PISA shock could change basic law
Education in Germany is a matter for the federal states. For the time being. Education Minister Stark-Watzinger is pushing for an amendment to the Basic Law. This could give the federal government more power to act. After the shock of the devastating results of the PISA study, quick action is needed.
In response to the poor results of German pupils in the latest PISA study, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has brought up the idea of amending the Basic Law. "I would like the Basic Law to allow cooperation between the federal government and some of the federal states, what I call a coalition of the willing. This would allow projects to be initiated more quickly," the FDP politician told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. "We must be able to act faster in order to organize education well. PISA shows that time is of the essence," warned the minister.
According to the Basic Law, school education in Germany is the responsibility of the federal states. Although the federal government can provide support with funding programs such as the Digital Pact, it has to negotiate complex contracts with the federal states. Stark-Watzinger also suggested shifting responsibility for daycare centers from the family ministries to the education ministries. "Daycare centers are educational institutions. For me, they belong in the ministries of education," she emphasized. "We urgently need to improve the transition."
Stark-Watzinger also emphasized the need for an open debate on education policy in a country of immigration. "It doesn't help anyone to make this topic taboo or put it in a populist corner. We need to provide targeted support. In other words, provide support where it is most urgently needed. Where there isn't a bookcase at home or sufficient German is spoken." This is where the Startchancen program comes in, which is intended to particularly strengthen around 4,000 schools with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged pupils from the next school year. "We need to focus on language skills and do so as early as possible," warned Stark-Watzinger.
In the study published on Tuesday, German 15/16-year-olds achieved the weakest performance values in reading, mathematics and science ever measured for Germany as part of PISA. Learning performance was also worse than ever in an international comparison. The coronavirus pandemic and a growing proportion of pupils with a non-German mother tongue are considered to be the main causes.
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Source: www.ntv.de
