200 students protest at education reforms

(ADW) About 200 students gathered en mass outside the Luxembourg Ministry of Education on Thursday to protest against reforms set in motion by Education minister Mady Delvaux-Stehres.

Confronted by shouts and whistles she attempted to explain the reasons behind the changes. In her opinion a lot of the problems are due to lack of or mis-information the young protesters possessed .

The meeting was organised through Facebook and some 200 young people responded. Participants first met at the post office by Centre Hamilius before marching to the Ministry of Education to demonstrate in front of the building.

Mady Delvaux-Stehres met with students, despite heckles

If the procession seemed slightly disorganised some were determined, marching to the cry of "down with the reforms" which did not dishearten the Education Minister.

Mady Delvaux-Stehres then proposed discussions with some of the protesting students and some 40 were invited inside the Ministry of Education for talks.

"We are not sufficiently informed about the reforms," stated Michel from Diekirch school. "Why have you made it more difficult for training?" Asked Gilles from an Agricultural technical high school. "Why did you remove the points systems in primary schools?" Asked Dany from l'Athénée. The minister admitted that there "is a bit of disorder".

Many questions and comments were made to which the minister replied, explaining that in the case of vocational training, the reform has already been adopted and that this year the new system is running in about 110 establishments.

As for the reform of higher education, this is still under discussion and agreements should be reached by the 2013 school year.

The Minister then proposed a forum meeting at Geesseknäppchen school campus in Limpertsberg. "As you are great organisers on Facebook, I'll leave the promotion to you." she quipped.