June 2004

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LOWER SAXONY: MOTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF LOW GERMAN AND SATERFRISIAN AT SCHOOL (Plattnet Nachrichten)

June 2004 – “Low German and Saterfrisian must be preserved, promoted and, in the long term, reinforced as components of Lower Saxony’s identity”. This mandate has been unanimously adopted by the Parliament of the Land of Lower Saxony (Germany) in the face of the poor condition these two languages are in. As the Parliament’s motion claims, in spite of the ratification of the Language Charter by Germany and the Land’s school decree of 1997 (entitled “The region in the classroom”), Low German and Saterfrisian (or East Frisian) are nearly inexistent in Lower Saxony’s general education schools and the number of Low German-speaking teachers is decreasing drastically; as a consequence, the status of these two languages in schools is clearly going backwards. In order to reverse this pitiful situation, the motion adopted by the Land’s Parliament puts forward seven measures to be implemented by the Government, which are the following: to create the conditions schools need in order to offer classes to learn these two languages, to initiate language-learning projects in the different school types and in several school grades, to produce class materials and to test and introduce them in the classroom, to provide or reinforce expert assistance for schools, to coordinate curricular and extra-curricular activities at regional level, to stimulate and promote the networking of pre-school and school initiatives for the learning of Low German, and to promote the involvement of adults who are proficient in these two languages in school activities.