Ready for the start of the school year

On Monday, 31 August, Saxony's pupils will be packing their school bags again. There are currently 25,832 girls and boys attending Chemnitz primary, secondary and special schools as well as grammar schools and vocational training centres. This figure also includes those young people and adults who are aiming for a school-leaving qualification via the second-chance route.
1850 children in Chemnitz have their first day of school on Monday in one of the 39 municipal primary schools, in the Chemnitz school model and in ten special schools*.

* Note on pupil numbers: These figures relate exclusively to pupils in state schools. The State Office for Schools and Education will only publish the official pupil numbers for the 2020/21 school year after the cut-off date of 15 October 2020.

Costs for teaching materials: The municipality is paying around 1.9 million euros for new textbooks and other learning materials this year. They cost 464,823 euros for the 39 municipal primary schools, 541,885 euros for the thirteen secondary schools, 388,049 euros for the seven grammar schools, 28.965 euros, 102,444 euros for the ten special schools, 359,545 euros for the seven vocational schools and 19,840 euros for the evening secondary school/grammar school.

School transport: Rising pupil numbers also have an impact on the costs of school transport borne by the city. The application for the 2020/21 school year is still ongoing, so the costs are not yet known. In the past school year alone, 8,300 applications - excluding those for special transport services - were processed. The city budget is also used to pay for special transport services, i.e. journeys for pupils with disabilities to their special schools in Chemnitz. Transport companies transport 660 pupils with disabilities to their schools every day on behalf of the local authority.

This will cost around six million euros in 2020/21. In addition, entitled persons are reimbursed 50 per cent of the lowest fare per month for up to ten months of the school year for their travel by public transport or private vehicle.

Application forms for reimbursement are available from schools, the city and at www.chemnitz.de. In this context, the city will cover travel costs totalling 3.5 million euros for around 8100 pupils in 2021.

DigitalPakt Schule: With the DigitalPakt Schule, the German government is providing five billion euros to promote digitalisation in Germany's schools. The city of Chemnitz has also applied for the funding. On 27 July 2020, Minister of State Christian Piwarz handed over the notification for 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 school servers or Wi-Fi networks. The schools are also to be equipped with interactive whiteboards, additional computers, notebooks or tablets, for example, in order to provide pupils with improved access to media education programmes in the future. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the German government has increased the funding for the digital pact by a further 500 million euros to counteract the social disadvantage of children and young people with regard to the availability of mobile devices. In the short term, laptops and tablets will be procured at the beginning of the new school year so that pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds can also be provided with a device on loan to take part in online lessons and other learning opportunities.

Safe routes to school: To ensure that children are safe on their way to school, the school route safety working group is constantly working to eliminate danger spots. In order to update the route maps for primary schools and to mark routes and hazards, questionnaires from parents about the route to school were once again analysed. The current school route maps can be viewed or downloaded at https://www.chemnitz.de/chemnitz/de/leben-in-chemnitz/bildung/schulen/wichtiges-fuer-eltern/schulwegplaene.html.