Schools - Thuringian education politicians shocked by Pisa results
Thuringian education politicians have expressed their shock at the poor performance of German pupils in the Pisa study. The results were to be feared, "but still shocking", said Astrid Rothe-Beinlich, education policy spokesperson for the Thuringian Green parliamentary group on Tuesday. "What worries me most is that social background and gender are still responsible for enormous differences in performance."
In the first Pisa study since the coronavirus pandemic, German pupils performed worse than ever before. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Germany's scores in reading, mathematics and science were the lowest ever measured by Pisa. The average performance has also fallen drastically internationally.
No state figures
Figures for individual federal states were not presented. Nevertheless, the education policy spokesperson for the Thuringian CDU parliamentary group, Christian Tischner, believes that the "left-wing education policy in Thuringia" has failed. "The first Pisa study after Corona shows that the left-green Ramelow government should have intervened much more strongly," he said in a statement.
SPD education politician Thomas Hartung, on the other hand, sees the results of the study as a debacle for the defenders of the structured school system with grammar schools, mainstream schools and special schools. "More than 20 years after the first Pisa round, it is clear that nothing fundamental has improved in the German school system." It is still not possible to decouple school performance and social background, the proportion of high-achieving pupils is still too low in international comparison and the proportion of low-achievers is too high.
Action plan required
The Left Party parliamentary group called on the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs to present an "action plan for educational success" that could be adapted for Thuringia. "Origin must no longer determine the future," said Torsten Wolf, spokesperson for education policy for the Thuringian Left Party parliamentary group.
Thuringia's AfD parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke wrote on the online portal X (formerly Twitter): "Healthy societies have healthy schools." In view of the Pisa results, "our society must be pretty sick".
FDP education expert Franziska Baum pointed out that every tenth lesson in Thuringia was canceled. "In Thuringia, the central task is and remains to ensure that school takes place at all," she said.
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- Despite the poor performance of German pupils in the Pisa study, which is particularly concerning due to the persisting impact of social background and gender on academic achievement, schools in Germany, such as those in Thuringia's cities like Erfurt, continue to operate and adapt to the challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
- The Pisa study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), revealed that Germany's scores in reading, mathematics, and science dropped significantly in the first study conducted since the onset of the pandemic, further widening the gap with top-performing countries like Finland and South Korea.
- Thuringia's CDU education policy spokesperson, Christian Tischner, attributed Germany's disappointing Pisa results to the left-wing education policy implemented in Thuringia, arguing that the Ramelow government should have taken more action to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the education system.
- The Left Party parliamentary group in Thuringia called for an "action plan for educational success" from the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, emphasizing the need to break the cycle where social background determines future prospects for students.
- The Pisa study results also sparked criticism from the AfD's parliamentary group leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, who described the state of Germany's education system as "sick" and advocated for prioritizing the health of schools as a crucial element of maintaining healthy societies.
Source: www.stern.de
