Education summit: More pressure is needed

The education summit did not give a signal of departure, or at least not to the extent that was hoped for. But something urgently needs to change in education policy, and this requires more pressure – from parents and students too.

Germany cannot afford to continue to leave education policy to those who have been responsible for it up to now. Because their record is devastating: Kitas cannot fulfill their educational mission because there are far too few educators. Many children do not even get a daycare place. In the basic skills of arithmetic, writing, reading and listening, every fifth primary school child does not even reach the minimum standards.

The performance level is also falling in secondary schools. The shortage of teachers is serious, lessons are canceled every day. Over half a million young people have no qualifications, no training, no work. And the academic success of a person in Germany still depends heavily on social background. This is what it looks like.

A signal of departure?

It is clear that something has to change. The Federal Minister of Education agrees. A signal of departure was supposed to emanate from their so-called summit, but it was only half successful. This is due to the minister herself, who made the education summit a kind of side program for an education conference that was taking place anyway. Not very skillful.

But that is mainly due to the reluctance of the federal states led by the Union, which boycotted the meeting because they did not like the preparation, the invitation policy and everything else. In view of the gigantic mountain of problems, that sounds like an excuse. But there are no good reasons to skip a conversation with everyone involved.

Apart from the Union ministers, everyone involved did talk to each other at the meeting in Berlin: experts, scientists, parents, teachers, schoolchildren, politicians from the federal, state and local governments. Perhaps this could actually be the beginning of a new culture of togetherness – and very different from the choking between the federal and state governments, as we experienced with the digital pact or the one-off payment for students.

Everyone involved can become more uncomfortable

Of course, education is a matter for the federal states and there is no majority in sight that could change that. But we really can no longer afford to leave education to those who have been responsible for it. And if so far the pressure of the problem has not been enough to change something for the better, then the political pressure must now be increased.

Everyone involved, but above all teachers and parents, students and, for that matter, grandparents, can become more uncomfortable. You can demonstrate, maybe even go on strike. They have more power than they think: they are voters or will be soon.