Hamburg - The children of Italian immigrants in Germany are not as good in school as their counterparts from other nations with a large migrant tradition, according to a media report Wednesday. Statistics quoted by the weekly magazine Die Zeit showed that there was a higher percentage of Italians attending the lowest level of Germany's three-tier school system than Turks.
The magazine quoted the Federal Office of Statistics as saying 48.3 per cent of Italian children attended lower secondary schools compared to 44.7 per cent for Turks.
Some 8.6 per cent of Italian pupils attended schools for those with learning difficulties, compared to 6.6 per cent of Turks.
Italy's consul general in Stuttgart, Faiti Salvadori, told Die Zeit that German authorities needed to do more to support the Italian children.
"The selective character of the German school system is a form of discrimination," the magazine quoted him as saying, in a report released in advance of publication on Thursday.
After four years of primary school, German schoolchildren are usually streamed into one of three school categories - lower secondary, secondary and high schools.
