language plays
such an important role in education. On the North Frisian islands (such as Sylt and Föhr) the
local varieties of the North Frisian language are also used in education.
On other schools in North-Friesland North Frisian is only offered as a subject. An example of
such a school is the Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule, a German "Grund- und Hauptschule",
also in Risum-Lindholm, where Mr. Gerd Vahder develops North Frisian educational materials
in his "Lernwerkstatt", a separate classroom in the school where all kinds of North Frisian
learning materials, developed by either Mr. Vahder, or the Nordfriisk Instituut are at ones
disposal.
The Lernwerkstatt functions as a distribution centre for other schools in the region which
offer North Frisian as a subject. The Risumskole also uses material from this Lernwerkstatt. It
is striking that only learning materials in the North Frisian language developed specifically for
the learning of the North Frisian language were present. Biology-, Geography-, or Mathematics
books in the North Frisian language were not available. The Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule is in
comparison with the Risumskole quite large, with a total number of 300 pupils. The classes
are also larger in this school; 25 to 30 pupils in each class is usual. North Frisian is offered as a
subject in classes 1 to 7. In the next two classes pupils can choose between Danish and
North Frisian.
In the Danish school in Bredstedt, "Bredstedt Danske Skole ", also one of the schools of the
Danske Skoleforeningen, North Frisian is also offered as a subject. Danish is always the
language of instruction. The total number of pupils on this school is 145, teached by 15
teachers, from which 7 of speak Danish as their mothertongue. Most teachers are, like in Risum,
trained in Denmark. Five to ten percent of the pupils speak Danish as their mothertongue, two
and a half percent North Frisian, twenty percent "Plattdeutsch", the rest High-German. Because
German is the dominant language, bilingual education is necessary in the first classes of this
Danish school. Like in Risum (Risumskole) the goal is that at the end of their school career the
pupils have equally proficiency in Danish as in German.
Where in the Risumskole it was also a goal to have an active knowledge of North Frisian, in
Bredstedt the main goal is a passive knowledge of the language, and in that perspective
the Bredstedt school is comparable with the Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule.
The "Nordfriisk Instituut " (Northfrisian Institute), also located in Bredstedt, is the central scientific
institution in Nordfriesland for the care, promotion and study of the North Frisian language, history
and culture. We visited this institute after the schoolvisit at the Bredstedt Danske Skole. At the
North Frisian Institute, among other things, learning materials for primary education in the North
Frisian language are being developed. For example the Westfrisian method "Fryske TaalRotonde"
has been translated into four Northfrisian dialects (mooringer frasch, sölring, ferring and öömrang).
A songbook in seven different North Frisian dialects is in preparation.
Wednesday 26th of March
On Wednesday we drove to Aabenraa in Denmark. Aabenraa is the largest town in
Nordschleswig, the region in Denmark where the German language community is situated.
We made an appointment with Mr. Claus Diedrichsen, head of the office of the Deutscher
Schul- und Sprachverein für Nordschleswig (DSSV). Mr. Diedrichsen had been so kind to
arrange two school visits for us. First we visited the Deutsche Privatschule Apenrade , in the
old city centre of Aabenraa. At the school in Aabenraa we were welcomed most kindly by the
principal of the school, Mrs. Sybille Gentin and the deputy principal, Mr. Rainer Naujeck.
The Privatschule Apenrade is a school with a lot of facilities and possibilities; a guided tour
through the school made that clear. There are a lot of pupils who do not speak German when
they enter the school building for the first time; for these children the school offers a so-called
"vorschulklasse" (pre-school class), where children learn the basics of German before they
start with their primary education. Also in further classes the learning process of the German
language is a key issue. Although German is officially the language of instruction on the
school, it is necessary to use bilingual methods, mainly in the first classes, to make sure that
the pupils have a good knowledge of the German language.
