Student with mask at a secondary school in Benzenberg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Photo:Inderlied / imago images / Kirchner-Media
Saxony is back in first place, followed by Bavaria and Thuringia. In the country comparison of the "Education Monitor 2020", the trend of recent years is repeated at the top. Even ahead of Hamburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saarland, according to the study, they are among the federal states with the "most efficient education systems" nationwide.
At the bottom of the ranking is Saxony-Anhalt, where the school dropout rates are "alarmingly high" and securing the supply of teachers is particularly difficult, as the study commissioned the organization "Initiative Neue Soziale Martkwirtschft" (INSM) announced on Friday. In the previous year, Berlin was at the bottom.
The INSM is a lobby organization and is financed by employers' associations in the metal and electrical industry. Your "education monitor", which has existed since 2004, is intended to illuminate and compare the performance of the school systems from an educational-economic perspective. The study assesses the extent to which a federal state reduces educational poverty, contributes to securing skilled workers and promotes growth. The German Teachers' Association criticized the study last year because, according to Association President Hans-Peter Meidinger, it assesses education systems according to the ideas of the economy, "in other words, in addition to clearly comprehensible performance criteria, also criteria that can be discussed."
In addition to the performance level of students, a comparison is made, among other things, of how much money a country spends per student, what the numerical ratio between teachers and students, or how high the proportion of younger teachers is. The countries are then rated according to a point system. The range is wide: Saxony achieved the highest score with 66.9 in the current evaluation, Saxony-Anhalt the lowest with 41.2.
The overview:
1st place Saxony
Saxony is praised, among other things, for the fact that many children between the ages of three and six are cared for all day (82.3 percent).
87 percent of primary school students attended all-day school in 2018. The national average is less than half (42 percent).
In addition, according to the study, the Saxon students shine in math and science, and only a few do not meet the minimum standards in math and reading.
In Saxony, however, fewer primary school students were taught foreign languages (53.9 percent) than in other federal states (63 percent).
2nd place Bavaria:
According to the study, Bavaria has improved the most compared to the previous year:
More students with a migration background left school with a certificate.
More ninth graders had better math skills.
More money was spent per student in vocational schools.
3rd place Thuringia:
The Free State is characterized, among other things, by its childcare offers and good school quality, and has improved in some areas.
In daycare centers and after-school care centers, the proportion of employees with academic training has increased.
The investment quota at universities has increased.
The proportion of training contracts terminated prematurely has decreased.
Education Monitor 2020 - School Education in Times of the Corona Crisis
Who did the study? Up arrow Down arrow
The study was carried out by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research for the New Social Market Economy initiative. Since 2004, it has been measuring the areas in which progress can be made in education policy.
Which methodology was used? Up arrow Down arrow
The concrete method of the study, as in previous education monitor studies, is indicator-based benchmarking. It serves to make different goals, institutions and objects of investigation comparable with one another. For this purpose, the individual aspects of the education systems of the 16 German federal states are operationalized and standardized with the help of 93 input and output indicators.
16th place Saxony-Anhalt:
According to "Bildungsmonitor 2020" there is a need for action in several areas for the state.
The age structure of teachers is too unbalanced.
The share of academic staff in the total staff of universities is lower than the national average.
Investment spending for universities, general education and vocational schools was below average compared to total spending.
In 2018, more than a third (38.2 percent) of students with a migration background failed to graduate. The national average is 18.2 percent.
The researchers' conclusion: Even before the Corona, there were problems in the German education system that will now intensify due to the pandemic.
"The past few months have shown that the education system in Germany, especially in the area of digital equipment, has massive deficits," said INSM managing director Hubertus Pellengahr to be bathed in their parents. Families with little education are particularly affected. "
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