As a consequence of the poor PISA results, not only more German but also more mathematics will be taught in Bavaria’s primary schools in the future. Culture Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) presented a comprehensive package of measures on Friday that goes beyond recent announcements by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) this week. Specifically, there should be an additional hour of German in each grade from grades one to four, and an additional hour of mathematics in the first and fourth grades.
With the help of a flexible timetable, each school can also set individual priorities, the ministry said. “The mandatory requirements allow us to create more time for reading, writing and arithmetic,” said Stolz. “Within this fixed framework, the schools also receive additional educational freedom. After all, the teachers are the local professionals who know their students best.”
At the winter retreat of the CSU state parliamentary group in Banz Monastery in Upper Franconia, Söder announced an additional hour of German per grade level, but left everything else open. Speculations that English lessons in primary school should be canceled in favor of more German and mathematics are not true. Minister Stolz lets the schools decide together with the school authorities what will be put on hold instead.
German students recently performed shockingly poorly in the international performance study Pisa. In reading as well as in mathematics and science, the 15-year-olds delivered the worst results ever measured at Pisa in Germany. Pisa is the largest international school performance comparison study led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Germany is one of a handful of countries where the decline in performance was particularly pronounced during the corona pandemic.