Ready for the start of the 2023/2024 school year

On Monday, 21 August, the new school year begins in Saxony for pupils at primary, secondary and special schools as well as grammar schools and vocational schools and for young people and adults who are aiming for a school-leaving qualification via the second educational pathway.

New school starters* in Chemnitz have their first day of school on Monday in one of the 41 municipal primary schools, in the Chemnitz cooperation school and in the Chemnitz school model, as special schools and in the ten special schools.

* Note on pupil numbers: The cut-off date for the official pupil statistics for 2023/2024 is 19 October 2023 - these will subsequently be made available to the City of Chemnitz by the Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony.


Costs for teaching materials:

Costs for learning materials: The City of Chemnitz is paying around 1.75 million euros for new textbooks and other learning materials this year. For the forty-one municipal primary schools, they cost around 456,000 euros, for the fourteen secondary schools around 346,000 euros, for the seven grammar schools around 412,000 euros, for the two community schools around 69.000, for the ten special schools around 117,000 euros, for the seven vocational schools around 322,000 euros and for evening secondary schools/grammar schools the costs amount to around 19,000 euros.


School transport:

Rising pupil numbers also have an impact on the pupil transport costs to be borne by the city. The application for the 2023/24 school year has not yet been finalised, so the costs have not yet been determined. In the past school year 2022/23 alone, 282 applications - excluding those for special transport services - were processed. The costs for the city of Chemnitz for this amount to around 1.7 million euros (as of 14 August).

Special transport services, i.e. journeys for pupils with disabilities to their special schools in the Chemnitz city area, are also paid for from the city budget. Transport companies transport 681 pupils with disabilities to their schools every day on behalf of the local authority. These special transport services alone cost around 5.0 million euros in the 2022/2023 school year (as of 14 August).

Application forms for school transport are available at schools, from the city and at www.chemnitz.de


Digital Pact for Schools:

With the Digital Pact for Schools, the German government is providing five billion euros to drive forward digitalisation in Germany's schools. The city of Chemnitz has also applied for the funding and will receive 12.5 million euros, which will be paid out to municipal schools in Chemnitz until the end of 2024. The funds are to be used primarily for the digital infrastructure in schools, for example for passive data networks and digital equipment (interactive boards, tablets, active network technology and Wi-Fi, etc.). Construction work on passive data networks in schools was diligently pursued during the holidays, with seven of 24 construction projects already completed. Eleven schools still have the construction measures for passive data network expansion ahead of them.

Since mid-2022, every municipal school in Chemnitz has had a broadband connection, which will be implemented everywhere on a fibre optic basis by the end of 2023. 17 schools will be equipped with full Wi-Fi coverage in 2023, followed by eleven in 2024. While all schools are already equipped with mobile devices via the digital pact, digital presentation media are to be procured for 38 schools in 2023 and for a further 14 schools in 2024.


School social work:

With an expression of interest procedure this spring, the Youth Welfare Office has set the course for social work to be offered at four more schools in Chemnitz. Three independent youth welfare organisations have emerged from the process and are currently in the process of filling the positions created so that the specialists can begin their work in the new school year at the "Am Hartmannplatz" secondary school and the Waldorf School (both AWO Chemnitz sites), at the Gotthold-Ephraim-Lessing primary school (Don Bosco) and at the Dr.-Wilhelm-André-Gymnasium (Inpeos e. V.).

School social work is a service provided by youth welfare organisations in the school environment and is available to all pupils. One of the main tasks of school social work is to provide counselling and individual support, especially for those who are in need of increased support to compensate for social disadvantages or personal impairments. School social work is also aimed at teachers, parents and guardians.

From the coming school year 2023/2024, the city of Chemnitz will be funding a total of 52 school social work programmes. Specifically at 17 secondary schools, 9 special schools, 17 primary schools, 6 grammar schools and 3 vocational school centres.


Construction work:

The refurbishment measures at the following schools and school sports halls were completed in time for the start of the school year so that they can be put into operation for the start of school:

• Marianne-Brandt-Oberschule, new building
• OS "Am Hartmannplatz", new building
• GS Weststraße, extension
• GS "Südlicher Sonnenberg", complete commissioning

The new school year will see the start of construction work to renovate the extension to Mittelbach secondary school, which will also serve as a second escape route for the building. The renovation of the listed existing buildings on the Brauhausstraße site will also begin.

Work will continue on the extension to the Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium, the extension to the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Gymnasium and the extension and renovation of the GS Adelsberg and the Altchemnitz school, a special needs centre with a focus on learning.


Safe journeys to school: measures taken by the school road safety working group at the traffic and civil engineering office

Many pupils will be making their own way to school again from Monday. To ensure that they can make this journey safely, the City of Chemnitz's Traffic and Civil Engineering Office is working with the road construction authority, traffic planning, police and the road safety department.The Traffic and Civil Engineering Department of the City of Chemnitz, under the direction of the traffic authority, is constantly working on suggestions and changes to eliminate potential danger spots and road defects.

The interactive city map at www.chemnitz.de/schulweg can be used to plan routes to school. By entering their place of residence in Chemnitz or a specific school, parents or pupils can select very specific routes to school. Existing dangerous spots, crossing aids such as pedestrian crossings, central islands etc. are displayed as images at the click of a mouse and help parents to find the best and safest route to school for their child.

The following measures were implemented in the past school year:

• on a section of Markersdorfer Straße and Hauptstraße in Euba, a 30 km/h speed limit was imposed with the additional sign "Schulweg",
• On Trützschlerstraße, Adelsbergstraße and Reichsstraße, corresponding traffic signs were retrofitted with the additional "School" signs,
• on Carl-von-Ossietzky-Straße, the traffic sign "Attention children" indicates the pupils of Gablenz primary school,
• On Rudolf-Krahl-Straße/Berganger, children can cross the road more safely via a pedestrian crossing,
• A centre island was built on Saydaer Straße,
• A temporary parking ban was introduced on Bernhardstrasse as a so-called "parents' stop" in order to equalise the high volume of traffic in front of Rudolfgrundschule,
• on Horststraße and Heinrich-Bretschneider-Straße, pavement projections were built to improve visibility when crossing the road,
• At Reichenhain primary school, a one-way street regulation was set up as part of a pilot project to prevent reckless turning manoeuvres in the vicinity of the school. In the new school year, there will be a second trial with an extended route.

The following measures are planned:

• a pedestrian crossing will be created on Einsiedler Hauptstraße/Wiesenufer,
• a central island will be built at Lützowstraße/Deulichstraße,
• A recycling island will be installed on Barthelstraße/Limbacher Straße.
• On Albert-Schweitzer-Straße, various approaches to safe crossings are being examined.

The Chemnitz Police Department and the City of Chemnitz Public Order Office will be stepping up their monitoring of moving and stationary traffic at the start of the school year.

The volunteer members of Verkehrswacht Chemnitz e.V. - https://vkw-chemnitz.de/ will also be on site with various campaigns to ensure that Chemnitz children are safe on their way to school.