National Education Report
Education system at its limit: number of school dropouts rising
The national education report is published every two years. It describes developments, trends and problems in the entire German education system on several hundred pages. Photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The German education system is growing: more money, more staff, more facilities, but the challenges are also growing. And tens of thousands of people are left without a school qualification every year, as a report shows.
From kindergarten to university – the German education system is “working at full capacity”: This alarming conclusion was drawn by a team of educational scientists, youth researchers and statisticians when presenting the National Education Report, which is published every two years. The report, which is several hundred pages long, describes the state of the educational system and the problems facing educational institutions. It is intended to be a basis for action for educational policy.
The education system has been expanded more and more in recent years, for example in the area of daycare. There has been a significant increase in staff and more money – but this has not kept pace with the growing demands. A continuing high number of young people are leaving school without a qualification. The results presented in Berlin in detail:
School dropouts
In 2022, 52,300 young people left school without a qualification. The proportion of their peers who did not complete school rose to 6.9 percent. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, it was 6.2 percent (47,500) in the previous year and 5.9 percent in 2020, according to the education report. The number of actual dropouts is likely to be even higher, as young people who leave school during a school year are not counted. Over time, it becomes clear that this is a permanent problem: in 2006, the proportion of young people without a qualification was 8 percent (more than 75,000 affected), then fell to 5.7 percent by 2013 and has been rising again since then – with an interruption during the Corona years.
System grows
Education spending in the country has risen by 46 percent over the past ten years to 264 billion euros in 2022. A significant increase. In relation to gross domestic product, however, the share of education spending has only increased by 0.2 percentage points since 2012, it is said critically – especially as financial needs are also increasing, because the number of educational institutions has grown, as has the number of employees and also the number of participants in education. Almost 18 million people were in an educational institution in 2022, a good million more than ten years ago.
Staff shortage
The sometimes very tense situation in recruiting skilled staff remains a challenge for almost all areas of education, the report says. In schools, this is reflected, for example, in the increased reliance on career changers. According to the report, 12 percent of the 35,000 newly hired teachers last year had no traditional teacher training. The report counted a total of 2.7 million people employed in daycare centers, schools and universities in 2022. The researchers assume that the population will continue to grow due to immigration, which will lead to increased demand for education “in all areas of education in the medium term” – accordingly, more staff will also be needed.
Daycare centers
The number of daycare centers has grown significantly over the past two decades. In 2023, there were more than 56,000 facilities in the country, a record high – 10,000 more daycare centers than in 2006. According to the report, the number of pedagogical daycare professionals has risen from 458,000 to more than 700,000 over the past ten years. In the east, the need for staff can largely be met, but in the west, there are still problems, it said. Despite the increased number of daycare places, the gap between supply and demand continues to exist, as surveys show that the need for childcare places is also growing.
Universities
“Academicization is stagnating,” says the report. The process of academicization that has been observed for many decades – that is, more and more young people are studying – has come to a standstill for the time being. The demand for higher education has been stagnating for some time. There are even signs of a decline, although the demand for scientists, computer scientists and engineers, for example, can no longer be fully met.
Social background
Educational success in Germany depends heavily on social background, as is well known. In their report, the researchers also refer to individual aspects related to immigration. The older people are when they come to Germany, the worse their chances of educational success. Around half of those who moved to Germany between the ages of 14 and 18 have neither a vocational qualification nor a university entrance qualification. Of those who moved here as small children, only a quarter have low qualifications.
With regard to differences in educational success and poor math and German performance, educational researchers recommend more effort and stronger support at preschool age, because differences do not only emerge in school, where they are later identified in PISA or other comparative tests, but much earlier. Against this background, the report criticizes the inconsistency in language proficiency tests at preschool age across countries: while in seven countries all children are tested using different assessment methods before starting school, another seven countries only carry out such assessments on certain groups, and in two countries no nationwide diagnostics are carried out.