Last week my neighbor got a call from her family doctor.

Unfortunately, she had to cancel the booster appointment because her practice had received a lot less vaccine than promised.

Many people who want to be vaccinated are getting such calls, stupid for the doctors and their patients.

Why does the doctor cancel my neighbor of all people?

The answer was: "First come, first served". You could also choose other criteria: the age of those willing to be vaccinated, the severity of the previous illness or long-term loyalty to the doctor's office.

Ultimately, everything has a certain plausibility.

But it's not really fair.

Rainer Hank

Freelance writer in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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Let's take another example. Popular grammar schools in Frankfurt were regularly overbooked when the fourth graders left elementary school. There was a jumble of criteria for prioritization. For example, the proximity to the apartment. Or a foreign language. Or an existing school profile: a music or sports high school could choose musically or athletically gifted students. The obvious criterion of performance was officially ruled out. I suspect that is because the Hessian school system has habitually had something against performance since the 1970s.

Nonetheless, in the end, it usually came down to the fact that many children from educated middle-class families made it to the grammar school of their choice (but unfortunately not all), while students from less educated families and those with a migrant background tended to end up in comprehensive school.

There was screaming and protest from those academic parents whose child was not allowed to go to high school.

The big lottery

Since last year, the state education authority has come up with something new: the scarce places are being raffled off. At first glance, many would see this as the height of injustice. If the die is cast, chance and nothing but chance is the selection principle. And is that supposed to be fair? The cube is blind to the really needy. But who is really in need? As a rule, this question leads to a competition in which everyone feels most justified and perceives every other decision as a grave injustice.

This may explain why the parents in Frankfurt did not protest against the introduction of the lottery procedure when transitioning to high school.

On the contrary: Officially registered contradictions of the parents decreased.

The authorities are relieved that the acceptance of an assignment is significantly higher than before.

The dice in all its arbitrariness is obviously perceived as fairer than the decision of a school principal.

And no one can now claim that children with a migrant background have a worse chance of getting into high school.

Diversity comes along on its own.