The most surprising decision: Bildungsrat yes, then not, then yes
The CSU from Bavaria used an education political riot to keep many people's mouths open in amazement. First, she got the SPD and Union to commit themselves to establishing a National Education Council in the coalition agreement for the federal government.
The planned body should improve cooperation between the 16 federal states on the one hand and between the federal and state governments on the other. Because federalism is raging in education policy. That means: Different rules apply everywhere, regardless of whether it is about dates for summer vacation, standards for the Abitur or teachers' salaries.
The National Education Council should help countries to network better and align rules. However, nothing came of it. Because from Bavaria came reservations against the committee. In October, Prime Minister Markus Söder warned that this would become "a bureaucratic monster that would ultimately rule out of Berlin into the small school rooms and into the classrooms."
In November Söder then announced that Bavaria was out of the project. Shortly afterwards, Baden-Württemberg followed suit. Berlin suggested that a body could be created without the apostates. A little later, a new surprise: the ministers of culture agreed on a scientific advisory board - but without the federal government.
Scientists in particular should come together to develop recommendations. It remains to be seen whether this will ultimately lead to a better coordinated school policy and an approximation of the rules.
The smartest decision: same job, same wages
Unions have been denouncing for years that primary school teachers are paid less than teachers in other types of schools, especially high schools. This was justified, among other things, by shorter training periods, which have meanwhile often been adjusted.
In times of acute shortage of teachers, the difference in salaries is now falling on the ministries' feet. While primary schools in some regions lack a particularly large number of teachers, high schools, for example, even have "overcapacity" in some places. The Conference of Ministers of Culture predicted that this imbalance will not change in the coming years.
The salary higher, the working conditions often better: No wonder that an above-average number of trainee teachers choose high school.
In some schools, the shortage of teachers has dramatic consequences. In Berlin, for example, many elementary schools can only meet their needs by hiring mostly lateral and side entrants without real school pedagogical training.
Several East German countries offer allowances when teachers work in schools outside the big cities. Promises of civil service are another means of the countries in the fight for the rare teacher species. And elsewhere, the ministers of culture are begging that retirees return to school and part-time workers increase their hours.
With this in mind, raising wages for primary school teachers is a good decision. Berlin is one of the first federal states to implement this. Since August 1, 2019, the following applies: Fully trained primary school teachers earn as much as student councils at high schools. They move up to the E13 / A12 salary levels. Education Senator Sandra Scheeres spoke of an "appreciation for everyday work in primary schools".
Hamburg moved in early December. Education Senator Ties Rabe announced that elementary school teachers in the Hanseatic city should be financially equivalent to teachers of other types of school in the coming years.
The most consistent decision: ban on the "teacher pillory"
In early December, the Schwerin administrative court put a stop to a "teacher pillory", as critics call the AfD reporting portal "neutral school". It decided that the platform of the right-wing populist party in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania remained largely banned. The court thus followed the instructions of the state data protection officer and rejected an urgent request from the AfD.
The AfD portal was launched in September. Students should report teachers to the party who they believe are not politically neutral. It was about incidents in which teachers are said to have made a general pejorative of the AfD or its positions.
AfD politicians had previously set up reporting portals in other federal states. Critics warned that they wanted to prevent a critical struggle with their party and to "silence" teachers. There was talk of a "call for denunciation". This is because the authorities, not individual parties, are responsible for monitoring the so-called neutrality requirement, according to which teachers are not allowed to impose an opinion on their students.
The Schwerin court ruled that the AfD had collected personal data that gave rise to political, religious or ideological beliefs. This contradicts the General Data Protection Regulation. The highly sensitive data of the teachers concerned should be seen as an asset that is particularly worth protecting. It is unclear how the decision will affect other federal states.
The toughest decision: the digital pact
On May 17, the time had finally come: The "Administrative Agreement DigitalPakt School 2019 to 2024" between the 16 federal states and the federal government came into force, a five billion euro agreement that is supposed to bring schools in Germany digitally forward.
The idea for this came from 2016: Back then, the Minister of Education, Johanna Wanka, announced the digital support program for the schools - and forgot to apply for the necessary funds in the household. For two and a half years, the digital pact haunted education policy like an undead: Sometimes there was supposedly the necessary money, sometimes it was missing. Sometimes the Basic Law should be changed for the program, then it should work again without a change in educational federalism.
In the end there was a financial commitment and a change to the Basic Law - and the tough struggle continues: In theory, the funds can already be used for digitization. In practice, however, a number of federal states have given the funding guidelines so much time that it is still unclear in many places according to which criteria the money can be awarded. The digital pact is still not really going well in early 2020. At first he continues to stutter.
The spring ritual: complaining about the Abitur
In the past few years, another unofficial one seems to have been added to the official examination subjects of the Abitur: protest by petition. In May it was time again that nationwide high school graduates defended themselves against math tasks that were too difficult in their online petition and demanded a changed grade.
In Bavaria and Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, pupils had collected signatures - sometimes so successfully that around 39,000 high school graduates in Bavaria were supported by more than 70,000 signatories. Bavaria's Minister of Culture Michael Piazolo, however, was not impressed by the fact that the math high school diploma was "demanding, but overall adequate", he decided and refused to be re-evaluated.
However, dealing with student protests has become part of the job profile for ministers of culture, and not just because of the way they deal with striking "Fridays for Future" participants. There had already been nationwide petitions for high school graduation assignments in 2018, at that time it was about English.
In 2016, too, schoolchildren protested what they felt was too difficult math tasks - and with it at least in Lower Saxony, success: the Ministry of Education was convinced that the tasks were too demanding and lowered the assessment scale by 12.5 percent.