Many schools in Thuringia are in poor condition. According to figures from the Ministry of Infrastructure, a huge sum of money would be needed to rehabilitate them. In many places, craftsmen work in the schools in the summer.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's schools have a huge renovation backlog. According to a recent survey by the Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure, more than 1.5 billion euros are needed for the necessary work among the school authorities, said a ministry spokeswoman on request. However, only 23 out of 33 school authorities in the Free State replied, "so that the actual need for investment will be even higher," said the spokeswoman.
There is a basic division of labor at the schools in Thuringia: the state is responsible for the staff. The municipal school authorities are responsible for the buildings. These are usually rural districts, independent towns and larger towns belonging to districts. However, the state supports the school authorities in building and maintaining schools.
In the current query, it was noticed that there is apparently a particularly large renovation backlog on the buildings in the state capital of Erfurt. In terms of the necessary investment sums per pupil, the report from the state capital was “more than three times as high as the average for the other school authorities”.
Infrastructure Minister Susanna Karawanskij (left) said that the red-red-green state government has been helping the school authorities since 2015 to clear the investment backlog that has started in the past. Since then, more than 500 million euros have been invested in 127 construction projects at Thuringian schools. "It is a central concern for the Thuringian state government to create a modern and contemporary learning environment for the students." The state’s school construction funding should therefore be continued.
According to the ministry, a total of 63 million euros is available for school construction in the current year - in addition to the money that the school authorities received from the municipal financial equalization scheme.
