Many children with foreign roots still had no place at Saxon schools several weeks after the end of the vacations. In its answer to a minor question in parliament, the Ministry of Culture stated that there were 853 such children at the beginning of September. There were even 1,353 places missing at the start of the school year. Left-wing politician Nam Duy Nguyen, who submitted the question to the state parliament, considers this unacceptable. "The lack of places for weeks to months is not only a problem for the children's learning, but also a major obstacle to integration."
Ministry of Education points to positive effects of measures
The Saxon Ministry of Education does not have any information on how many foreign children and young people are currently being taught in Saxony. The reason for this is that stating citizenship is voluntary when registering for school. In its response to the minor inquiry, the ministry also referred to measures that are intended to counteract the lack of school places for foreign children and have already had a positive effect.
Newly arrived children and young people have been able to register digitally in the school portal since March 2024. Since the 2025/2026 school year, all newly immigrated first-graders have also been enrolled directly in class 1 at the elementary school in the school district, it said. If there is a lack of capacity in the preparatory class, girls and boys can be integrated directly into the regular class and then receive additional lessons in German as a second language.
