Ursachen von Schulverweigerung und lokale Lösungsansätze in der Region Kassel

Generell gelten in Deutschland alle Kinder und Jugendlichen als schulpflichtig, deren Aufenthaltsort sich im Land befindet. Weiterhin gilt die Verpflichtung zum Schulbesuch für alle „bildungsfähigen“ Kinder. Der Sachverhalt der Schulverweigerung, der in Kapitel 2 und 3 zu erläutern ist, kann nur in einer Gesellschaft vorliegen, in der ein Schulbesuch gesetzlich festgelegt ist. Im Jahr 1999 lag die Zahl der Verletzungen der Schulpflicht in Hessen, laut Kultusministerium, bei 4.417. Hierbei handelt es sich allerdings nur um Fälle, bei denen ein Ordnungswidrigkeitsverfahren eingeleitet wurde also nicht um Schulversäumnisse, die von Eltern oder Ärzten entschuldigt wurden. Dies zeige allerdings, dass das Phänomen der Schulverweigerung in den letzten Jahren, gerade in den Klassen 7 bis 9 stetig zugenommen habe. Generell gehe man diesbezüglich davon aus, dass gelegentliches unerlaubtes Fernbleiben von der Schule im Jugendalter als entwicklungstypisch eingestuft werden könne. Oppositionelles und autoritätssuchendes Verhalten in der Adoleszensphase sei als ´normale` Entwicklungsstufe anzusehen und kann sich in schulabsentem Verhalten äußern. Schulverweigerung im Sinne einer Aufmerksamkeitserregung bezüglich eines psychosomatischen Krankheitsbildes tritt vorwiegend im Alter von 12 bis 14 Jahren auf. Darüber hinaus veröffentlichten die Hertie- und die Bertelsmann-Stiftung im Jahr 2002 in einer Presseinformation, dass es in Deutschland etwa 500.000 Schulschwänzer gebe. In diesem Zusammenhang würden etwa 10% bis 15% der Schüler in der Bundesrepublik die Schule ohne einen Schulabschluss verlassen, was in Zahlen ausgedrückt knapp 83.000 Kinder und Jugendliche bedeute. Von diesen Zahlen geht auch das Deutsche Jugendinstitut aus. In der Region Kassel existieren zurzeit zwei Projekte zum Umgang mit und der Prävention von Schulverweigerung. Durch das bundesweite „Netzwerk Prävention von Schulmüdigkeit und Schulverweigerung“ koordiniert wurde der 2005 ausgelaufene Modelversuch „Auf Kurs“ der Kasseler Produktionsschule BuntStift GmbH, evaluiert und ins Regelsystem übernommen. Das Projekt „Schulverweigerung - Die 2. Chance“, ausgehend vom Europäischen Sozialfond, läuft in Kassel seit 2007 beziehungsweise 2009 und beinhaltet eine Koordination von Schule und Jugendhilfe. Anknüpfend an das Prozedere bei Erkennung eines Falls von Schulverweigerung ist zu untersuchen, inwiefern und mit welchen Zielsetzungen die Reintegrationsprojekte in der Region Kassel die Ursachen von Schulverweigerung aufgreifen. In diesem Zusammenhang steht eine Kontaktaufnahme mit dem Planer des Projektes „Auf Kurs“ von BuntStift, der Georg-August-Zinn-Schule und der Offenen Schule Kassel Waldau, zwei Kooperationsschulen des Projekts, sowie der Jugendfürsorge von Landkreis und Stadt Kassel, die im Rahmen des Projektes „Schulverweigerung - Die 2. Chance“ mit Schulen und Gemeinden zusammenarbeiten. Ziel beider Projekte ist es, Schülern den Zugang zu sozialen Kompetenzen, der Bereitschaft zur Leistungsentfaltung und der Fähigkeit sich dauerhaft Lehr- und Lerninhalte anzueignen zu verschaffen. Die Darstellung der projektinternen Interventions-, Präventions- und Reintegrationsmaßnahmen vor dem Hintergrund der vielfältigen Ursachen von Schulverweigerung bilden den Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit. In diesem Zusammenhang entsteht die Frage, inwiefern die Projekte Ursachen von Schulverweigerung präventiv und produktiv aufgreifen, um Schülern einen erfolgreichen Wiedereinstieg in das Bildungssystem zu ermöglichen und welche Rolle die Kooperation zwischen Schulen, Jugendhilfe und Eltern in dieser Hinsicht spielt.

