Berlin’s Education System: A Failing Grade for Children’s Future

Berlin is letting its children down. Especially those who need help. In education – and thus in the opportunities for your entire life. You can’t say it any other way. Another study has been published that proves the failure of schools in the city: In the “Education Monitor”, compiled annually by the Institute of German Economics, Berlin only comes second to last among the federal states. 15th place out of 16. A year ago, Berlin had managed eleventh place – and that was a sad result too. Now only Bremen is worse.

According to everything that is known about the current situation in Berlin’s schools, it is to be feared that another crash will follow next year. In last place. The schools are fuller than they have been in decades, many classes are overcrowded, there are at least 1,000 teachers missing, maybe 1,500, the exact number is still being determined. Two thirds of the new teachers have never completed a teaching degree – or are still in the middle of their training.

The education monitor, which was published on Wednesday, also lists some of Berlin’s strengths. One is surprised – until one sees that they mainly affect the universities. The report examines the entire system, from day-care centers to universities. The authors praise the fact that many students in Berlin come from abroad, the level of internationalization is high, as is the quality of the university education. That’s gratifying. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help the children in Berlin at all.

Many all-day schools, poor education

The authors of the report even found strengths in Berlin in the schools. At grammar schools there is one teacher for every 13.6 students. The best value of all federal states! Why, please, there of all places, one would like to ask those responsible in Berlin? As everyone knows, the grammar schools are not Berlin’s problem schools. Children who are encouraged by their parents or who are good at school on their own learn there against adversity. At the grammar schools, the eighth graders also did relatively well in nationwide comparative work, the results of which were published a week ago.

The results were shocking at the primary schools and integrated secondary schools without a high school: almost every second third-grader failed to meet the minimum standards in German. In the eighth grades, more than six out of ten students failed in German. They were even worse off in math. The results, unfortunately, fit perfectly into the picture. The education monitor reminds that in 2021, fourth-graders in Berlin often did not even reach the minimum standards in German and maths.

Although Berlin has a comparatively large number of all-day schools, the Education Monitor finds that more schools than anywhere else are equipped with high-speed Internet. But that doesn’t help: people work with digital media “relatively rarely every day”. The number of lessons in Berlin is also above average. This is also of no use: the quality of school education in Berlin is far below average, 15th place out of 16, the integration of children from difficult social backgrounds into the education system is less successful than almost everywhere else, 15th place out of 16.

The school classes in Berlin are larger than elsewhere, the monitor gives an average of 22.6 children per class in 2021. In the school year that has just started, there are already 27 children in many primary school classes.

Fewer books in the families

The “Education Monitor” does not paint a very positive picture for the whole of Germany, especially compared to the situation ten years ago. The school quality has deteriorated considerably since then, the authors state, the “educational poverty” – ie the number of children who fail to learn the essentials – has increased, the integration of disadvantaged children is less successful.

The report identifies a change in “domestic input” as the cause. Among children in fourth grade, 38 percent had a migration background in 2021, compared to 25 percent in 2013. The increase is mainly due to children of the “first generation”, who only came to Germany after they were born, often as refugees.

The “Education Monitor” refers to studies that show that a high proportion of children with a migration background makes learning more difficult for everyone in a class – “a more even social mix” is important. Anyone who knows Berlin’s schools knows that they hardly ever exist. But many classes in which hardly any child speaks German as their mother tongue.

The changed “domestic input” also means that families read less. The proportion of children whose parents have fewer than 100 books at home has risen from 61 to 69 percent over the past decade, and the proportion of young people who read regularly has fallen by 20 percent. The “public input” has increased, but more all-day schools hardly help because the quality of the teaching is not good. The problems are expected to get worse in the coming years. All over Germany.

Back at the top: Saxony

However, there is one federal state in which many things are going well in education, it is again at the top in a comparison of the federal states. The German educational model is Saxony.

And this despite the fact that the “Education Monitor” found weaknesses there too: in the care ratio at schools and daycare centers, for example, the educators and teachers have to keep an eye on a particularly large number of children. The classes are larger than the national average – but still smaller than in Berlin. And Saxony is not particularly advanced in digitization.

The children in Saxony will be able to do without this because, despite these disadvantages, their day-care centers and schools offer them the best quality of education in Germany, according to the report. Saxon fourth-graders are better than everyone else at reading and understanding texts read aloud, and they are second best in math after Bavaria. But Saxony is also better than other federal states when it comes to integrating disadvantaged children.

This could be due to the fact that more than 82 percent of Saxon children attend a day care center all day long. Many experts say that going to daycare is a huge help, especially for children who don’t hear German at home or don’t have books read to them. 90 percent of elementary school students and 80 percent of older students in Saxony attend all-day schools. That also helps to equalize opportunities, because it no longer matters whether the parents keep an eye on their homework. Incidentally, the country spends an above-average amount of money on its schools. Saxony shows how it could work – not to let any child down.