schools
Business-related education study: Saxony ahead
The flag of the Free State of Saxony. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
How do the federal states reduce educational poverty, contribute to securing skilled workers and promote growth? According to a study by the German Economic Institute, Saxony comes out on top.
From the point of view of the business-related Initiative New Social Market Economy (INSM), Saxony has the best education system in Germany.
In the Education Monitor published, a comparative study by the German Economic Institute (IW) on behalf of INSM, which is financed by the metal and electrical industry, the Free State came first, with Bremen coming in last. According to the authors, “an educational economics perspective was explicitly taken” and an assessment was made of the extent to which the federal states reduce educational poverty, contribute to securing skilled workers and promote growth.
After Saxony, Bavaria and Thuringia followed in second and third place. The city state of Bremen brought up the rear behind North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt. “In almost half of the federal states, the bottom line has been that the education systems have deteriorated since 2013,” said INSM Managing Director Hubertus Pellengahr.
According to the authors, comparative work should be carried out at all schools “in order to systematically determine the extent of the learning loss”. In addition, the funding infrastructure must be expanded and more teachers trained in the so-called MINT subjects – math, computer science, natural sciences and technology.
Digitization was also a focus
Digitization was also considered for the first time in the “Education Monitor”. The importance of digital skills will increase significantly in the coming years, it said. Digitization is correspondingly relevant in the education sector. Here, the overall winner, Saxony, came in 12th place in a country comparison. Bremen, on the other hand, is in first place here. Based on the number of people in work, Bremen therefore trains the most computer scientists in vocational training and at universities.
According to the initiative, 20,000 additional IT positions should be made available at schools across Germany. “New laptops or tablets don’t go out of the box for months because nobody feels responsible for installing programs or privacy concerns get in the way,” said Pellengahr. “Our educational federalism has many advantages. They are used far too rarely.”
The “Education Monitor” has been collected annually since 2004 on behalf of the INSM. The initiative describes itself as a non-partisan alliance of politics, business and science. It is financed by the employers’ associations of the metal and electrical industry.
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