Kick-off for dialog at eye level

Problems and solutions in the education of values at school as well as the great need for structures for a university qualification of teachers in the context of the development of denomination-oriented teaching programs were the focus of a discussion yesterday between representatives of the Conference of Education Ministers, the Humanist Association and the Alevi community. The discussion at the headquarters of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in Berlin was the first to take place between representatives of a worldview community in Germany and a President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. The representatives of the Humanist Association pointed out the important role of the school subject Humanistic Life Studies, which is approved in Berlin, Brandenburg and Bavaria and is very popular as a value-forming and ideologically oriented course for non-religious adolescents. Surveys of the population had repeatedly confirmed the nationwide need for the introduction of this school subject. According to the results of the surveys, a majority of non-denominational people share the orientations and attitudes that characterize the ideological profile of the school subject. The representatives of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs were therefore urged to recognize this as legitimation for the importance of humanistic life skills lessons in an increasingly secular and pluralistic society and to acknowledge it with their own recommendations. The Humanist Association of Germany also emphasized that there is a considerable need for renewal in the application and interpretation of the relevant provisions of religious constitutional law, such as Article 7 (3) of the Basic Law. The existing religious constitutional law was created and developed at a time when neither such a large number of non-denominational people nor a denominational subject such as humanistic life studies existed. Greater account must be taken of social change in this sense. According to the Humanist Association, it is possible to eliminate the existing shortcomings without legislative reforms and should therefore be accepted as an important political task. The Conference of Education Ministers could help here by initiating a consultation process between the education and cultural ministries in the federal states and the respective representatives of the religious and ideological communities. It was also advocated that the dialog and consultation process initiated by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs should also be made permanent with the smaller ideological and religious communities. The representatives of the Humanist Association and the Alevi community therefore expressed their gratitude to Sylvia Löhrmann, President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, for “initiating a dialog at eye level”. Melek Yildiz (Deputy Secretary General of the AABF) and Aziz Aslandemir (Deputy Chairman of the AABF Federal Association) took part in the discussion from the Alevi side. Frieder Otto Wolf (President of the German Humanist Association), Werner Schultz (Head of Education at the Berlin-Brandenburg Humanist Association) and Anja Stahl (Education Officer at the North Rhine-Westphalia Humanist Association) took part on behalf of the German Humanist Association. Sylvia Löhrmann (President of the KMK), Udo Michallik (Secretary General) and Dr. Tobias Funk (Head of the Schools Department) took part on behalf of the KMK.