Bavaria performed miserably in a study by the Ifo Institute on educational equality in Germany – now the Bavarian state government has publicly attacked the scientists. The study is one-sided, questionable and methodologically flawed, said State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Munich. “We are always open to criticism. But if those who want to judge it obviously have no idea about the matter, then it is supposed expertise, which is then just misleading, meaningless and ultimately useless.”
The study published on Monday came to the conclusion that nowhere else does the chance of attending high school depend as much on one’s parents’ home as in Bavaria. To do this, the authors compared the probability of attending high school: for children from families in which the parents do not have a high school diploma and the household income is rather low with that for children from families in which at least one parent has a high school diploma or the household income is in the upper quarter . According to the Ifo Institute, the Free State is at the bottom of the list nationwide in this calculation.
Bavaria’s Minister of Education Anna Stolz (Free Voters) had already criticized on Monday that it was a one-sided and questionable approach if “equity of opportunity” was based solely on high school attendance rates. After the cabinet meeting, Herrmann said that the study, for example, ignores the fact that Bavaria has the lowest number of school dropouts. And that there are a variety of ways in which you can get your Abitur. “So the report is methodologically flawed, and therefore it is unhelpful in terms of results and conclusions, or it is actually even more problematic because it ultimately advises making wrong decisions.”
The educational associations in Bavaria also see the study differently: The Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV) said on Monday that there was reason for concern given the study results, especially in Bavaria. The Association of Philologists, in turn, emphasized on Tuesday that one had to look closely at the issue of educational equality, but also criticized the study: If educational success is equated with attending high school, then this is a questionable social way of thinking. Bavaria in particular, with its diverse and permeable school system, shows that there are many different paths to educational success in different types of schools.