In the future there will no longer be individual subjects for art, music and crafts at Bavaria’s primary schools. As Education Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) announced on Tuesday, lessons will in future be combined into a “subject network” in order to gain additional school hours for German and mathematics. The reason for the redesign of the timetable is the Pisa debacle, in which German students performed historically poorly last year.
“Reading, writing and arithmetic are the most important things our students need to be able to do,” said Stolz after a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet. That is why an additional four hours of German and two hours of mathematics should be introduced in the four grades at primary schools. There should also be one more sports lesson in the first grade. The plans are to be implemented in the coming school year.
“No subject should be eliminated,” emphasized Stolz. In addition to combining the creative subjects, primary schools should also be able to reduce one hour of English lessons in the future, and the timetable should become more flexible overall.
However, there should be no changes to religious education. Stolz had recently shown himself open to a reduction, whereupon Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) spoke out against the cancellation of religious lessons in primary schools and called for a reduction in the subject of English. “Personally, I could have imagined giving the schools some leeway here,” said Stolz, but she couldn’t push through with her idea. “I respect that,” she said.