Education Minister Anja Karliczek is concerned about the achievements of German students in the new OECD PISA study. "Mediocrity can not be our claim," said the CDU politician after the presentation of the results. It emphasized that Germany is once again slightly above the OECD average. "But we can not be satisfied with that - a country without resources can not move in midfield, other states pass us by."
Every three years, the Pisa study examines the achievements of 15-year-olds in the fields of reading, mathematics and science. The tests last year attracted around 600,000 students in 79 countries, more than ever before. The German youth did a little worse than last.
The flattening, increasingly negative development, she worries very much, said Karliczek, and also that the group of low-achieving students grow and stagnate at the same time the group of high-performance students. It is especially alarming that one in five young people can not even read at primary school level.
"We want to climb to the top"
The minister demanded: "We need a departure in education policy." Germany does not shy away from the comparison with the very powerful countries. "We want to rise to the top of the Pisa study."
BM @AnjaKarliczek on the # PISA2018 study. More info at: https://t.co/Fwnal2mfUP pic.twitter.com/jJizgdBsnQ
- BMBF (@BMBF_Bund) 3 December 2019The President of the Conference of Ministers of Culture, the Hesse Minister Alexander Lorz (CDU), however, read the results more positively. Although the student body has become significantly more heterogeneous, the schools succeed in continuing to achieve good results in international comparison, he said.
In addition, second-generation immigrant students would have significantly improved on previous Pisa studies. "It proves that schools make an important contribution to long-term integration into our society."
When the OECD conducted the international comparison test for the first time almost 20 years ago, Germany did at best score moderately. After this "Pisa shock", the German youth caught up, at least temporarily, as the deputy OECD Secretary General Ludger Schuknecht praised. But he also said critically: "Germany has shown an impressive pace of improvement, but the improvements have come to a standstill."
The declining achievements of the students are also driving the economy around. Deputy DIHK Managing Director Achim Dercks referred to the necessary knowledge in science, mathematics and reading in order to "find a good start in professional life". Dercks demanded more cooperation from the federal government and the federal states.
Hamburg demands more education time
Hamburg's school senator Ties Rabe and coordinator of the SPD-led Ministries of Education of the federal states, commented on the results with a concrete proposal to improve the German school system: It is striking that Germany has a relatively short schooling time and a higher number of pupils in international comparison, who hardly speak German at home.
"If we want to move forward, then we need more education time and in particular have to start earlier with education," said Rabe. "In addition, we have to focus our school time more on the core competences of reading, writing and arithmetic."
The federal-state program "Education in Speech and Writing" (BISS) has shown that children learn to read and write better using certain methods. "We must now implement these findings," Rabe demanded.
"Achilles heel of the German school system"
In the face of the Pisa results, teachers' associations are particularly critical of Germany's lack of equal opportunities equity. School success is much more dependent on parental home than in other industrial nations, a long-term finding in previous Pisa studies.
The Union for Education and Science (GEW) spoke of the "Achilles heel of the German school system." Even almost 20 years after the Pisa shock, the school does not make a decisive difference in bringing down disadvantages children bring with them from their parents' home, said Ilka Hoffmann, GEW board member. On the contrary. The shortage of teachers aggravates the problem.
The GEW calls for "a solidarity to support transnational efforts for more equal opportunities". Udo Beckmann, chairman of the Association of Education and Training (VBE), complains: "What is missing is above all a common understanding of education and an idea of what should be conveyed at all." The Ministries of Education seemed "increasingly perplexed" which measures could help.