Minister of Education Schopper: SprachFit” language support started at Mörikeschule!

Minister of Education Schopper: SprachFit” language support started at Mörikeschule!

Today, Minister of Education Theresa Schopper visited the Mörikeschule in Leonberg to present the new language support program “SprachFit”. This initiative is particularly aimed at the language development of children before they start school. The minister's welcome was particularly warm at the Mörike School, which looks after a large number of multilingual children. The students of a compact German course welcomed them with colorful posters in different languages ​​such as Albanian, Turkish, Kurdish and Bosnian. Stuttgart News reports that the school's director, Ebru Gelec, emphasized the importance of targeted support for children with different language skills.

The “SprachFit” program will be introduced at around 200 locations in Baden-Württemberg from the 2024/25 school year. It is financed by the “School-Ready Child” funding pot. The aim is to identify and specifically promote language deficits in preschool children. This means that children should start primary school well prepared. To ensure the effectiveness of the program, the Mörikeschule works closely with three surrounding daycare centers. Teachers from the Mörikeschule visit the daycare centers twice a week to offer language support.

Educational equity through language support

The introduction of the program is in line with the “Education through Language and Writing” (BiSS) initiative, which has been active since 2013. KMK informs that the second phase of this initiative, BiSS Transfer, began on March 1, 2020. This phase aims to transfer the results of the first phase, which ran from 2013 to 2019, to up to 2,700 schools and daycare centers in Germany. In addition to language support, the program also includes reading and writing support as well as language-sensitive specialist lessons.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) actively supports language education as it is considered crucial for knowledge, social contacts and personal development. BMBF promotes, among other things, projects to promote reading in order to provide targeted support to children with refugee experience. Over 90% of children between the ages of three and six attend a daycare center or kindergarten, which underlines the importance of early language support.

Model projects and digital support

The “SprachFit” program, which serves as a model location at the Mörike School, is also in the context of these comprehensive language education initiatives. The schools and daycare centers that take part in the BiSS initiative benefit from further training offers, publications and a database on diagnostic and support instruments. In addition, the transfer of knowledge will be funded with around 13 million euros until 2025. As part of this comprehensive strategy to improve language support in Germany, digital formats are also used to ensure targeted support.

The introduction and implementation of the “SprachFit” program is an important step towards reducing educational injustices and offering all children equal opportunities in their linguistic development.