Türkische Schüler verlassen Regensburg

Ein Bericht in der Europa-Ausgabe von Hürriyet brachte Regensburg breite Aufmerksamkeit in den türkischen Medien …

Die in Regensburg gestrandete Schülergruppe aus der türkischen Stadt Adana wird Deutschland in Kürze verlassen. Das hat die – für die Förderung des Projekts zuständige – nationale Bildungsagentur in der Türkei (TRNA) unserer Redaktion in einer Stellungnahme mitgeteilt (der komplette Wortlaut am Ende des Textes). Angesichts der Tatsache, dass die Unterbringung ungeeignet sei und das Projekt – die 24 Schüler sollten ein Schweißer-Zertifikat erhalten – nicht wie geplant umgesetzt werden könne, sei es laut Aussage der mitreisenden Lehrer „von jetzt an sehr schwierig“ weiter in Regensburg zu bleiben. Die TRNA hatte 76.000 Euro aus dem Leonardo da Vinci-Programm für das Projekt bewilligt; knapp 61.000 Euro davon wurden bislang ausbezahlt. Für die Planung und Durchführung war die Schule selbst zuständig. Darüber, dass die Gruppe nach Regensburg reisen würde, sei man aber nicht informiert worden, heißt es in der Stellungnahme der TRNA weiter. Ursprünglich sei das Projekt in Slowenien geplant gewesen. Weil es dort Schwierigkeiten gab, wurde eine Verlegung nach Tschechien genehmigt. „Es gibt keinerlei Aufzeichnungen noch irgendeine offizielle Nachfrage, das Projekt nach Deutschland zu verlegen“, schreibt die TRNA. Damit habe sich die Schule nicht an die Fördervereinbarung gehalten. Gegenüber Medien hat der für die Projektleitung zuständige Lehrer erklärt, dass die Zeit nicht ausgereicht habe, um die Verlegung nach Deutschland zu beantragen. Insofern habe er zugegeben, gegen die Projektanforderungen verstoßen zu haben, so die TRNA. Der Fall werde derzeit sowohl von der TRNA selbst wie auch von der übergeordneten Schulbehörde untersucht und einer genauen Prüfung unterzogen. Gegebenenfalls könne ein Teil des Geldes, sogar die gesamte Fördersumme, zurückgefordert werden.

…auch der türkische Ableger von CNN griff das Thema auf.

Die beteiligten Lehrer wurden mittlerweile von der TRNA, der Schulbehörde befragt. Auch das türkische Konsulat in Nürnberg ist in die Untersuchungen eingebunden. Die Lehrer erklären, es seien „einige Kurse“ und Firmen besucht worden. Auch Deutsch-Unterricht soll es angeblich gegeben haben. Eines steht aber ungeachtet dessen fest: Das versprochene Zertifikat wird es für die Schüler nicht geben. In ihrer Stellungnahme weist die TRNA darauf hin, dass man im Rahmen verschiedener Programme seit 2004 jährlich über 900 Projekte fördere. 2010 liegt das Budget demnach bei 63,4 Millionen Euro. Aus dem Leonardo da Vinci-Programm wurden in diesem Jahr 368 Projekte unterstützt. In einigen Fällen gebe es Probleme bei der Umsetzung. Das komme aber nur äußerst selten vor und liege bisweilen daran, dass die Schulen oft wenig Erfahrungen mit internationalen Aktivitäten hätten. Ein Fall wie in Regensburg sei bislang nicht vorgekommen. Das Thema hat in der Türkei hohe Wellen geschlagen, nachdem die Zeitung Hürriyet darüber berichtet hatte, dass die Schüler sich seit über sechs Wochen weitgehend untätig und ohne den versprochenen Kurs in Regensburg aufhalten. regensburg-digital.de hatte als erstes deutschsprachiges Medium darüber berichtet.

