Sozialindex und gewichtenregeling

In Germany and the Netherlands spatial information about the social structure of the inhabitants is used for the coordination of financial and human resources in the local school-system. The aim is to reduce educational inequalities by taking the social context of the schools into account. The article explains two approaches. In North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) a so called Sozialindex is used to distribute additional teachers to municipalities with difficult social surroundings. The Dutch government uses an instrument to give each pupil a weight (gewichtenregeling) depending on the specific educational background. Combined with an evaluation of the school location an additional budget, if necessary, will be payed.