Forums des perspectives
The Further Development of Hospital Schools
in Europe
Elisabeth Meixner-Mücke
Headteacher - Hospital School Munich
The Ministry of Culture invited representatives of ministries from the German states, as well as educators, health professionals, academic teachers and officials from Germany and abroad, to address urgent issues related to
education during illness. Advances in medicine and the related changes in treatments, as well as a significantly improved quality of life for ill and injured children and adolescents require further development and expansion
of the scope of functions of hospital schools, which generally are not yet reflected in the ordinances of this type of school.
The following issues were discussed during two afternoons and ‘taken away’ as a stimulus for further elaboration:
Outlook Forum I
Counselling – Disadvantage Compensation – Follow-Up-Care
Erich Weigl, Ministerialrat Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture
Elisabeth Meixner-Mücke, Head of the Munich School for Sick Children
Bernhard Ruppert, Second Deputy Rector of the School for Special Needs, Munich School for Sick Children
Counseling
Long stays in hospital for in-patient care are a thing of the past. Today medical treatment consists of a mixture of in-patient and out-patient care. Some with serious illnesses require lifelong medical and educational care.
Demands:
- Counseling is required for prevention, during and following a lengthy illness
- Counseling is to be provided for schoolchildren with medical conditions, their parents and siblings, administrative bodies and the pupils‘ regular schools. Counseling needs to be individually tailored to the illness.
- Hospital Schools define themselves as counseling centres for education and illness
- Standards for such counseling must be developed
- Counseling during illness should be carried out in the pupils‘ regular schools by specially trained teachers in cooperation with hospital schools.
Disadvantage Compensation
Illness can have serious consequences on a child‘s schooling. Up to now
disadvantage compensation has been granted arbitrarily on an individual
basis following rules for disability, and at times did not take essential
needs into consideration.
Demands:
- Dependable disadvantage compensation shall be formulated for all types of schools.
- A legal framework for disadvantage compensation must be established for children and young people with medical conditions, valid for all stages of schooling including vocational training and academic studies. Hospital schools can serve as a helpful interface for counseling in this respect.
- Certification of academic performance for seriously ill school children may be issued by the hospital school in conjunction with relevant medically approved recommendations.
- Proposals for specific practices from the various German states are to be compared and evaluated.
Follow-Up Care
With regard to inclusion, hospital schools should be considered as a fundamental
partner in the network of medicine, education, family and patient.
Obligatory follow-up – also on an educational level – for children and adolescents
with medical conditions must include:
Tasks:
- Determination of the educational needs of the sick school child
- Structuring of the comprehensive measures required for educational care
- Professional guidance by experts trained in special educational needs with emphasis on education and illness in all the types of schools
- Especially in Germany: ‘follow-up care’ as a joint task of all German states at the conference of state ministries of culture.
Outlook Forum II
Personnel Resources – Schoolrooms – Teacher Training
Irene Schopf, Ministerialrätin Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture
Elisabeth Meixner-Mücke, Head of the Munich School for Sick Children
In a further aspect forum, Irene Schopf spoke with a group of national and international par-ticipants from the fields of education and medicine, school administration and school super-vision. Issues discussed here were the personnel and physical set-up of schools for the sick and teacher training for educating the sick.
Personnel Resources
In general, separate budgets for hospital schools were proposed which cover actual re-quirements. Necessary is the calculation of an allocation of hours for the extensive work related to counseling, including assessment and visits to the regular schools, in addition to the respective teaching load of the individual teachers. In comparison with the current level and in view of the changing tasks, the number of teacher-hours required in hospital schools needs to be increased. Additionally, key qualifications of hospital teachers must be clearly defined.
Hospital schools require, among other things:
Requirements:
- Teachers of all school types relevant to the respective population of school children
- Frameworks for the presence of teachers in the hospital
- High flexibility in the planning and carrying out of all academic activities
- Classroom experience with a heterogeneous body of pupils
- Willingness to keep close contact with the regular school, parents, other professions and institutions
Classrooms; Space requirements for schools in hospitals are adequately realized in few countries.
Hardly anywhere is there a list of specifications for hospital classrooms; some of the specifi-cations that do exist are insufficient. Hospitals and schools are often administered by different authorities, making collaboration quite difficult at times.
Demands:
- Comparable standards and regulations throughout Europe
- Suitable floor plans for classrooms in hospitals
- Education authorities to have a say in the planning and construction of new hospitals
Teacher Training
The problems of children and adolescents with medical conditions are similar
throughout Europe. In this area especially, there could be excellent
collaboration in education and illness, both nationally and internationally.
A great deal of synergy could be expected from a network of the different
institutions, ministries, universities and local schools.
Demands:
- Include ‘education and illness’ in teacher training/examination regulations
- Basic course on education and illness in the study regulations of all teacher training levels
- Specialisation of teachers in hospital schools/home schooling
- Hospital schools in the function of a seminar school
The common idea to guarantee and improve the care of sick children and
adolescents in hospital schools in every country resulted in a lively discussion
in both Outlook Forums. Par-ticipants greatly welcomed the idea of a
HOPE Summer School 2012/13 for the preparation of a European solution.
