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Schoolgirl in Bavaria (symbol photo)
Photo: Peter Kneffel / picture alliance / dpa
How does the German education system compare internationally?
Every autumn, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) takes stock of the situation.
On 568 pages it is again about class sizes, teacher salaries, educational expenses, income differences among graduates - and this year especially about the corona pandemic.
The study “Education at a Glance” on 48 member states, which will be presented this Thursday, was available to SPIEGEL before publication. The researchers rated it positively that, in comparison, significantly more children in Germany take part in early childhood education. Almost 40 percent of children under the age of three attended a day nursery, daycare center or were cared for by childcare providers in 2019 - the OECD average was only a quarter. In children between three and five years of age, the figure was as high as 94 percent.
The OECD analysts are concerned about the impending shortage of teachers in Germany's schools.
In 2019, 43 percent of teachers in secondary schools were at least 50 years old and could reach retirement age in the next ten years.
This proportion is significantly above the OECD average (36 percent).
High salaries - with less working hours
In terms of earnings, the job in Germany is likely to be significantly more attractive than elsewhere: According to the researchers' calculations, teachers in Germany earn better than in all other OECD countries with available data. In 2020, the salaries of German teachers in all types of schools in Germany were more than 1.7 times as high as the OECD average: at primary schools an average of 76,997 US dollars per year (the equivalent of around 65,000 euros) and at secondary schools in the Secondary school at $ 84,869 US (around 72,000 euros).
At the same time, teachers in Germany work fewer hours per year on average than their colleagues in other OECD countries.
The discrepancy in primary schools is particularly large.
Here teachers in Germany will teach 691 hours in 2020 - a full 100 hours less than the average for the countries examined.
Secondary school teachers taught an average of 641 hours at lower secondary level (OECD average: 723 hours).
Schools affected for a long time
This year, the analysis is paying particular attention to the way OECD members deal with the corona pandemic. Since March 2020, 37 OECD countries have had to close their schools completely for short or long periods of time. The number of missed school days, however, varies considerably. In Germany, the primary schools were completely closed for a total of 64 days, the secondary schools in the lower secondary level for 85 days - both figures are in the average range of the OECD countries.
However, school operations in Germany remained impaired significantly longer than in most of the other countries in the analysis. Between March 2020 and May 2021, the educational institutions in Germany were only partially open on a further 103 days, for example for alternating or hybrid courses - and thus almost twice as often as the average for the countries examined (57 days).
In addition, the researchers analyzed which measures the countries were taking to support schoolchildren who could be particularly affected by the consequences of the pandemic.
22 of the 36 countries examined, including Germany, invested in technical equipment and made digital devices available to children and young people.
In addition, 29 countries made efforts to enable disadvantaged and vulnerable children to return to classrooms earlier.
Women earn less
In their report, the authors warn of the economic consequences of the corona pandemic for young people - even if Germany is doing a little better than the average of the OECD countries.
Young people and young adults with little or no educational qualifications are considered to be particularly at risk.
In 2020, the unemployment rate for 25 to 34-year-olds who have completed secondary school at most was 12.1 percent in this country.
An overview of other key results of the study:
Germany
spends proportionally less money on its educational institutions
than the average of the OECD countries.
In 2018 - more recent comparative data were not available - the Federal Republic invested 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product in daycare centers, schools and universities.
The OECD average was 4.9 percent.
Female teachers
are
overrepresented
in all German school
types
; their share is highest in elementary schools at 87 percent.
In the so-called »tertiary education sector«, at universities and in vocational training, the picture is reversed.
Here only 39 percent of the teachers are female.
In almost all OECD countries,
women
receive
a lower salary than men
with a comparable level of education.
In Germany, this gap is particularly large in an international comparison.
A woman with vocational training or a university degree earns on average only 70 percent of a man's income.
In general, a
connection between migration background and poorer PISA performance
can be observed
in the OECD countries
.
In Germany, the differences in performance between children with and without a history of immigration are above average.
Tuition fees
for public universities are particularly low in Germany compared to the other OECD countries.
In 2018, students paid an average of $ 148 per year for undergraduate, graduate, or graduate degrees.
