Neukölln turns a failing school into a site of educational excellence

The Rütli school had become notorious all over Germany in 2006, when the national press had reported a general climate of insecurity, as well as some incidents that had occurred within the school, with pupils allegedly threatening and attacking teachers and school staff. The school Rector had addressed an open letter to the authorities, asking for immediate help and denouncing the situation offering no future whatsoever to its pupils (and especially to that 83% of foreign origin or family). The Rector was correctly pointing out that it is impossible to try and integrate pupils of Turkish and Arabic origin in a school system that did not have any faciltators and/or mediators of the same origins, and was also pointing her finger at the difficulties the school system has to encourage the academic achievement of pupils of working class migration backgrounds.