Das sagt die TRNA

Unsere Redaktion hat der nationalen Bildungsagentur in der Türkei einige Fragen gestellt. Wir veröffentlichen die komplette Stellungnahme im Originalwortlaut in englischer Sprache. As a Community Programme Lifelong Learning is carried out in 31 countries (27 EU-Members, 3 EFTA countries and Turkey) and the programme rules defined by the European Commission is in effect in each of them. All information, selection, funding, monitoring and valorization activities are implemented according to the programme rules. The implementing organizations in each programme member country is called national agencies and for our organization, The Centre for EU Education and Youth Programmes is responsible for the implementation of the programmes in Turkey as a national agency. 1. As reported, the project has been supported by the EU-programm Leonardo da Vinci with 76.000 Euro. Is this true? The aforementioned organization (Kiremithane Vocational High School, a public school located in the city of Adana, Turkey) is an EU grant beneficiary organization. The school applied the Turkish National Agency (The Centre for EU Education and Youth Programmes) for a funding under the 2009 Call for Proposals. The project is sponsored with the EU funding of a total of 76.000 Euro under the Leonardo da Vinci Programme which is part of the Community Programme „Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP)”. According to the programme rules 80 percent of the grant, 60.800 Euro is paid  to the project beneficiary in advance. 2. Did you get correct informations from the organizators? The programme is implemented according to the programme rules defined by the European Commission. The implementing organization in each programme country is called as national agency and our organization, „The Centre for EU Education and Youth Programmes“ is responsible for the implementation of the programmes in Turkey. Preparing a project proposal, finding a receiving partner, defining the activity programme and preparing the budget plan must be carried out by the beneficiary (project promoter organization). If the project is selected by the national agency, then the beneficiary is expected to realize its activity plan accordingly to its application form and the grant agreement. The implementation of a project is solely under the responsibility of the beneficiary organization. The role of the NA is to control that projects are realized in accordance with the programme rules. In case of any misuse or actions contrary to the grant agreement (detected trough final beneficiary reports, on the spot checks or monitoring  visits), the NA has all the rights to recover all or part of the EU funding from the beneficiary, or cut the ineligible amounts from the advance payment or the 20 percent balance payment which is expected to be paid after the final report of the beneficiary organization. As part of this process, there is a concrete control and audit mechanism of the National Agency for each Leonardo da Vinci project. Projects are controlled/monitored before, during and after the project activities with several tools. In case of complaints or any information about possible inconvenience with the programme rules, on the spot monitoring and audit activities are  also carried out as in this case. 3. What went wrong? According to the project proposal of the school, the venue of the project activities was Slovenia, not Germany.Our records show that the beneficiary informed TRNA in 25.05.2010 that they could not manage to establish an understanding with their supposed receiving organization in Slovenia and that they have found another receiving organization in the Czech Republic. Therefore they asked for the permission of the TRNA to change the venue. Consistent with the programme rules the TRNA has permitted them to carry out their activities in the Czech Republic. There is neither a record nor any kind of official demand from the beneficiary to change their venue to Germany, nor any mention about a possible German receiving partner organization. In this case and according to our first checks, the beneficiary organization has not respected the grant agreement rules and their project proposal. When the TRNA contacted the responsible teacher after this media coverage, she said  they did not have the time to ask for the permission of the National Agency. In that sense they admitted that they acted contrary to the agreement requirements. The TRNA started a detailed control about the implementation of the project. We are also informed that the beneficiary organization which is a public body is now under an inquiry by their superior office according to Turkish regulations about the subject. 4. What steps will be taken by your agency now? Turkey is a member of both the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) and the Youth in Action Programme (YiA) since 2004 and well experienced in implementing the programmes. With a  budget of 63,4 million Euros in 2010 it is the 7 th biggest programme country. Every year around 900 projects are supported by the TRNA for the whole LLP and in 2010 the number of granted projects for the Leonardo da Vinci programme was 368. Since the implementing of the projects are under the responsibility of the beneficiary organizations, have some risks in nature and also mostly carried out by local schools who have limited experience on international activities -classified as  disadvantaged under the programme rules and has priority in being supported- in some cases there should be difficulties at different levels of implementation but in Turkey’s case such kind of anomalies are detected in very rare cases. Also not every project is supposed to be successful. Such kind of cases are tracked and relevant actions are always taken by the TRNA to limit their effects on the implementation of not only the individual projects but also the LLP programme as a whole in Turkey. Up to now there has been no reported cases at this level of inconvenience. The responsible trainers of the group are contacted by the TRNA, the superior local office of the organization and also the Turkish Consulate in Nurnberg. They argued that they have taken some courses and visited some work places in Regensburg about their project theme and have taken  some German courses. But depending on the fact that the venue is not convenient and the activity plan is not implemented as proposed according to the project proposal it seems that from now on it would be very difficult for them to stay in Regensburg. We are told that they are planning to return as soon as possible. For the time being, the case will be brought into detailed examination started by the TRNA according to the programme rules. Following the results of this examination appropriate actions will be taken to secure the EU funding and the programme rules. As the Turkish National Agency supporting more than 1.300 projects, sending more than 30.000 Turkish citizens and receiving more than 10.000 European citizens every year under the LLP and YiA programmes we believe in and realize the benefits of exchange of students, trainers and professionals between countries that will create a Europe of dialogue and understanding.