In this school the classes are also relatively small; 15 to 19 pupils in each class. The
Privatschule Apenrade is also a "Gesamtschule", with nine classes and a tenth grade for those
pupils who need a little bit more education in certain subjects. A kindergarten and a childcare
centre are also integrated in the school. There are 155 pupils at this school, teached by 18
teachers, all native speakers of the German language. The teachers were partly trained in
Denmark and partly in Germany. A lot of them are moreover German citizens, who work in
Denmark. A conversation with Mr. Diedrichsen learned that teachers in Denmark earn two
thirds of the salary that is usual in Germany. Moreover the daily life in Denmark is more
expensive then in Germany. Therefore it is not that easy for German schools in Denmark to
get teachers. The DSSV compensates the difference between the German and the Danish
salary partly, but a total compensation is not a realistic possibility.
The next school we visited was the Deutsche Schule Rothenkrug ; a very small school with 32
pupils and 6 teachers, who all are native speakers of the German language. In this school a
kindergarten was also integrated. Most of the pupils however spoke Danish as their
mothertongue. One can imagine that bilingual methods are also a necessity on this school. We
experienced however that the knowledge of young pupils was already quite good. A little girl
asked us in Danish why we were in her school. Since our Danish is not that good we asked the
little girl if she could also speak German. It was astonishing to see how quick and fluently she
switched over to German. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Frederik Christensen, told us
that is was sometimes quite difficult for him to determine the level of knowledge of his pupils,
because the classes on his school were quite small. Unfortunately there wasn’t a monitoring-
system in co-operation with some other larger German schools in the area, and that was
something Mr. Christensen considered as a lack of communication. Mr. Diedrichsen of the
DSSV thought that other German schools in Nordschleswig could also possibly benefit from
our network. If, besides the Privatschule Apenrade and the Deutsche Schule Rothenkrug,
more schools of DSSV would be united by our network, the communication between the
German schools in the region could also improve.
After these two school visits we drove back to the German side of the border, to Flensburg,
where we had an appointment with Mr. Joachim Ihloff of IPTS, the Landesinstitut Schleswig-
Holstein für Praxis und Theorie der Schule, recently renamed in Institut für
Qualitätsentwichlung an Schulen, Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH). The main task of the IPTS or
IQSH is to educate teachers and student-teachers in new possible learning methods. We
agreed that our network could be helpful in this perspective, although multilingual education
was not a key issue of IPTS. Nevertheless we noticed that besides the multilingual aspect, also
an information-exchange concerning learning methods, didactics and so on could be an
interesting thing which could be established by the network and where teachers and studentteachers
who take their courses from IPTS could benefit from. The most important thing of
this visit was however to present our network to this important institute in the field of
education in Schleswig-Holstein. Another nice thing of the conversation with Mr. Ihloff was
that he could provide in some important names concerning multilingual education in
Schleswig-Holstein.
Thursday 27 March
We had an appointment at 9.00 with Anne-Margrete Jessen at the Oksevejens Skole in
Flensborg. We were told that this was a typical Danish school in that region. We were warmly
welcomed at this school and got for a start a grand tour of the school premises. The part for
the youngest children (the toddlers) was being renovated and therefore these children were
allocated to another building nearby.
The schools is an ‘all-Danish’ school which means that it is the only language used as a
medium of instruction except for the subject German. The school has 8 teachers and 80 pupils
which means that the classes are relatively small. Ms Jessen told us that the identity of the
pupils (and their parents) is an important condition for joining the school, it should be Danish.
The skills developed in the German and Danish language are the same; understanding,
speaking, reading and writing. All learning material used is of Danish origin and therefore in
the Danish language. This could be a problem for young children who are native speakers of
German. This is being compensated by teaching (at least) in the first grades bilingual in
German and Danish. Ms Jessen would like to see that the Danish language would be used
more in everyday speech in and around the school. The school educates from the first until the
sixth grade. As a contact person we could use Stan Andersen (
). This school has
joined our Network of Schools.
At 11.30 we met Olaf Runz at the Danske Skoleforening in Flensborg. He told us about the
Danish schools in Germany. He held a presentation of what the Danske Skoleforening is and
does and we told him about our visit and the ‘Network of Schools’ we are setting-up. First he
told us something of the location of the Danish schools in Sydslesvig. They are more or less
homogeneous dispersed throughout the region, with a concentration in Flensburg. In some
regions though children need to travel great distances to their schools. In some cases this
influences their choice of school, some parents rather send their children to a nearby German
school than to a distant Danish school. In 2000 there were 49 primary Danish schools in
Germany, with a total of 5.807 pupils. The past 10 years this number has been stable. The
Danish schools and the Danske Skoleforening are financed by the German and the Danish
government. The school system used lies between the German and the Danish school system.
