topic Education

Innovation in Education

We need to reorient our education policy. Our school system must enable more children and young people to earn higher education qualifications. This includes a higher performance level as well as more social skills. In schools, the strengths and individual abilities and background of each child must be in the centre. The principle of challenging and supporting must be followed consistently. An education reform therefore requires a national effort of all stakeholders and a broad debate in society across ideological barriers.

The international school benchmarking study PISA [more] and the domestic German benchmarking study PISA-E [more] have revealed central deficits in the German education system. German pupils show below-average performance in central areas, such as reading, mathematics and the sciences. In no other industrialized country is the social background so decisive for success in school and for education opportunities as in Germany. At the same time, the integration of children and young people with a migration background is clearly less successful.

We need a change in the orientation of our education policy. Our school system must lead to a higher performance level and must enable more children and young people to earn higher education qualifications. In schools, the strengths and individual abilities and background of each child must be in the centre. The principle of challenging and supporting must be followed consistently.

The competition for future opportunities for Germany has essentially become an international competition for the quality of education systems. An education reform therefore requires a national effort of all stakeholders and a broad debate in society across ideological barriers.

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  topic Education

  SINUS, ChiK and PiKo - Improving teaching of maths and the sciences

  Mathematics and the sciences are considered to be difficult subjects. In international comparison, the results of our pupils are average, in mathematics in the bottom half. Yet, there are materials and models for good teaching. The Federal Government and the Länder have therefore launched a transfer programme to bring the results of the SINUS Programme for increasing the efficiency of teaching mathematics and the sciences into all schools nation-wide. Furthermore, the BMBF supports other projects to improve science classes at school.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1254.php)
   
  
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  topic Education

  All-day schools. Time for more.

  The capital investment program "Zukunft Bildung und Betreuung" is a federal measure to support the Länder in building up and expanding all-day schooling in Germany. The program is one step in an educational reform supported by federal and state governments. To date, about 3.000 schools profit from the capital investment program.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1125.php)