Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Eighth grade students in Baden-Württemberg have recovered their English skills enormously during the pandemic years, but their German skills have declined significantly. This is the result of the latest comparative work (VERA) for third grades, mandatory in Baden-Württemberg from the 2015/2016 school year. In the German subject the same test booklets of 2020 were used, as announced on Friday by the Ministry of Education: “There is a learning deficit here which corresponds to about a third of the school year”. In English, on the other hand, eighth grade pupils today have an advantage of over half a school year compared to students in 2020. The ministry adds: The results could be skewed by a new composition of the classes.
The VERA theses in the subjects German, Mathematics and First Foreign Language are intended to show the extent to which students have already achieved educational standards. They are not designed as a comparative study like the one in Pisa, but are intended to provide teachers with feedback that students still need to catch up on a bit before graduation.
According to the new findings, 32 percent of eighth-grade students have not yet met the minimum standards in maths for middle school graduation, 19 percent have not met these standards in spelling and 13 percent in reading. “The VERA results show once again that we have to catch up a little bit when it comes to teaching basic skills,” underlined Education Minister Theresa Schopper (Verdi). “It also shows that our educational success still depends too much on where we come from.” The ministry stressed that it is difficult to draw conclusions from the findings on school closures during the Crown period.
Schopper announced a program for this year to strengthen students’ basic skills. In addition, according to Schopper, funds have been budgeted to improve educational equity, for example through the use of multi-professional teams in elementary schools, where they help social workers.
Community school students performed significantly worse than directly comparable students from grammar schools, junior high schools and secondary schools, said Ralf Scholl of the Association of Philologists. Since 2012, intensive investments have been made in expanding community schools in Baden-Württemberg, while savings are being made in other types of schools. It is therefore not surprising that Baden-Württemberg is falling further and further behind in the state ranking in terms of education.
In light of the findings, the SPD criticizes a “lack of basic skills” in the green-black state government. “These findings are another indicator for the state government to take consistent countermeasures and to finally take emergency calls from schools seriously,” said the parliamentary group’s education policy spokesman, Stefan Fulst-Blei. Quite different were the requests of the Minister of Education and the reality in the schools.
The FDP speaks of further “bad news for the educational situation in the state” – and “sad proof that Green-Black is completely overwhelmed when it comes to the quality of Baden-Württemberg’s education policy.” Since Winfried Kretschmann (Verdi) took power, education policy in this country has only gotten worse, criticized the parliamentary group’s education policy spokesman, Timm Kern. He sees a mixture of clearly wrong decisions as a cause, such as the abolition of the binding nature of the recommendation for primary school. Important planning such as a staff development concept would also be omitted.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 220916-99-787099 / 4
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