In the afternoon at 15.30 we visited the ‘North-Frisian Schulamt’ in Husum. Mrs. Geißler
received us and told us about the educational policy regarding the North-Frisian
minority. In the schools on the Islands the informal language is North Frisian but the formal
and school language is German. On the Island of Sylt the speakers of North Frisian decreased
dramatically, this is partly because of the many tourists visiting that island. The ‘Schulamt’
provides teachers for the different schools who wish to provide in North Frisian lessons. The
‘Schulamt’ has a budget of €500.000 for these teachers. According to Mrs. Geißler the main
problem concerning the North Frisian in education was that the language consists of 10
different dialects. She said that it is not possible (financially) to provide every school with a
teacher who is fluent in the dialect which is spoken in that region. Therefore in most cases
the Mooringer variant of North Frisian is used as standard language at schools of the mainland
of Nordfriesland.
Friday 28 March
At 10.30 in the morning we arrived at the University of Kiel to have a meeting with Alistair
Walker and Jarich Hoekstra , both of the department of Frisian. They told us about teaching
the Frisian language and about research carried out at the university concerning Frisian. We
presented our ‘Network of Schools’. They were positive about our Network and are willing to
aid us in expanding this Network by mentioning our network to students and other interested
people.
Conclusion
Last week brought us six schools that would like to join our network. Next to this a lot of
people we spoke are going to provide us with more schools. In that respect one can consider
our trip as a success, but the schools were not all that we gained. Our knowledge of the
German and Danish school-systems, bilingual education and minority language teaching in
practice has increased considerably. Another gain from the trip is the numerous contacts we
acquired. We were always warmly welcomed by the schools and organisations. They were all
eager to tell us about themselves and to hear how thing are done in Fryslân. You might have
noticed that the schools that joined our network from this region are not fully bi- or trilingual.
Most schools are ‘all-Danish’ or ‘all-German’ schools. We still want to have these schools in
our network because, especially in the lower grades, the schools are in practice bilingual. A
substantial percentage of the pupils in the school are not native speakers of the language used
as a medium of instruction. Therefore these pupils have to be talked to in their native
language, a language that is officially only given as a subject. The only ‘real’ trilingual
school is the ‘Risumskole’; the languages Northfrisian, Danish and German are all used as a
medium of instruction.
Mercator-Education started a new initiative: a digital network for multilingual (pre-)primary
schools in minority language areas. Mercator noticed a growing demand for the exchange of
information between people involved in bi- and trilingualism in the different European
minority language communities. Small but interesting projects and experiments on bi- and
trilingualism in the different language communities are often carried out unnoticed while they
could be relevant for other language communities. Mercator wants to give greater publicity to
such projects and experiments. Through the construction of a digital platform we want to
create space for the exchange of information among practitioners in education.
During the last months Mercator web-editor Johannes Hamersma and research-assistant
Tsjerk Bottema contacted multilingual primary schools in several European minority
language areas. Although a lot of schools were enthusiastically about the project it turned out
to be quite difficult to acquire the necessary data from these schools. Therefore a working
visit to the German-Danish border area was planned, with the goal to visit a number of
interesting schools where Danish (in the case of Germany), German (in the case of Denmark)
and Northfrisian (Germany) were used as medium of instruction. Next to that visits to
umbrella organizations in the field of education were made part of the program. Moreover a
visit to the scientific institute of the Northfrisians, the Nordfriisk Institut in Bredstedt was
planned and an appointment with Prof. Dr. Jarich Hoekstra, Professor Frisian at the Kiel
University was made. Main goal of the trip was to adopt all appropriate schools in the region
in the new Mercator-network. Base of operations was Flensburg, where both Mercator-
Education staff-members booked a hotelroom. The places to visit, Risum-Lindholm,
Bredstedt, Aabenraa, Kiel and Husum were geographically located around Flensburg, and
therefore this town seemed to be a logical choice.
