The conservative Christian Social Union party of the German State Bavaria has banned the use of gender-neutral language in schools in an effort to refocus students on their education and "improve the basic techniques in schools in order to achieve better education."
"For Bavaria I can say: With us there will be no compulsory gender. On the contrary: We will even prohibit gender in schools and administration,” said Markus Söder, Prime Minister of the People's State of Bavaria (56, CSU) on Tuesday.According to German news site Bild, Söder announced the move during his first government statement in the new legislative period in the state parliament while he criticized the federal traffic light coalition for focusing on the wrong issues including language around gender.
“Don’t we have any other problems in Germany?” he asked.
Söder pointed to the shockingly low test scores from students on the international performance study Pisa as an example, calling it a "slap in the face to Germany."
German Education Minister Anna Stolz or the Free Voters party said of the poor national performance on the exam: “We must and will do everything we can to counteract this.”
Other German states such as Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt have enacted similar enforcements, according to BBN.
Official German orthography does not include gender-neutral pronouns and language on official documents, letters and teaching materials.
With that being said, it remains unclear when the ban in Bavaria will be enforced and what will change.
"We haven't gendered so far anyway, not much would change for us if the ban were to come," stated a spokesman for the Bavarian Ministry of Culture, adding that the German Spelling Council's recommendations against gender-neutral language have been followed fro the most part.
