Thu, 08 Jan 2009

Youth welfare project in France struggles to keep going

TAUTAVEL (NNA) – The Swiss youth welfare project “Centre de Formation”, based in Tautavel in southern France, continues to struggle for survival.

In recent years the project has given educational support to many young people in crisis situations from Switzerland and Germany.

According to the most recent report in November from the founder of the Centre, Gregor Scherer, the property near Perpignan has been put on the market. The youth welfare project will continue working from Switzerland.

The difficulties have arisen because in the last two years the Swiss youth welfare authorities have stopped financing visits to the Centre. Problems with a youth welfare organisation in Spain had led the authorities in 2006 completely to cease funding young people in projects abroad.

The Centre had received 50 enquiries from school students in the 2006/2007 school year but had not been able to accept any of them since public funding had been refused and parents had not been able to pay the school fees of 300 euros per month, the report says.

Neither had it been possible to find sponsors for the pupils. An attempt to continue running the Centre as a satellite of a Swiss project had also failed so far.

However the Centre is still accepting applications from young people despite its precarious situation. The educational facilities were still available, Gregor Scherer writes. A further 13 applications in 2007/2008 had to be turned down for the same reasons as in the previous year.

But it had been possible to accommodate four young people at the Centre for a short time as a crisis intervention. Three pupils had registered with the Centre for 2008/2009. It had been able to secure funds for them which just covered costs. But an further eight students had had to be turned away.

The Centre, which also has hotel rooms and conference facilities, has become a popular venue for seminars, class trips and other cultural activities.

The Centre takes young people in difficult circumstances aged 12 to 17 up to a maximum number of 12. The Centre’s education programme is designed for a stay of one year. The contribution to school fees can be reduced by helping at the Centre.

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Link: www.centre-de-formation.com, email: centre.form@wandadoo.fr

Item: 090108-01EN Date: 8 January 2009

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New Karl König work edition

EDINBURGH/STUTTGART/BERLIN (NNA) – Publication of a new work edition of the works of Karl König, the founder of the Camphill movement, is gathering pace.

The complete edition is a joint project of the Ita Wegman Institute for Anthroposophical Basic Research in Arlesheim und the Karl König Archives in Aberdeen. It covers the whole of the comprehensive output of the founder of the movement which comprises schools and villages for children and adults with special needs around the world: all his books, essays and manuscripts, lectures and lecture notes, diaries and notebooks, artistic work and extensive correspondence.

The edition is being published in English and German – not synchronously – by Floris Books in Edinburgh and Verlag Freies Geistesleben in Stuttgart. Three volumes were published in English last summer and autumn and the next volume is due out in April. The first two German volumes appeared last autumn and the next two are also due in spring.

According to the Berlin Office of the Karl König Archives, the plan is to publish two volumes of the complete works in spring and autumn of each year. The individual volumes will be published in twelve thematic categories.

“The aim of this edition is to make König’s comprehensive life’s work publicly available in a systematic way, a task in which many people from various countries are involved,” the press release said.

END/nna/cva

Item: 090108-04EN Date: 8 January 2008

Copyright 2009 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

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Witten/Herdecke University fighting for financial survival

WITTEN-HERDECKE/DÜSSELDORF (NNA) – Witten/Herdecke University in Germany is fighting for financial survival after its funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was withdrawn at the end of last year.

The crisis was precipitated when the North Rhine-Westphalian economics minister, Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, decided to withdraw funding of 4.5m euros for 2008. The minister said the university had not been able to show that it had sufficient other funding to continue its operations.

The ministry also asked the university to return a further three million euros from 2007 because that financial requirement had been covered by other payments. The institution was further accused of “irregularities” in its management, something which it has strongly denied.

Following protests by the university, staff and students, Witten/Herdecke was thrown a short-term lifeline following talks just before Christmas in a “constructive atmosphere” between, among others, the minister, the university and a number of potential strategic partners, including the Software AG Foundation.

A joint press release from the university and the ministry said the talks had been characterised by the will to find a sustainable basis for the regional government to resume its funding.

In a first step, the solvency of Germany’s first private university would be secured until early in 2009 by the potential strategic partners. It was further agreed that an independent auditor would be instructed to create the required transparency in the financial circumstances of the university.

On this basis Witten/Herdecke together with the potential strategic partners would then draw up a “sustainable financial and development concept,” the statement said. The aim was to create a basis on which the state could resume its funding.

The university’s president and chief executive, Prof. Birger Priddat, resigned early on in the crisis. Although he denied any wrong-doing, Prof. Priddat had decided to step down to prevent further damage to Witten/Herdecke and create the conditions in which a new start in relations with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia could be made, a university press release said at the time.

Last year the university thought it had solved its financial problems in a deal with the Droege International Group but that arrangement collapsed after a short time over differences about the future direction of the institution.

The university has been praised for its innovative approach to teaching and its students have performed well in recent comparisons with other universities.

END/nna/cva

Item: 090108-02EN Date: 8 January 2009

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Bringing creativity to the classroom

LONDON (NNA) - With the schools inspectorate Ofsted threatening a crackdown on boring teaching in response to concerns that children's behaviour is deteriorating because they are not being stimulated enough in class, the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF) is picking up the baton in timely fashion with a conference on creativity in the curriculum aimed at teachers in the state maintained sector.

“The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship is keen to develop workable ways of exploring mutual dialogue and learning between the Steiner and maintained sectors,” the conference leaflet says. “It is hoped that this conference will be the first of many such exchanges.”

The ability to enthuse students and to impart a love of learning that will remain with them for the rest of their lives is vital, the Fellowship says in a press release and the conference at Rudolf Steiner House in London on 28 February will attempt to give some answers from the Waldorf perspective, as well as providing a “fascinating and highly enjoyable insight into Steiner Waldorf education”, it adds.

With the opening of the first publicly-funded Steiner school in England, the Steiner Academy in Hereford, the Steiner schools movement has taken an important step towards becoming an integral part of the wider educational culture and community of schools within the UK, the statement says.

“Steiner schools believe that they have much to give as well as much to learn and it is hoped that this conference will facilitate mutual dialogue and learning between the Steiner and maintained school sectors for the benefit of all children,” the SWSF adds.

The one-day conference is being organised by the SWSF in association with Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley and Rudolf Steiner House. The programme is a mix of talks, sample classes and workshops and is aimed to provide teachers of 7-14 year olds in maintained sector schools with plenty of ideas and food for thought about their own teaching practice.

END/nna/cva

More information: www.steinerwaldorf.org

Item: 090108-01EN Date: 8 January 2009

Copyright 2009 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/