Paperjam.lu

Picture archives 

A story broadcast by RTL on 28 September said that the Ediff (which stands for Éducation différenciée, or differentiated education) unit had been abolished at the start of the school year and the service’s nearly 200 teachers would be assigned to regular classrooms, to make up for a shortage of primary school teachers.

An Ediff teacher said in the RTL broadcast that staff members were confused about their assignments, and feared that special needs children would not receive proper instruction.

However, the education ministry said in a statement on 29 September that RTL had conflated a reform of the differentiated education service and the lack of primary school replacement staff,

“although there is absolutely no link between the two. Not a single differentiated education instructor has been asked to do replacement duty in regular education. Contrary to what has been said, the 180 differentiated education teachers have not been integrated into regular education.”

The controversy stemmed from an announcement on 14 August that outlined a reform of the special education department. In a letter from the DP minister for education, Claude Meisch, to teachers and staff, the minister said up to 150 special education specialists would be hired so that “each school can benefit from such a resource” (“PDF: Zwee Bréiwer vum Minister Meisch un déi Concernéiert (aus dem August an aus dem September” posted on RTL website).

The letter outlined a change in the education law that called for special educators and local schools to work together in a more coordinated manner.

In a tweet on 28 September, Meisch called RTL’s report “fake news” and stressed that differentiated education staff would “continue doing the same work as before”.