2nd world congress of German schools which are established abroad held in Kapstadt: (September 8-11th 2006)

After the foundation of the union of German schools abroad in 2002 in Mexico in September 2006,the delegates of 117 schools and many representatives of German politics and economy who are successful in their fields and civil public representatives gathered in Kapstadt.After the congress had been opened by the minister of education of South Africa Mrs Pondori and the general secretary of foreign affairs Mr Von Boomgarden, the problems concerning the future of the German schools which are out of Germany,were discussed in several forums.The main messages of the meeting could be summarised under these titles:

1. The German schools abroad have become important again among the people and the institutions that have important roles in politics and social life.It has been seen that a variety of limitations and economy period has ended. Nowadays nobody can say that the schools abroad are’subsidy’.(as said in Koch/Steinbrück offers a few years ago) According to that, our school can continue its studies in an assured way a s a state school of the Turkish Republic.

2. The concerns of the German schools about the rivalry power in the world, quality assurance and the ways to increase the those features are still in progress.Seminars have been organised for the school directors working all around the world, the school forums and the school administration in order to support the projects aiming to improve the schools and to make them better. The following seminar in our region will be held in Athens in October.The aim is to create a school inspection as soon as possible.(State-Nation Inspection) and this institution should define the standarts and the criteria of a qualified and accepted German schoolabroad.

3.The studies to centralise the exams also continue:In 2006-2007German Language,Maths,English Language,3 science subjectsand History-except for the last one mentioned,the others are quite effective in our studies !-the new main curriculum has been defined.According to that,the exam procedure will be provided in the same way everywhere.And this new main curriculum will let every school deal with its related studies in a sufficient time period.(approximately 1/3 of each subject) So the special features and the requests of the country where the school is –such as our school-will be able to provided.After 2010/2011 a central Abitur exam system is going to be applied in German schools abroad.

Everything especially about the last issue, hasn’t been defined and arranged yet.However,one thing could be said generally is that the world congress hs dealt with the questions concerning future of the German schools abroad,in an optimistic way focusing on future.We don’t have any reasons to wait for and follow them.Although we have a lot of priviliges despite being a state school, we are a part of the foreign school systems and the improvements that occur.Being a member of (WDA) (the union of German schools abroad) is also another proof of this.However, since we can’t afford the participation amount,we don’t have a full membership,we just have honorary membership.(no voting right).In addition to that we show that we belong to that.

And we are rightly a part of the big system of German schools abroad. We are a very successful school ( Abitur –and Language diploma!) and our experiences, more information about our experiences (ie.about the late age when German lessons start) has been requested. As a conclusion, we not only get benefit from this international net, but also contribute to its success.