The Association of Protestant Confessional Schools and Kindergartens (VEBS) recently reported that the number of Christian schools in Germany is growing again this autumn, with six new schools, reports the news website CNE.

The VEBS gathers 175 Protestant schools and 46 kindergartens at 128 locations, all of which were founded by parents and are run by religious staff.

The six new schools schools include two in Markkleeberg, a town near Leipzig,which have already opened; another in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, one in North Rhine-Westphalia, and two in the north of Baden-Württemberg, that will open in the coming days.

“The many successful Christian schools that we have been able to support for years are a great miracle for which we are grateful to God. In this way, we can send a visible sign of his greatness and love”, said Wolfgang Stock, a professor and general secretary of the VEBS.

A right difficult to achieve

The German constitution grants citizens the right to establish Christian confessional schools.

However, the biggest difficult is that in most federal states, there are no state subsidies for the first three years, as well as finding suitable buildings and that can be approved as schools by the authorities.

The Protestant schools in the VEBS are not only grateful for the committed founding parents and the approvals from the authorities, but also for the good supply of teachers despite a general shortage of teachers.

Christian schools in Europe

It is the first time in many years that, despite many difficulties, the number of Christian schools is rising in several European countries.

That was the conclusion of the Brussels Considerations, a conference where Christian school leaders from 13 EU member states met last January.

This year new schools has been established in Sweden, although the government does not allow confessional elements in the teachings ; the United Kingdom, and Spain.

In Switzerland, the number of Christian schools has not grown in years. Currently, there are about 20 Evangelical schools in the country, but the Initiative für Christliche Bildung (Initiative for Christian Education) said that “after years of silence, more and more people ask for Christian education”.

In Belgium, according to a participant from that country at the Brussels Considerations, the schools struggle to find enough “Christian teachers who share the school’s vision".

Austria and Germany struggles with the same problem. The schools are thriving, and every year, more students apply to be admitted than the school’s capacity allows.