Tuesday 25th of March
First we visited the bilingual school of Risum-Lindholm, the so-called "Risumskole ". The
Risumskole is one of the 49 schools that are united in the network
of the Danske Skoleforeningen , the umbrella-organisation for Danish schools in Germany.
These Danish schools are financed by the Danish and the German government. The
Risumskole however is different from the other schools in the network, because next to
Danish another language is used as the instructive language, namely North Frisian, or
"Frasch"1.
Typical for Danish schools in Germany is that the number of pupils in classes is a lot smaller
then what is usual in German schools (the average is 10 to 15 pupils in each class). The
Risumskole is so to say a very extreme example of this situation, because the total number of
pupils is only 39, which are educated by seven fulltime teachers. Striking is that only one
pupil has the Danish language as native language. Eleven of them speak North Frisian as there
mothertongue, while 27 have German as their native language. The Risumskole is a so-called
"Gesamtschule", which means that, in German terminology the "Grundschule" (primaryschool;
classes 1-6) and the "Hauptschule" (first years of secondary school, "middleschool",
classes 7-9) are united in one school. In this perspective the Risumskole also differs from the
other Danish schools in Germany where the children are taking there courses in the classes 1
to 6. The strive of the Risumskole, led by Jörgen Hahn (
president of the Foriining for Nationale Friiske and very active in the Northfrisian movement
in Germany, is that Danish and North Frisian should have an equal status. This means that they
should be used both in fifty percent of the lessons. This is however not the case, because there
is a lack of North Frisian learning materials. Therefore Danish is used more often as an
instructive language then North Frisian. Moreover three of the seven teachers use North Frisian
as their native language, while the others have a Danish language background. This
proportion naturally also reflects the division Danish-Frasch as educational languages. The
Risumskole however is the only school on the land where the North Frisian language plays
such an important role in education. On the North Frisian islands (such as Sylt and Föhr) the
local varieties of the North Frisian language are also used in education.
On other schools in North-Friesland North Frisian is only offered as a subject. An example of
such a school is the Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule, a German "Grund- und Hauptschule",
also in Risum-Lindholm, where Mr. Gerd Vahder develops North Frisian educational materials
in his "Lernwerkstatt", a separate classroom in the school where all kinds of North Frisian
learning materials, developed by either Mr. Vahder, or the Nordfriisk Instituut are at ones
disposal.
The Lernwerkstatt functions as a distribution centre for other schools in the region which
offer North Frisian as a subject. The Risumskole also uses material from this Lernwerkstatt. It
is striking that only learning materials in the North Frisian language developed specifically for
the learning of the North Frisian language were present. Biology-, Geography-, or Mathematics
books in the North Frisian language were not available. The Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule is in
comparison with the Risumskole quite large, with a total number of 300 pupils. The classes
are also larger in this school; 25 to 30 pupils in each class is usual. North Frisian is offered as a
subject in classes 1 to 7. In the next two classes pupils can choose between Danish and
North Frisian.
In the Danish school in Bredstedt, "Bredstedt Danske Skole ", also one of the schools of the
Danske Skoleforeningen, North Frisian is also offered as a subject. Danish is always the
language of instruction. The total number of pupils on this school is 145, teached by 15
teachers, from which 7 of speak Danish as their mothertongue. Most teachers are, like in Risum,
trained in Denmark. Five to ten percent of the pupils speak Danish as their mothertongue, two
and a half percent North Frisian, twenty percent "Plattdeutsch", the rest High-German. Because
German is the dominant language, bilingual education is necessary in the first classes of this
Danish school. Like in Risum (Risumskole) the goal is that at the end of their school career the
pupils have equally proficiency in Danish as in German.
Where in the Risumskole it was also a goal to have an active knowledge of North Frisian, in
Bredstedt the main goal is a passive knowledge of the language, and in that perspective
the Bredstedt school is comparable with the Nis-Albrecht Johannsen Schule.
The "Nordfriisk Instituut " (Northfrisian Institute), also located in Bredstedt, is the central scientific
institution in Nordfriesland for the care, promotion and study of the North Frisian language, history
and culture. We visited this institute after the schoolvisit at the Bredstedt Danske Skole. At the
North Frisian Institute, among other things, learning materials for primary education in the North
Frisian language are being developed. For example the Westfrisian method "Fryske TaalRotonde"
has been translated into four Northfrisian dialects (mooringer frasch, sölring, ferring and öömrang).
