Organised after-school activities at the intersection between education and municipalities in rural areas

Abstract

The concurrence of a growing awareness of educational issues, demographic decline and increasing competition is presenting schools and municipalities in rural areas with particular challenges. The much-cited saying “The village dies along with the school�? implies that the future of the community around the school site is closely linked to the development of the school, as the drop in births seems to threaten the existence not only of many schools but also of many municipalities. With parents being given free choice between schools since 2007, many rural schools in Schleswig-Holstein have found themselves in competition for a dwindling resource: pupils. Some municipalities have responded to this challenge with active strategies for investment in order to attract pupils. At the same time, the division between responsibility for internal and external school affairs has prevented the municipalities from exerting any direct influence on pedagogical staff, which is crucial to the pedagogical quality of teaching, especially in small schools. With regard to opportunities to raise schools’ profiles, being able to give shape to OGS activities is thus an important means of influencing school quality in rural areas. Thanks to networks and cooperation, local actors and institutions are involved in pedagogical work, acting as the nucleus of more extensive local or municipal educational landscapes. This provides a formal framework for the symbiotic relationship between the school and the municipality which can be built up as part of the shared struggle to attract pupils and young families.