SPIEGEL ONLINE: The high schools in North Rhine-Westphalia return to G9 nationwide, the years of the Turboabiturs are now over in the largest state again. How do you rate this decision as an educational researcher?
Köller: This development is primarily due to the restlessness of the parents. Their widespread perception was that G8 has dramatically increased the stress on our children, leaving no time for piano lessons or sports clubs. Only: The parents are completely wrong.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why?
Köller: Even G9 high school graduates were already heavily burdened - often enough, incidentally, as a result of the pressure from their parents' homes. The Gymnasium is always exhausting, but especially in two phases: In the beginning, when after primary school suddenly the performance requirements increase significantly. And then in the upper secondary level, when it comes to high school.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But a shortened by one year school without significant deletions in the curriculum automatically leads to a higher burden on the students.
Köller: If you convert that, that's maybe 20 minutes more a day. And the effects, as all studies in recent years show, are really negligible: there were no increased withdrawals from associations or other activities, there was no decline in school performance. G8 high school graduates are no better or worse than those who graduate with G9. And the number of U-18 students at the universities has not dramatically increased, it is currently at about two percent.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the parents are just imagining everything?
Köller: If you were angry, you could say: politics has broken down before the bourgeoisie - without scientific evidence for what is always said in the debate.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You throw parents and politicians before reality loss?
Olaf Köller: In Schleswig-Holstein, one year of intermediate education was reduced to G8. The three-year upper school remained untouched - nevertheless it should come to the complaints of the parents, especially in the upper school to much stronger pressure. Something can not be right there.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds as if the whole reform for the shortening and then again extension of school time had been a useless endeavor.
Olaf Köller: Yes. And an expensive: Nationwide, the costs are likely to be in the billions. And they are not yet resolved with the change back to G9: We will soon have vintages in which there are no high school graduates because of the extension. This again causes considerable economic costs.