Minority languages in school

A while ago a TT'er on another branch complained that her Lao husband had to take a US state driving test in English, while the test was also offered in Spanish and maybe a few other languages. The poster was upset that the test did not exist in Lao.

It's nice of a state to offer such services in additional languages, but from this thread and the one about the Lao driving test, it seems that offering help to some groups is more upsetting to those not in those groups than offering no help at all.

Of course, it's entirely as #50 says. As far as I am aware, there are far more Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and Russian speaking students in the German school system than English, and so obviously these languages are going to be catered for. Macedonian, do you expect the German state to fund language helpers for speakers of ALL languages? As you obviously think the German system is so inferior, maybe you can tell us all about services available to foreign children in schools in Macedonia?

# Macedonian – From what you said about the German school system I infer that you live in one of the southern provinces, which have an educational system similar to Austria, where I live. It is a well-known problem that children with an immigration background fall behind in school. However, they are not segregated because they are immigrants with foreign names, but they tend to fail the Gymnasium because their German skills are not good enough, or in some cases, their parents don’t attach great importance to education and don’t support their offspring accordingly (mind you, I’m not talking of you). I don't think that demands for Turkish only schools is the answer to this problem, as proficiency in German is indispensable if you want to live in Germany or Austria. I'd rather argue for extra German classes for foreigners, given that in some primary and lower-secondary schools in Vienna 90% to 100% of the pupils have a mother tongue other than German.