Criticism of Bavaria’s new “Pisa offensive” is increasing and is sparked by the area that is likely to give up on more German and math lessons in primary schools. The creative subjects of art, crafts and music are to be combined into one combined subject from September. That’s what’s currently raging more than the possibility of skipping one of every two hours of English. Professional associations and parents are up in arms, but there is little criticism from the Bavarian teachers’ or parents’ associations.
The German Music Council described the combined subject as the “wrong answer” to the poor performance in the Pisa study. For Christian Höppner, General Secretary of the German Music Council, these are central subjects of school experience. “Anyone who puts music on the sidelines like this is not living up to their political responsibility and is sinning against the future of our children.” The Federal Association for Music Education (BMU) also attacked the planned merger. This was tried out in Baden-Württemberg for twelve years and was abolished again in 2016. The decisions from Bavaria are “a catastrophe”.
One petition against the merger of music, works and art had reached more than 42,000 signatures 30 hours after it was initiated by a mother and teacher. You could watch the number grow. Some of the signatories criticized why the third religious lesson was not canceled instead. Education Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) could have imagined this, but she couldn’t get past the veto of the churches and the CSU.
Overall, the number of hours at primary school should not increase despite four additional hours of German and two hours of mathematics, so reductions must be made elsewhere. Sport had declared pride a taboo, local knowledge and specialist knowledge counted for the grade for transfer to secondary schools. So English and the creative subjects remain. Ultimately, the 2,418 primary schools can decide individually where they want to cut time. This flexibility is new in this primary school reform and is well received by teachers. According to Stolz, they are the “local professionals” and know best how to support girls and boys.
The minister sought clarity and de-escalation in the state parliament’s education committee on Thursday: “It’s about improved support and not about playing the subjects off against each other.” She supports holistic education and no subject will be eliminated, said Stolz. Every school can set priorities and if music, art and crafts should continue to have five hours per week, then school management could do it that way. “Let’s be honest, that’s how it’s already going on in schools.”
Meanwhile, her ministry sent out an appointment notice: Next week, Stolz will honor 140 “music-loving elementary schools.” These schools are recognized for their special music program and now receive 1,000 euros and a nice plaque for the portal. Andreas Fischer runs a primary school in Landau an der Isar in Lower Bavaria. He doesn’t understand the excitement. There is no protest at his school either. “We don’t cancel music, we go swimming, everything is possible for us, but that requires a change in thinking. We can’t always just think in terms of subject areas and have to position ourselves completely differently.”
Creativity is also encouraged in other subjects
The additional, flexible hour will be invested “in German, of course”. But the musical profile doesn’t suffer: art, works and music also take place in other subjects, says Fischer, if everyone opens up and works together. What will be important in the future is the teachers’ ability to diagnose, “and they know when they are doing art, music and works with their class.”
Fischer’s example shows why there is virtually no criticism from the Bavarian school family: The Minister of Education has been fine-tuning the PISA concept since December together with parents’ and teachers’ associations as well as scientists. Fischer was there as head of the school management association, which represents principals of elementary, middle and special schools. “Finally the primary school is an issue, something is finally being done after years of discussions about G8, G9 and R6,” says the headmaster.
Although Pisa only provides nationwide figures, previous country comparisons showed that Bavarian students also performed worse. At the end of fourth grade, 14 percent of the children did not meet the minimum standard in reading, 20 percent did not reach the standard in spelling and 13 percent did not reach the standard in mathematics. The Education Minister explained in the state parliament that these results did not surprise her, “but they alarmed me.”