This is now the practical result of a decade of "Willkommenskultur" in the German education system. Schaffen sie das?
If there is a nation whose culture and education influenced the cultural history of Central Europe, including Hungary, it is Germany. While Germany, reunified after 1989, is still the leading power in Europe today - and its ups and downs strongly influence our country's economic prospects - its education system has already been severely affected by the developments of the past few decades, especially in recent years, including the consequences of waves of immigration. .
Now The Economist itself, the British economic magazine that has moved from classical liberalism to more radical progressivism in recent years, is dealing with the rapid and spectacular decline of German education.
The paper immediately draws attention to a small decision that affects the traditional German self-image and worldview: from May 1, Germans will no longer be able to display their doctorate in their documents. Since the Germans in both Germany and Austria are known to like to emphasize their qualifications - in Hungarian this can even be called rank disease - this leveling step also clearly shows the change in German basic attitudes.
But this is just a small detail: more importantly, according to several educational surveys, the standard of German education is significantly deteriorating. According to the latest international PISA survey, in the last ten years, the performance values in Germany, which had been rising continuously until then, have rapidly declined.
Especially after 2015, German students' performance in reading, mathematics and science deteriorated.
Perhaps we don't need to remind our readers of the socio-political turn that took place in Germany in 2015. Another survey, IGLU, shows the deterioration of the reading skills of fourth graders in Germany. While in 2001 17 percent had serious difficulties with reading, this has risen to more than 25 percent by 2021.
And the most recent survey (IQB) on the German language abilities of ninth graders revealed that the proportion of those who do not reach the minimum standard has deteriorated by more than 9 percentage points since 2015.
The Economist draws attention to the fact that the performance of German education still belongs to the European middle ground, but it is still worse than its neighbors, from Poland to the Czech Republic and Austria to Switzerland.
A quarter of the students are no longer German
Speaking to the newspaper, Andreas Schleicher, director of education at the OECD, which issues the PISA tests, says that the main problem is that, compared to Asia and the Scandinavian countries, Germany is not adapting to the educational needs of the 21st century. Nor to that
a quarter of students in Germany today do not speak German at home.
Meanwhile, in the specific homeland of "Prussian education", in today's schools, school education for the youngest is almost only about playing, "so that they don't overstress themselves"; fourth graders read 30 percent less than the OECD average; and most of today's teachers reject standardized papers, saying that they would "stigmatize" poor performers.
In most German states, primary school lasts four years, and then the groups suitable for further higher education and those studying a profession are separated. This choice affects the children for the rest of their lives: 79 percent of the children of graduates go to university themselves;
on the other hand, hardly any of the children of less educated, poorer or non-German families make it to higher education.
According to the Economist, Germany and its provinces, which organize matters of education autonomously, have tried many reforms in recent years, but the results of the surveys do not show a successful breakthrough. In Germany, which has a complicated political system, there are many actors, from overlapping election cycles to teachers' unions to parents' communities, which do not facilitate the implementation of fast and effective reform plans.
Inclusivity is no longer good
Optimism cannot be strengthened by the fact that the latest German school survey ( Deutsches Schulbarometer ) sheds light on the most important problems plaguing German education, perceived by teachers - which cannot be solved either in a day or during an election cycle.
Almost a decade after the "Willkommenskultur" that many voiced in 2015
33 percent of German teachers find heterogeneity, i.e. diversity, a "challenge".
More than that, only one challenge is seen as more problematic: 35 percent of teachers have a significant problem with students' behavior. In addition, workloads, lack of time and personnel, bureaucracy are among the main challenges, and then there are also "parents" as a challenge, as well as students with poor performance.
It is also clear from the latest German education survey that "inclusive" education is, according to three quarters of German teachers, making education worse for everyone. To be precise: 7 percent say it clearly improves, 19 percent say it rather improves; on the other hand, according to 42 percent, it makes it worse, s
According to 32 percent, "inclusive" education clearly worsens education as a whole.
This is now the practical result of a decade of "Willkommenskultur" in the German education system. Schaffen sie das?
Featured Image: Pixabay