A songbook in seven different North Frisian dialects is in preparation.
Wednesday 26th of March
On Wednesday we drove to Aabenraa in Denmark. Aabenraa is the largest town in
Nordschleswig, the region in Denmark where the German language community is situated.
We made an appointment with Mr. Claus Diedrichsen, head of the office of the Deutscher
Schul- und Sprachverein für Nordschleswig (DSSV). Mr. Diedrichsen had been so kind to
arrange two school visits for us. First we visited the Deutsche Privatschule Apenrade , in the
old city centre of Aabenraa. At the school in Aabenraa we were welcomed most kindly by the
principal of the school, Mrs. Sybille Gentin and the deputy principal, Mr. Rainer Naujeck.
The Privatschule Apenrade is a school with a lot of facilities and possibilities; a guided tour
through the school made that clear. There are a lot of pupils who do not speak German when
they enter the school building for the first time; for these children the school offers a so-called
"vorschulklasse" (pre-school class), where children learn the basics of German before they
start with their primary education. Also in further classes the learning process of the German
language is a key issue. Although German is officially the language of instruction on the
school, it is necessary to use bilingual methods, mainly in the first classes, to make sure that
the pupils have a good knowledge of the German language.
In this school the classes are also relatively small; 15 to 19 pupils in each class. The
Privatschule Apenrade is also a "Gesamtschule", with nine classes and a tenth grade for those
pupils who need a little bit more education in certain subjects. A kindergarten and a childcare
centre are also integrated in the school. There are 155 pupils at this school, teached by 18
teachers, all native speakers of the German language. The teachers were partly trained in
Denmark and partly in Germany. A lot of them are moreover German citizens, who work in
Denmark. A conversation with Mr. Diedrichsen learned that teachers in Denmark earn two
thirds of the salary that is usual in Germany. Moreover the daily life in Denmark is more
expensive then in Germany. Therefore it is not that easy for German schools in Denmark to
get teachers. The DSSV compensates the difference between the German and the Danish
salary partly, but a total compensation is not a realistic possibility.
The next school we visited was the Deutsche Schule Rothenkrug ; a very small school with 32
pupils and 6 teachers, who all are native speakers of the German language. In this school a
kindergarten was also integrated. Most of the pupils however spoke Danish as their
mothertongue. One can imagine that bilingual methods are also a necessity on this school. We
experienced however that the knowledge of young pupils was already quite good. A little girl
asked us in Danish why we were in her school. Since our Danish is not that good we asked the
little girl if she could also speak German. It was astonishing to see how quick and fluently she
switched over to German. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Frederik Christensen, told us
that is was sometimes quite difficult for him to determine the level of knowledge of his pupils,
because the classes on his school were quite small. Unfortunately there wasn’t a monitoring-
system in co-operation with some other larger German schools in the area, and that was
something Mr. Christensen considered as a lack of communication. Mr. Diedrichsen of the
DSSV thought that other German schools in Nordschleswig could also possibly benefit from
our network. If, besides the Privatschule Apenrade and the Deutsche Schule Rothenkrug,
more schools of DSSV would be united by our network, the communication between the
German schools in the region could also improve.
After these two school visits we drove back to the German side of the border, to Flensburg,
where we had an appointment with Mr. Joachim Ihloff of IPTS, the Landesinstitut Schleswig-
Holstein für Praxis und Theorie der Schule, recently renamed in Institut für
Qualitätsentwichlung an Schulen, Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH). The main task of the IPTS or
IQSH is to educate teachers and student-teachers in new possible learning methods. We
agreed that our network could be helpful in this perspective, although multilingual education
was not a key issue of IPTS. Nevertheless we noticed that besides the multilingual aspect, also
an information-exchange concerning learning methods, didactics and so on could be an
interesting thing which could be established by the network and where teachers and studentteachers
who take their courses from IPTS could benefit from. The most important thing of
this visit was however to present our network to this important institute in the field of
education in Schleswig-Holstein. Another nice thing of the conversation with Mr. Ihloff was
that he could provide in some important names concerning multilingual education in
Schleswig-Holstein.