Clay pot irrigation for tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) production in the north east semiarid region of Ethiopia

Water shortage is one of the major constraints for production of horticultural crops in arid and semiarid regions. A field experiment was conducted to determine irrigation water and fertilizer use efficiency, growth and yield of tomato under clay pot irrigation at the experimental site of Sekota Dryland Agricultural Research Center, Lalibela, Ethiopia in 2009/10. The experiment comprised of five treatments including furrow irrigated control and clay pot irrigation with different plant population and fertilization methods, which were arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The highest total and marketable fruit yields were obtained from clay pot irrigation combined with application of nitrogen fertilizer with irrigation water irrespective of difference in plant population. The clay pot irrigation had seasonal water use of up to 143.71 mm, which resulted in significantly higher water use efficiency (33.62 kg m^-3) as compared to the furrow irrigation, which had a seasonal water use of 485.50 mm, and a water use efficiency of 6.67 kg m^-3. Application of nitrogen fertilizer with irrigation water in clay pots improved fertilizer use efficiency of tomato by up to 52% than band application with furrow or clay pot irrigation. Thus, clay pot irrigation with 33,333 plants ha^-1 and nitrogen fertilizer application with irrigation water in clay pots was the best method for increasing the yield of tomato while economizing the use of water and nitrogen fertilizer in a semiarid environment.

Interrelatedness of grazing livestock with vegetation parameters and farmers’ livelihoods in the Mahafaly region, southwestern Madagascar

The study aims to get deeper insight into the highly extensive system of animal husbandry in the Mahafaly region of southwestern Madagascar. It tries to understand the major drivers for pastoral dynamics, land and resource use along a gradient in altitude and vegetation to consider the area’s high spatial and temporal heterogeneity. The study also analyzes the reproductive performance of local livestock as well as the owners’ culling strategies to determine herd dynamics, opportunities for economic growth, and future potential for rural development. Across seasons, plateau herds from both livestock species covered longer distances (cattle 13.6±3.02 km, goats 12.3±3.48 km) and were found further away from the settlements (cattle 3.1±0.96 km, goats 2.8±0.98 km) than those from the coastal plain (walking_dist: cattle 9.5±3.25 km, goats 9.2±2.57 km; max_dist: cattle 2.6±1.28 km, goats 1.8±0.61 km). Transhumant cattle were detected more vulnerable through limited access to pasture land and water resources compared to local herds. Seasonal water shortage has been confirmed as a key constraint on the plateau while livestock keeping along the coast is more limited by dry season forage availability. However, recent security issues and land use conflicts with local crop farmers are gaining importance and force livestock owners to adapt their traditional grazing management, resulting in spatio-temporal variation of livestock numbers and in the impending risk of local overgrazing and degradation of rangelands. Among the 133 plant species consumed by livestock, 13 were determined of major importance for the animals’ nutrition. The nutritive value and digestibility of the natural forage, as well as its abundance in the coastal zone, substantially decreased over the course of the dry season and emphasized the importance of supplementary forage plants, in particular Euphorbia stenoclada. At the same time, an unsustainable utilization and overexploitation of its wild stocks may raise the pressure on the vegetation and pasture resources within the nearby Tsimanampetsotsa National Park. Age at first parturition was 40.5±0.59 months for cattle and 21.3±0.63 months for goats. Both species showed long parturition intervals (cattle 24.2±0.48 months, goats 12.4±0.30 months), mostly due to the maintenance of poorly performing breeding females within the herds. Reported offspring mortality, however, was low with 2.5% of cattle and 18.8% of goats dying before reaching maturity. The analysis of economic information revealed higher than expected market dynamics, especially for zebus, resulting in annual contribution margins of 33 € per cattle unit and 11 € per goat unit. The application of the PRY Herd Life model to simulate herd development for present management and two alternate scenarios confirmed the economic profitability of the current livestock system and showed potential for further productive and economic development. However, this might be clearly limited by the region’s restricted carrying capacity. Summarizing, this study illustrates the highly extensive and resources-driven character of the livestock system in the Mahafaly region, with herd mobility being a central element to cope with seasonal shortages in forage and water. But additional key drivers and external factors are gaining importance and increasingly affect migration decisions and grazing management. This leads to an increased risk of local overgrazing and overexploitation of natural pasture resources and intensifies the tension between pastoral and conservation interests. At the same time, it hampers the region’s agronomic development, which has not yet been fully exploited. The situation therefore demonstrates the need for practical improvement suggestions and implication measures, such as the systematic forestation of supplemental forage plant species in the coastal zone or a stronger integration of animal husbandry and crop production, to sustain the traditional livestock system without compromising peoples’ livelihoods while at the same time minimizing the pastoral impact on the area’s unique nature and environment.

