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Berlin Declaration of Freedom in Education
Participants from many different kinds of schools – from the state primary school to private alternative and democratic schools to homeschooling families- agreed on a declaration of principle. It was the result of the conference “Concrete Solutions to Freedom in Education in Germany” held on October, 28th in Berlin.
The Berlin Declaration of Freedom in Education is now the basis for united lobbying activities regarding the educational situation of our children.
These are our points:
- We agree that the actual education crisis will be overcome with the creation of space for plurality of educational possibilities.
- This plurality includes various individual possibilities. Among others, it includes state school of different kinds, private schools following different pedagogical approaches and distance education, as well as education without schooling.
- Every human has – according to the UN-Declaration of Human Rights and UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child - the right to education. The character, form, content and purpose of this education is free in choice and self-determined.
- The (German) state is – according to article 7 in national constitution (GG) - the supervisor of the school system. In our opinion – according to the fundamental rights and freedoms in our constitution (GG), articles 1-19 – this does not mean that the state has an independent mandate to provide that education. The public community has a supervisory role, to ensure the right to education to people of every age and to prevent the abuse of this right.
- We all stand up for a transformation of the German compulsory schooling law (which is unique among the European countries) into a right to education under the terms of point 1-4. We invite all liberal people and organizations in Germany and Europe to support us in this.
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