Dresden: court sweeps top notes of application certificates

Topnotes on application certificates are inadmissible - they intervene in the personality right of pupils, is called it in a judgment of the Dresden administrative court. It thus confirmed an urgent decision already taken in September.

According to the court, the ninth-grade annual report and the tenth-grade half-year report , including headnotes, were unlawful for a Saxon high school student ( file reference 5 K 1561/18 ). The frequently discussed top notes are not awarded for professional services, but for social behavior - who receives top notes, can read off whether and how social or reliable he is.

The judges emphasized that this case did not deal with the question whether headnotes should even be distributed at schools in the Free State of Saxony. They emphasized that the legislator can create a regulation in the Saxon Education Act - but it also has to, if topnotes should also be allowed in certificates, which are used for training place search. However, such a rule does not yet exist.

School regulations are not enough

The provisions contained in the school regulations were not sufficient because of the "intensive fundamental rights intervention", so the judges. In addition, the legislator should have expressly authorized the Saxon Ministry of Culture to regulate the details for granting topnotes in certificates.

In the proceedings, the Dresden court had already decided last fall that the plaintiff must provisionally receive a ninth-grade annual report and a tenth-grade half-year certificate with no top marks.

The student had argued that mentioning topnotes reduced his chances of obtaining an apprenticeship. Meanwhile, he has accepted a place at a technical college and also received the diploma of the secondary school, which is always created without a top grade. In this respect, he probably no longer needs the previous certificates with topnotes for applications. The legal dispute that was at stake initially dealt with it.

Nevertheless, the administrative court could decide on the question of top notes. For the assignment of topnotes in certificates, which would be used for the training place search, not only intervene in the general personality right of the student, but also in the free choice of the training center.