Education Reforms - Cabinet gives green light to G7 and language promotion
Return to G9, Language Promotion at Kindergartens and primary schools: A few days before the summer holidays began, the green-black state government introduced several educational reforms. The ministerium in Stuttgart announced that the new school law had been released. The Landtag now needs to deal with the bill. What exactly did the government decide?
Language promotion package
With the law, a million-dollar package for language promotion at Kindergartens and primary schools is to be stepped up from the coming school year. Children who still have linguistic problems at school entry should receive intensive language training with four hours per week before starting school.
If children still do not speak sufficient German to attend primary school after this training, they will be supported in so-called junior classes from the school year 2026/2027. Landwide, 832 locations are to be created for this purpose by the school year 2028/2029. According to the state government, language promotion will then also be mandatory.
The measures are a response from the government to significant performance declines in primary school students. "Every child must master the basic competencies by the end of primary school," said Minister of Culture Theresa Schopper (Greens). "Who falls behind in the early years, who cannot speak good German, or who is unsure in arithmetic, has little chance later to catch up."
Return to the nine-year Gymnasium
Part of the law is also the return to the nine-year Gymnasium. Currently, the eight-year Gymnasium is standard in Baden-Württemberg. G9 exists only as a model project at 44 state schools and at some private schools. According to the state government's will, the Abitur should again be taken after nine years of schooling from the school year 2025/2026.
The nine-year Gymnasium is to be modernized. The concept of the Minister of Culture includes, for example, a strengthening of scientific subjects. Competencies in the areas of Informatics, Artificial Intelligence, and Media Education are to be taught to students in a separate subject in the future.
Furthermore, the new nine-year Gymnasium is to receive more vocational orientation, more democratic education, and also a stronger focus on basic competencies. Concretely, German, Mathematics, and the first foreign language are to be strengthened with an additional hour per week in the fifth and sixth grades.
Grundschulempfehlung
The new regulation of the Grundschulempfehlung is to take effect in the coming school year. This should be more binding in the future. Currently, parents in the Southwest alone decide which further education school their child should go to.
In the future, there should be a model with three components instead of this: teacher recommendation, achievement test, and parental wish. If two out of three agree, this should decide the matter. If parents still want to send their child to the gymnasium, the child should take another test. The recommendation is binding only for the gymnasium.
Changes at other school types
What is to become a new subject at the Gymnasien, the government also wants to partly transfer to other school types: Media Education, Artificial Intelligence, and Informatics are therefore to be taught at Haupt- and Werkrealschulen, Realschulen, and Gemeinschaftsschulen in every class.
At real schools, the so-called orientation phase is supposed to be shortened from two years to one. Children should then be taught at a basic level, leading to the primary school leaving certificate, or at a medium level, leading to the intermediate educational leaving certificate, as early as the sixth grade. This would allow for more homogeneous classes to be created. Community schools are to receive additional coaching hours.
The Landesregierung intends to abolish the vocational real school leaving certificate. Existing vocational real schools are to be retained as locations and either form partnerships with real schools or community schools or develop into such.
Feedback and Praise
Minister of Culture Schopper spoke of a seven-step plan for the country. One focuses particularly on the children with less favorable starting conditions. The absolute focus of the package is language promotion. "Clearly, mastering the language is the key to learning success," said the Green politician.
Praise came from most teacher unions. "The reform package has potential," said the chairman of the Association for Education and Education (VBE), Gerhard Brand. A prerequisite for this, however, is good personnel provision and good communication. The Philological Association, which represents gymnasium teachers, welcomed the return to G9. This would give girls and boys more time for education and personal development.
The Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW) welcomed the strengthening of language promotion. This is overdue and better than what has been done so far. More sensible than four hours of promotion in the last kindergarten year is an everyday integrated language promotion, for example in projects or excursions, said GEW chairwoman Monika Stein.
Criticism of the stricter primary school recommendation came from the Landesparents' Council. Parental supervision is disproportionate. Parents need good information and no access restrictions, said the chairman Sebastian Kölsch. The FDP fraction leader in the Landtag, Hans-Ulrich Rülke, disagrees with the decision on the primary school recommendation. This should again be binding for all school types and not only for the gymnasium, he said.
- The language promotion package, announced by the Culture Minister Theresa Schopper in Stuttgart, includes a million-dollar investment for intensive language training for children who struggle with German at school entry.
- As part of the education reform, children who require additional language support will be placed in junior classes starting from the 2026/2027 school year, with 832 locations set up across Baden-Württemberg by 2028/2029.
- According to the state government, the new law will make language promotion mandatory in all primary schools, aiming to improve the basic competencies of all children and reduce performance declines in primary school students.
- Aside from language promotion, the education reform includes the return to the nine-year Gymnasium in Baden-Württemberg from the 2025/2026 school year, with a stronger focus on scientific subjects, Informatics, and Media Education.
- Minister Theresa Schopper's reform package has received praise from most teacher unions, with the chairman of the Association for Education and Education (VBE) stating that the reform package has potential, given good personnel provision and communication.