Changes of traditional farming systems and their effects on land degradation and socio-economic conditions in the Inle Lake region, Myanmar

At many locations in Myanmar, ongoing changes in land use have negative environmental impacts and threaten natural ecosystems at local, regional and national scales. In particular, the watershed area of Inle Lake in eastern Myanmar is strongly affected by the environmental effects of deforestation and soil erosion caused by agricultural intensification and expansion of agricultural land, which are exacerbated by the increasing population pressure and the growing number of tourists. This thesis, therefore, focuses on land use changes in traditional farming systems and their effects on socio-economic and biophysical factors to improve our understanding of sustainable natural resource management of this wetland ecosystem. The main objectives of this research were to: (1) assess the noticeable land transformations in space and time, (2) identify the typical farming systems as well as the divergent livelihood strategies, and finally, (3) estimate soil erosion risk in the different agro-ecological zones surrounding the Inle Lake watershed area. GIS and remote sensing techniques allowed to identify the dynamic land use and land cover changes (LUCC) during the past 40 years based on historical Corona images (1968) and Landsat images (1989, 2000 and 2009). In this study, 12 land cover classes were identified and a supervised classification was used for the Landsat datasets, whereas a visual interpretation approach was conducted for the Corona images. Within the past 40 years, the main landscape transformation processes were deforestation (- 49%), urbanization (+ 203%), agricultural expansion (+ 34%) with a notably increase of floating gardens (+ 390%), land abandonment (+ 167%), and marshlands losses in wetland area (- 83%) and water bodies (- 16%). The main driving forces of LUCC appeared to be high population growth, urbanization and settlements, a lack of sustainable land use and environmental management policies, wide-spread rural poverty, an open market economy and changes in market prices and access. To identify the diverse livelihood strategies in the Inle Lake watershed area and the diversity of income generating activities, household surveys were conducted (total: 301 households) using a stratified random sampling design in three different agro-ecological zones: floating gardens (FG), lowland cultivation (LL) and upland cultivation (UP). A cluster and discriminant analysis revealed that livelihood strategies and socio-economic situations of local communities differed significantly in the different zones. For all three zones, different livelihood strategies were identified which differed mainly in the amount of on-farm and off-farm income, and the level of income diversification. The gross margin for each household from agricultural production in the floating garden, lowland and upland cultivation was US$ 2108, 892 and 619 ha-1 respectively. Among the typical farming systems in these zones, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) plantation in the floating gardens yielded the highest net benefits, but caused negative environmental impacts given the overuse of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and spatial analysis within GIS were applied to estimate soil erosion risk in the different agricultural zones and for the main cropping systems of the study region. The results revealed that the average soil losses in year 1989, 2000 and 2009 amounted to 20, 10 and 26 t ha-1, respectively and barren land along the steep slopes had the highest soil erosion risk with 85% of the total soil losses in the study area. Yearly fluctuations were mainly caused by changes in the amount of annual precipitation and the dynamics of LUCC such as deforestation and agriculture extension with inappropriate land use and unsustainable cropping systems. Among the typical cropping systems, upland rainfed rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation had the highest rate of soil erosion (20 t ha-1yr-1) followed by sebesten (Cordia dichotoma) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) plantation in the UP zone. This study indicated that the hotspot region of soil erosion risk were upland mountain areas, especially in the western part of the Inle lake. Soil conservation practices are thus urgently needed to control soil erosion and lake sedimentation and to conserve the wetland ecosystem. Most farmers have not yet implemented soil conservation measures to reduce soil erosion impacts such as land degradation, sedimentation and water pollution in Inle Lake, which is partly due to the low economic development and poverty in the region. Key challenges of agriculture in the hilly landscapes can be summarized as follows: fostering the sustainable land use of farming systems for the maintenance of ecosystem services and functions while improving the social and economic well-being of the population, integrated natural resources management policies and increasing the diversification of income opportunities to reduce pressure on forest and natural resources.