As Thousands Of Schools Close, One Struggles To Stay On
SEIFHENNERSDORF, GERMANY - MAY 14: A 6th grade pupil walks down a stairwell at the Middle School on May 14, 2014 in Seifhennersdorf, Germany. The state of Saxony officially closed the Seifhennersdorf Middle School in 2012 after only 38 students registered, two short of the 40 the state required to keep the school open. Rather than agree to the school's closing, a group of parents and other volunteers have since assumed the duties of teachers and staff themselves and are trying to get recognition of their "illegal" school through a court case that now lies with Germany's Federal Constitutional Court. Eleven 6th graders attend the school, even though the state does not recognize their enrollment. School closings across Germany have reached epidemic proportions with 6,100 closures between 2003 and 2013, due in large part to Germany's low birth rate, a phenomenon typical across much of Europe. In Saxony the low birth rate has combined with a steady migration of young people to big cities and to western Germany and the number of schoolchildren has fallen by close to 50% and led to the closure of 1,000 out of a total of 2,500 state schools since 1989. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
