German students perform worse than ever in the Pisa test. There seem to be many reasons for this. An educator provides insights into her work.
Munich – According to the new PISA study, the educational level of German students is “worrying.” Although average performance has taken a step backwards worldwide, with regard to Germany there is talk of a historically poor result. A teacher reports on her experiences and reveals what could be the reason for the poor performance.
| 1. | Japan (536) |
| 2. | Korea (527) |
| 3. | Estonia (510) |
| 4. | Switzerland (508) |
| 5. | Canada (497) |
| … | |
| 21. | Germany (475) |
Teacher on the causes of the Pisa debacle: teaching is often almost impossible
Birgit Ebel has been working as a teacher of German and history at a comprehensive school in North Rhine-Westphalia for 15 years. Opposite Picture The long-time member of the Green Party gives frightening insights into her daily work. “Many people don’t want to learn. Some students can’t concentrate for more than a minute, others even fall asleep during class,” says the teacher. Increasing violence is also a problem.
She teaches fifth graders who are unable to write on a line and have no idea about grammar. According to Ebele, this is also because many students do not speak German at home. Eight out of ten students at her school have a migrant background. “Others refuse to put anything down on paper,” said the teacher. Lessons in themselves are difficult enough as students are constantly disruptive.
Reasons for poor performance among students, parents and school system
In addition to corona-related school closures, Hamburg’s school senator Ties Rabe also sees the social composition of the classes as the cause of the drop in performance. “The number of children from educationally disadvantaged homes has increased significantly,” said Rabe NDR. For those students, it is another path to a good education, said the senator.
Ebele holds parents primarily responsible here: “I call for more intensive work with parents. Of course, there are environments where it is difficult for parents to get involved. But many of them don’t care about their children’s performance. They bring them to the school door in big cars and that’s it,” said the teacher Picture. And in the teacher’s opinion, politics has also failed: “In Germany, there are 45 different school systems. This is too much. The social gap is getting bigger and bigger.”