Minority Rights Protection and Human Rights Policies in ... - IFSH

Following this briefing, the group boarded buses to the hotel and didn’t let the thick fog
outside ruin the atmosphere at the seminar’s final banquet.
Sunday, 26 November 2006
Visit to Loyola Gymnasium in Prizren
Minutes taken by Katharina Montens
Walter Happel, Director of Loyola Gymnasium
Walter Happel welcomed us on the campus of his German Gymnasium, which he established
with the help of the German church in Prizren, in the middle of a Muslim society. During his
presentation, he led us through the school, introducing its concept and working mode.
His basic idea was to build a school that
served the people of the countryside as well
as to establish a possibility for girls to gain
a higher education in rural areas in Kosovo.
With the support of the Catholic Renovabis
Foundation, he set up a new organization
especially for the
construction of the
gymnasium: the
Foundation Loyola
Gymnasium. In
2003, he travelled to Kosovo to begin with preparations and chose
Prizren for its history of peaceful coexistence of Muslims and
Catholics. Two years later, in September 2005, Loyola Gymnasium
was inaugurated as a boarding school Gymnasium.
The school is based on the system of a German Gymnasium, starting
from grade five and finishing at grade 12 or 13 with a German Abitur.
Even with the basis of a German system, the school curriculum
follows the Kosovo curriculum and uses Kosovar school books. Happel explained that it
includes an additional five hours of Latin, as this is the origin of the Albanian language, and
five hours of German, to make a connection to Germany and Europe through language skills.
Students thus receive a DSD German language diploma when finishing school.
The school is, according to Happel, perceived as a German Catholic school, even if teachers
and students are majority Muslim. The percentage of Christians is with 15% very high for a
Kosovar institution and Happel considers the support of the Christian minority in Kosovo one
of the missions of his school.
There are no Serbian children or teachers at the school. Happel explained this situation as a
result of the influence of hardliners and an unwillingness to integrate. Despite an information
campaign in Serbian areas in Kosovo, there was not one application from Serbian children or
teachers.
Students pay a monthly fee of 60 euros for the school plus 150 euros boarding costs. The
question arose whether this is not a big amount of money for the local conditions. Happel
admitted that this was the case, but that the money charged was only enough to pay the
salaries for the teachers. Originally an agreement was made with the provisional government
that the Foundation Loyola Gymnasium would pay for the school and the boarding costs of
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