Day 5

9 minutes of language and football training for a child in Germany

Strengthening educational opportunities through play Strengthening educational opportunities through play Strengthening educational opportunities through play Strengthening educational opportunities through play

9 minutes of language and football training for a child in Germany
Day 5
Using language and football to achieve greater social justice

Ten-year-old Nadir is growing up in his neighborhood in Frankfurt am Main in poor, educationally disadvantaged circumstances - but he has just taken part in his first poetry slam for children. Nadir has written his first rap for the event, in which he deals with his favorite soccer team. After he has presented his poetry to the enthusiastic audience, his teacher Mrs. Blume comes up to him: "Oh, Nadir, I hope you don't become the next Goethe!" Mrs. Blume looks back proudly on the past school year: "Nadir is one of many boys who have found the motivation they need to read and write through their passion for soccer. Our soccer training twice a week, reading a children's soccer book or this rap about their favorite club - sport manages to motivate children to attend class in many different ways."

Using language and football to achieve greater social justice
Joachim Masannek presents his favorite project
need
Compensating for learning deficits for primary school children in Germany
activity
Language and football training for students, carried out by qualified teachers and trainers
Measurable performance
Number of units of language lessons and football training provided by NGO supervisors
Result
Over 70 primary school children achieve better school leaving certificates and can thus be recommended for secondary school
Systemically relevant impact
The educational opportunities for the children receiving support are improved; the children are given the opportunity to pursue their educational path independently
background

As with Nadir, sport, especially football in Germany, can be a bridge to academic development for many children - a bridge of enormous importance for children who find it difficult to muster sufficient motivation for school. Through exercise and teamwork, children improve their learning behavior, can concentrate more easily, adapt better to different situations and challenges, and benefit from positive group dynamics in class. In addition, children find many role models in sport - inspiring personalities who show them that learning and effort are worthwhile in order to achieve something later on. Goal orientation should also be encouraged in children - it feels good to change something and achieve something. Identifying which children are not fully exploiting their potential in regular school is particularly important because children and young people in Germany grow up with unequal educational opportunities. It has not yet been possible to break the connection between social background and educational success. The IQB education study (Stanat et al., 2022) shows that around a fifth of all fourth-graders in Germany do not achieve the minimum standards in reading, listening and mathematics. Due to the pandemic, students are on average more than half a year behind in their learning compared to previous years. For children with a migration background, the average is even one and a half years (Ludewig et al., 2021). In addition, social inequality is noticeable in the area of exercise and sport - here, too, the problems have been further exacerbated by the pandemic (Leopoldina, 2022). The large proportion of socially disadvantaged children who do not exercise sufficiently (73%) rose again to 78% in 2022 (IFT-Nord, 2022). This makes it all the more important to offer programs that reach out to all children and create motivation to exercise sufficiently.

Frankfurt
Day 5 Day 5
The good deed

Your donation today will enable children growing up in particularly challenging parts of town to enjoy a comprehensive range of language lessons, football training, and cultural activities. The aim is to give children a decisive boost in their educational opportunities so that they are able to successfully complete school and follow their own self-determined path. The twice-weekly combination of half-time football training and half-time language lessons offers optimal methodological variety—with the effect that children can concentrate better, are more motivated to learn the content at school, and are able to better adapt their attention and actions to different situations. Football also makes children stronger as a group, which creates a pleasant learning atmosphere in language lessons. The offer is supplemented by cultural activities that take place several times a year, such as a rap poetry workshop, where children can express their interest in football in literary terms, thus promoting their writing and reading skills.

About Germany
Berlin
Berlin
Capital city
84,079,811
84,079,811
Population
48,432.5
48,432.5
Gross domestic product per capita per year
0.942
0.942
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)

The first book in Europe was printed in Germany between 1452 and 1454 (City of Mainz, 2000). It actually sounds like a historical mission as to why we should take the issue of language and reading promotion seriously. This makes it all the more dramatic that today a quarter of all children in Germany cannot read properly (Stanat et al., 2022).