According to two different assessments released on Wednesday, Germans are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the state of education in their nation, and new evidence demonstrates that they have good reason to be.

According to a survey by the Munich Ifo Institute for Economic Research, support for the educational systems in the states of Germany is at an all-time low.

In Germany, grades are assigned to students on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 representing the highest grade. Only 27% of respondents to the Ifo study gave their state's educational system a 1 or a 2, according to the results. When the same study was conducted in 2014, 38% of survey respondents were willing to grant the two highest grades, therefore this is a considerable decline.

The COVID-19 epidemic, according to nearly four out of five respondents, had a detrimental impact on schooling. The vast majority also cited systemic slowness, a lack of funding, and a teacher shortage as the biggest challenges confronting German schools.

A research by the German Economic Institute's pro-business think group INSM, meantime, issued a warning about the rising number of underachieving students in the nation's educational system.

For fourth graders, the worst German state now represents the national average.
When the fourth grade reading and listening scores from 2011 and 2021 were compared, the INSM study concluded that Bavaria was the only state showing "minimal" improvement. In fact, whereas Bremen fourth graders performed poorly in reading and listening comprehension in 2011, their level of proficiency became the new standard for Germany by 2021.

According to the report, children with migrant backgrounds and those from households with low levels of education are disproportionately affected by the decline.

German daycare facilities and schools, according to research author Axel Plünnecke, "still haven't found a good answer to the pupils becoming significantly more heterogenous."

Small infrastructure upgrades for early learning and full-day instruction, he continued, would not be sufficient.

"There is a lack of quality in all-day activities and in targeted support," he stated in a statement.

More assistance for teaching German to kids
The German Economic Institute urged for more assistance for children who are having difficulty, particularly with learning German. Among the suggested reforms were increased school autonomy and a greater variety of high-quality full-day programs.

Thorsten Alsleben, the chairman of the INSM think group, has called for making pre-education mandatory for "everyone who can't speak German or speaks it badly."

The researchers want to see those measures put in place as soon as feasible at daycare facilities and elementary schools in order to ensure a stable labor market, according to business daily Handelsblatt.

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