Thursday 27 March
We had an appointment at 9.00 with Anne-Margrete Jessen at the Oksevejens Skole in
Flensborg. We were told that this was a typical Danish school in that region. We were warmly
welcomed at this school and got for a start a grand tour of the school premises. The part for
the youngest children (the toddlers) was being renovated and therefore these children were
allocated to another building nearby.
The schools is an ‘all-Danish’ school which means that it is the only language used as a
medium of instruction except for the subject German. The school has 8 teachers and 80 pupils
which means that the classes are relatively small. Ms Jessen told us that the identity of the
pupils (and their parents) is an important condition for joining the school, it should be Danish.
The skills developed in the German and Danish language are the same; understanding,
speaking, reading and writing. All learning material used is of Danish origin and therefore in
the Danish language. This could be a problem for young children who are native speakers of
German. This is being compensated by teaching (at least) in the first grades bilingual in
German and Danish. Ms Jessen would like to see that the Danish language would be used
more in everyday speech in and around the school. The school educates from the first until the
sixth grade. As a contact person we could use Stan Andersen (
joined our Network of Schools.
At 11.30 we met Olaf Runz at the Danske Skoleforening in Flensborg. He told us about the
Danish schools in Germany. He held a presentation of what the Danske Skoleforening is and
does and we told him about our visit and the ‘Network of Schools’ we are setting-up. First he
told us something of the location of the Danish schools in Sydslesvig. They are more or less
homogeneous dispersed throughout the region, with a concentration in Flensburg. In some
regions though children need to travel great distances to their schools. In some cases this
influences their choice of school, some parents rather send their children to a nearby German
school than to a distant Danish school. In 2000 there were 49 primary Danish schools in
Germany, with a total of 5.807 pupils. The past 10 years this number has been stable. The
Danish schools and the Danske Skoleforening are financed by the German and the Danish
government. The school system used lies between the German and the Danish school system.
In the afternoon at 15.30 we visited the ‘North-Frisian Schulamt’ in Husum. Mrs. Geißler
received us and told us about the educational policy regarding the North-Frisian
minority. In the schools on the Islands the informal language is North Frisian but the formal
and school language is German. On the Island of Sylt the speakers of North Frisian decreased
dramatically, this is partly because of the many tourists visiting that island. The ‘Schulamt’
provides teachers for the different schools who wish to provide in North Frisian lessons. The
‘Schulamt’ has a budget of €500.000 for these teachers. According to Mrs. Geißler the main
problem concerning the North Frisian in education was that the language consists of 10
different dialects. She said that it is not possible (financially) to provide every school with a
teacher who is fluent in the dialect which is spoken in that region. Therefore in most cases
the Mooringer variant of North Frisian is used as standard language at schools of the mainland
of Nordfriesland.
Friday 28 March
At 10.30 in the morning we arrived at the University of Kiel to have a meeting with Alistair
Walker and Jarich Hoekstra , both of the department of Frisian. They told us about teaching
the Frisian language and about research carried out at the university concerning Frisian. We
presented our ‘Network of Schools’. They were positive about our Network and are willing to
aid us in expanding this Network by mentioning our network to students and other interested
people.
Conclusion
Last week brought us six schools that would like to join our network. Next to this a lot of
people we spoke are going to provide us with more schools. In that respect one can consider
our trip as a success, but the schools were not all that we gained. Our knowledge of the
German and Danish school-systems, bilingual education and minority language teaching in
practice has increased considerably. Another gain from the trip is the numerous contacts we
acquired. We were always warmly welcomed by the schools and organisations. They were all
eager to tell us about themselves and to hear how thing are done in Fryslân. You might have
noticed that the schools that joined our network from this region are not fully bi- or trilingual.
Most schools are ‘all-Danish’ or ‘all-German’ schools. We still want to have these schools in
our network because, especially in the lower grades, the schools are in practice bilingual. A
substantial percentage of the pupils in the school are not native speakers of the language used
as a medium of instruction. Therefore these pupils have to be talked to in their native
language, a language that is officially only given as a subject. The only ‘real’ trilingual
school is the ‘Risumskole’; the languages Northfrisian, Danish and German are all used as a
medium of instruction.