The protest against the Pisa package from Education Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) is increasing. Although the goal – more math and German – is undisputed in Bavaria’s primary schools, students performed too poorly in Pisa. But where this time comes from excites people’s minds. The plan to allow schools to cut corners on art, music and works is causing parents, associations and now well-known musicians to protest. Professors from the Munich University of Music, the baritone Christian Gerhaher and the violinist Julia Fischer sharply criticize the primary school reform in an open letter to Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and Minister of Education Stolz.
The letter is signed by well-known musicians such as the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the general music director of the Bavarian State Opera Wladimir Jurowski, Simon Rattle, chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša, chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony. Although it was mainly musicians who signed, it was also about art and works, said Fischer. “We want to give children the opportunity to come into contact with art and music. That’s why it’s so important to all of us.” The “care of the arts” should not be left to museums, theaters, orchestras and high schools. “All children must be allowed to participate,” this works best in elementary school, where everyone is together. “What you are planning to do is make cuts in completely the wrong place!” write Fischer and Gerhaher.
Gerhaher and Fischer do not accept Stolz’s argument that school principals can decide where they get the time for math and German. This is a “dubious attempt” to take the wind out of the sails of the protest. The individual scope for decision-making, which is well received in schools, seems to Fischer as if Stolz were “pulling himself out of the affair.”
According to Stolz’s concept, a freely available hour can also be spent on music, art and works. This means that there is no change in the time quota for the creative subjects. English would have to be deleted for this. Music, art and works are to be combined into one group, but according to Stolz they will remain independent as subjects. Through epochal lessons, music can be taught for one semester and art or works in the second. For the music college teachers Gerhaher and Fischer, this remains an absurdity. “I can’t understand why people are making savings on creative subjects, but religion remains,” said Fischer.
Minister of Education Stolz could have imagined canceling the third religion lesson in the third and fourth grades. A proposal that has many signatories make a petition, which has almost 200,000 supporters. The minister could not avoid the veto of the CSU and the churches. “I take the concerns of Gerhaher, Fischer and their signatories very seriously,” said Education Minister Stolz. But it’s about “more time for our children to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.” Not about weakening art, music and works. No subject will be deleted; the schools would like to have some scope for design.