A large majority of Germans are dissatisfied with the schools and educational policy in Germany. 85 percent of Germans are of the opinion that children in this country are not sufficiently prepared by schools for life after graduation, as a representative survey by the Forsa Institute on behalf of the editorial network Germany (Wednesday) shows.
Accordingly, just 13 percent believe that children are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills in schools.
In East Germany, the dissatisfaction is somewhat greater (89 percent) than in West Germany (85 percent). The relatively smallest proportion of dissatisfied people is among SPD voters (79 percent), and the largest among AfD voters (91 percent).
Also only 13 percent believe that today’s school leavers are better qualified than those 30 or 40 years ago. According to the RND/Forsa survey, more than half of those surveyed (57 percent) assume that school leavers are less qualified than they used to be.
The East-West difference is particularly large on this question: 69 percent of East Germans think the GDR schools are better than today, while 55 percent in the West think the schools used to be better.
Big problem: backlog of teachers
In view of the great dissatisfaction, almost three out of four Germans (73 percent) are in favor of greater centralization of education policy: just under a quarter think it is right that the federal states alone are responsible. A clear majority of all sections of the population and voters demand that the federal government be given more powers and a say.
Germans see the learning deficit caused by the school closures during the corona pandemic in 2020 and 2021 as a major problem. Almost three-quarters of parents with school-age children (71 percent) think schools are not doing enough to make up for the deficit. (AFP)
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