André Brie, Editorial column for “Disput – the Left Party.PDS member magazine“, November 2006 

Social is successful

 

Each time when a new PISA study on the state of knowledge of German pupils and young students is presented, there follows, with nice regularity, an outcry. Objectively speaking, education in Germany is badly off. Almost a quarter of the 15-year-olds in the Federal Republic cannot really read or does only understand the meaning of a text with difficulty or not at all. The main culprit is the out-dated and rotten German educational system. The problems are well-known and huge: the social injustices, the lack of all-day – and affordable care offerings and hot meals in the schools, the enormous class sizes, the constant class and teacher change caused by the multi-pronged school system, the need to finance catch-up coaching privately, the introduction of tuition fees at the universities, too few secondary school graduates trained to become university graduates, last but not least the chronic under-financing of the educational system… Precisely those 2.5 million children who – according to an investigation by the German child protection association live at the social aid level are turning more and more into “education losers”. Social justice and educational success for all are two sides of the same coin.  

However, our Northern neighbours in Europe show that it may work quite differently. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, education has quite a different rank: while in this country, we are disputing about elite promotion and small-country federalism, educational policy there is oriented mainly towards the principles of equality of chances and participation of all. Already the pre-school and the kindergartens are integrated into the educational system and are usually offered already starting with year one. Moreover, every child even has a legal claim to a kindergarten place. Early encouragement and comprehensive care in pre-school is the apparently successful attempt to secure educational chances independently of social background as well as to offer the possibility to reconcile profession and child-raising. 

It is noteworthy that the model of democratic comprehensive schools rather scorned in Germany works remarkably well in the North – proven last but not least by the Pisa studies. Common learning in the same class unit up to age 14 or 15 is common in the Nordic countries and benefits all students, girls and boys. To the elite-oriented approach there is opposed a concept of the individualisation of learning, where each receives his or her own learning rhythm, his or her specific means to learn and individual suggestions and possibilities corresponding to one’s state of learning. Weaker as well as particularly gifted pupils are encouraged by teaching especially tailored to them. Small class-sizes contribute to turning this into a success. And while in Germany public education is conceived as a half-day model, the Nordic countries wage upon day-long education and care – including a hot meal. 

More than 90 percent of the pupils and students in Northern Europe after primary school go to a professional school or to a general education secondary school. And two thirds of every age cohort after their graduation from high-school or professional school pick up a university-level course of study – in Germany it is just 38 percent. Quite certainly, one factor in the high quota in the Nordic countries is that all students may receive state promotional means. If you ask around at the universities in this country, you will find out that many students only make ends meet by side-jobs. And who has heard of an efficient course of study by someone who has had to play waiter or waitress for hours on end in the evenings at a pub? Moreover, in the Northern countries, general education schools, professional and university education just like the free educational work and afternoon activities are financed to 98% by the state – this way, these offerings are available at almost no cost to everyone. 

In my opinion, a comprehensive reshaping of the whole German educational system is unavoidable. The Nordic countries can give important impulses for that. The federalism reform decided a short while ago threatens to even supplement the social division in the access to education by yet another division between richer and poorer federal regions. By contrast, the example of Northern Europe not only in the Pisa studies shows one thing very clearly: Social is successful. 

Translated by Carla Krüger, November 27, 2006