Marguerite Krier (centre), pictured with Claude Meisch, Luxembourg's Minister of Education, Children and Youth (2nd left), and others at a children's rights project launch in March 2023;
Credit: MENEJ
Luxembourg's Ministry of Education, Children and Youth has announced the appointment of Marguerite Krier as mediator for school retention, inclusion and integration (School Mediator), effective Thursday 4 September 2025.
Having served at the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth since 2003, Marguerite Krier most recently led the Children’s Rights Service. She succeeds Lis De Pina, who retired after a seven-year term as the country’s first School Mediator.
Created by the law of 18 June 2018, the School Mediation Service (SMS) is part of the Education Ministry. It supports parents and pupils in cases of difficulties with a school or a ministry department, as well as professionals in the national education sector.
The SMS intervenes only after complainants have first attempted, without success, to resolve an issue with the school or department concerned. Its work covers three main areas: school retention, by helping prevent pupils from leaving school without a certificate or diploma; school inclusion, by ensuring that all pupils, including those with disabilities, have access to equal rights; and school integration, by offering children arriving in Luxembourg without knowledge of the country’s languages the same opportunities as their peers.
The primary concern of the School Mediator and their team of assistants is to provide a space for dialogue to resolve conflicts, to take time for listening and explanation, and to support the pupil’s educational journey, as well as accompany parents or adult pupils in their procedures and help both parties find the solutions that best suit their situation. To this end, the SMS ensures compliance with current laws, regulations and instructions, while adhering to the core principles of mediation: listening, respect for the individual, impartiality, fairness and confidentiality.
The interventions of the School Mediator aim to contribute to a caring and beneficial school environment for all. To help improve the school system more broadly, the School Mediator may, based on the complaints they have handled, formulate general recommendations to the Minister of Education, Children and Youth. These recommendations may be taken into account in legislative adjustments or ministerial instructions. Moreover, in the interest of transparency, the School Mediator produces an annual report submitted to the government and the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg’s parliament).
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