Start Opportunities Program

Five primary and two secondary schools from Hof are taking part in the Startchancen program.

As announced on Tuesday, seven schools in Hof have already been selected for the first phase of the German government's "Startchancen" program. The program supports schools that face particular challenges due to the socio-economic structure of their pupils. Together, the federal and state governments are investing around 20 billion euros over ten years. This makes it the largest education program in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Over the next ten years, it aims to halve the number of pupils who do not reach the minimum standards in mathematics and German. As a result, many more pupils can be supported from the new school year onwards and the quality of the support measures can be further developed. Participating schools from Hof are: Anger elementary school, Christian-Wolfrum elementary school, Christian-Wolfrum secondary school, Eichendorff elementary school, Neustädter elementary school, Sophien elementary school and Münster secondary school.

Mayor Eva Döhla: "On behalf of our school family, I would like to thank the federal and state governments for the opportunity to participate in this program. As a city, we will provide the schools with the best possible support in implementing the program. To this end, a project group will be formed with representatives from the schools and our city administration, in which we will exchange ideas and support the implementation."

Head of the education authority Stefan Stadelmann is also enthusiastic: "We are very proud and happy that so many Startchancen schools from Hof are taking part in the program. But this is also necessary if we want to improve our school dropout rate in the long term."

Michaela Neumann, principal of Christian-Wolfrum-Mittelschule Hof and coordinator of the Hof secondary schools, also sees the potential of the program: "For us as a Hof secondary school in the 'Vertl', it is important that we can ensure more equal opportunities with the Startchancen program and support our students and their parents even better, for example through multi-professional teams."

The joy of participating in the program was evident at the last meeting of the 'School leavers without qualifications' round table, which the city of Hof set up in 2023. This was triggered by the intense debate about the high rate of young people who leave school without qualifications. Representatives from the education authority, primary, secondary, vocational and special schools in Hof as well as welfare organizations and educational institutions take part in this round table.

This round table resulted in a 10-point plan, which the city of Hof sent to the Ministry of Social Affairs in Munich in February of this year. It summarizes the most pressing challenges and possible solutions. Among other things, the major economic and social challenges in Hof and the great efforts being made in schools are emphasized.